[geeks] fuel

[Mike Meredith]

On Thursday 31 January 2002 12:51, you wrote:
> Ken Hansen wrote:
> > > Look at the Origin300 - perfect replacement for the
> > > braindead Origin200,
>
> The Origin200 is braindead by the fact that it's a disaster to
> expand. Once you've filled your three(!) PCI-slots and filled it up
> with disks, you're out. To increase the number of PCI-slots and get
> those o-so-wonderful XIO-slots, you have to buy the "GigaChannel"
> option, for lots of $$$. (Fancy name, eh?)

So in other words the O200 is expensive to expand ? Hmm ... sounds like 
most other SGI systems.

> You CAN ofcourse expand it with another system using CrayLink cables
> and get a four processor, six PCI-slot Single System Image machine,
> with that doubled system cost.

Which of course is a dumb way of getting extra PCI slots, but how many 
other comparable systems have an included system interconnect for dead 
simple SSI ? That's something I'd rather have than wasted PCI slots.

> So, to summarize: It's a perfect, wonderful, fast and reliable
> machine fulfilling your need, until you've reached it's I/O limits.
> By that time, get an Origin2000.

Not everyone needs huge number of slots ... none of the systems I 
manage have more than 5 added I/O boards, and not all of those systems 
are small boxes. Sure there's a need for some systems to have numerous 
slots, but probably not that many.