Indy RAM suppliers

[supretao]

That RAM looks great. If you do find a way of connecting with the seller, let me know.
Are you finding SGI systems in mainland China?

Yes, I bought this Indigo2 Impact machine from mainland's seller.
The SGI workstation are only used by a few research and few big company in China, the total number I guess is small.
Because SGI workstation is too expensive..
After I just graduated from college about decade ago, I joined a big factory, server as a preliminary design engineer.
That company uses SGI workstations in its R&D center.
The first mechanical 3D design software I used is SDRC I-DEAS on SGI workstation, also with NT platform.
The seller of the RAMS just sell some electronic parts, not offen online, only sell on China mainland，also no eBay account.
I have got RAMs from that seller, total number is 16, and they are all same type.
Maybe I need to creat a Ebay account, then you can buy them from Ebay.
The price will not be high than other seller's.
The following are these RAMs:

These RAMs are all be tested by that seller.
I also intall these RAMS on my Indigo2 machine one by one, all run well , no problem.
I will create an Ebay account ,then paste the links.

 

[ghost180sx]

sure, share the link when you have it posted by DM? I'll be happy to take a look.

 

[retronav]

Just a quick question to you experts here: will the Indy RAM SIMMs fit and work in Indigo2? TIA

 

[ghost180sx]

Just a quick question to you experts here: will the Indy RAM SIMMs fit and work in Indigo2? TIA

yes, quite sure they're the same. you def wont hurt anything by trying as they're both 72pin parity fast page mode simms. i believe speed might be your only issue but both call for 60-70ns?

 

[toncho11]

Hi,

I am searching for memory for my Indy.
Does the memory needs to be identical sticks?
Can you use both EDO and FPM in Indy? EDO looks to be compatible with FPM - subset.
I found a guy selling 2 x 16MB Nanya and 2 x 16MB LGS for a total of 64 MB. Would it work? I plan to install Irix 5.3.

 

[3ddoc]

Why oh why did they just not use standard dimms on the O2! Good find there…

cause they wanted to drain the buyers, even their early pc's had a reversed PCI slot if I recall

 

[weblacky]

cause they wanted to drain the buyers, even their early pc's had a reversed PCI slot if I recall

While I don't doubt that there was a motive there the real reason was they would be held back by PC RAM of the time. PC133 SDRAM used in PCs of that era is slower than what they used in the O2. While it's true that the actual memory speed is the same, the documented bus on an O2 is more than double the size. PC PC133 RAM uses a 64-bit (at a time) wide bus, where are the O2 is a 144-bit wide bus.

Please remember that the O2 was the first start of a shared memory technology by SGI used for graphics work and the start of using crossbar technology, from my understanding. If they didn't make the main workstation bus go as fast as they could it would've severely suffered the graphics rendering capability of the machine. Standard PC buses just weren't doing it back then and if they were going to differentiate themselves they needed their own proprietary pipeline.

Of course it might've been nice to somehow double up the memory banks to access to bank simultaneously/interleaved or something cool like that but it was just easier for them to design their own module to meet the direct bus design of the time. You'll also notice that every SGI that came afterwards also use proprietary RAM at speeds that were still the same as PC counterpart but often contained a wider bus plus ECC after that.

 

[weblacky]

Hi,

I am searching for memory for my Indy.
Does the memory needs to be identical sticks?
Can you use both EDO and FPM in Indy? EDO looks to be compatible with FPM - subset.
I found a guy selling 2 x 16MB Nanya and 2 x 16MB LGS for a total of 64 MB. Would it work? I plan to install Irix 5.3.

NO and Indy can be tempremental. Memory prices are actually quite fair right now especially if you buy a lot from a large supplier from eBay. Indigo2 and Indy take the SAME RAM. FAST-PAGE (FPM) 60-70ns 72-pin SIMM parity (x36) memory! Period.

It's not worth playing around with trying to be cute, prices for these modules are actually quite good when you buy them in the number of sticks needed for these systems.

For Indy the MAX is 8 modules of 32MB FPM 72-pin 8x36 parity SIMMS. Installed in groups of 4 ONLY. Right now from large suppliers on eBay in the United States you should expect to pay about $18 or less per chip for gold leads and about $17 or less for standard tin leads. Contrary to popular belief you do not need gold on the memory leads to successfully mate ram to an Indy or Indigo2 long-term. However your chances increase of corrosion if you don't use it. I personally do not and I've not experienced an issue. But the extra dollar might be worth it if you're buying all eight modules.

For Indigo2 there is a difference of how much memory you can install based on the processor type. Most Indigo2's max out at 384MB (irix 5.3 an above with 32MB SIMMs), However R8K & R10K Indigo2 CAN take 1GB of RAM is very specific 8 x 128 MB modules are used. Ohterwise thie offical max was: 768MB (12 * 64 MB SIMMs FPM Parity ) .

This is the easiest and cheapest memory you could ever get for any of the SGI stations. Everything else is proprietary and harder to test independently.