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In 1968 Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress. In 1972 she launched a campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, breaking another political barrier.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
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|
 SGI Visual Workstation 540 | |
| Developer | Silicon Graphics |
|---|---|
| Type | Workstation |
| Released | August 1999 |
| Discontinued | January 2002 |
| Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 | |
| CPU | Pentium II, Pentium III, Xeon |
| Memory | 128 MB–2 GB |
| Graphics | Quadro 2 |
| Website | 320 and 540 230, 330, and 550 |
SGI Visual Workstation is a series of workstation computers that are designed and manufactured by SGI. Unlike its other product lines, which used the 64-bit MIPS RISC architecture, the line used Intel Pentium II and III processors and shipped with Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 as its operating system instead of IRIX. However, the Visual Workstation 320 and 540 models deviated from the architecture of IBM-compatible PCs by using SGI's ARCS firmware instead of a traditional BIOS, internal components adapted from its MIPS-based products, and other proprietary components that made them incompatible with internal hardware designed for standard PCs and hence unable to run other versions of Microsoft Windows, especially Windows 9x. By contrast, the remaining models in the line are standard PCs, using VIA Technologies chipsets, Nvidia video cards, and standard components.
There are two series of the Visual Workstations. All are based on Intel processors; the first series (320 and 540) used SGI's ARCloader PROM and Cobalt video chipset, the remainder are essentially standard PCs.
The 320 and 540 use a Unified Memory Architecture (UMA) memory system. This shares the video and system memory and runs them at the same speed, and allows for up to 80 percent of the system ram to be applied to video memory. The allocation is static, however, and is adjusted via a profile.[1] The 320 and 540 also use the onboard Cobalt video adapter, which is SGI's proprietary graphics chipset. The firmware used in these systems is a PROM that enables booting into a graphical subsystem before the OS was loaded. In this regard they resemble the Irix/MIPS line of SGI computers such as the SGI O2.
The 320 and 540 also stand out for having FireWire (IEEE 1394) ports, onboard composite/S-video capture, and USB keyboards and mice. They differ from each other in that the 320 is dual Pentium II/III-capable with 1GB maximum system RAM, while the 540 is quad Pentium III Xeon-capable with 2GB maximum system RAM.[2] Both computers use a proprietary DIMM module that is essentially the same as ECC SDRAM PC-100, but in a package one-half normal size. The maximum memory per module is 96MB, and the SGI 320 has twelve memory slots. The FireWire ports that are built into the 320 never functioned. SGI distributed Orange Micro FireWire cards about a year after production commenced, in lieu of fixing the FireWire ports.
Both the 320 and 540 are further limited by having PCI slots (albeit two 66 MHz and one 33 MHz slot) that operated at 3.3V,[3] out of step with the 5v slots used by most manufacturers. This limits the number of accessories that can be added.
The other Visual Workstations are built to compete with the new Intel processor based workstations that are considerably cheaper than SGI's line of MIPS workstations. They are little more than standard PCs, and use many parts that are also available in the aftermarket.
The 320 and 540 Visual Workstations shipped originally with Microsoft Windows NT 4.0. A custom Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) for Windows is necessary due to the ARCloader PROM. Windows 2000 is the last release which included the required SGI-specific HAL. Because of that, and because SGI ceased supporting the Visual Workstation series, installation of later Windows versions such as XP is unsupported.
The 230, 330, and 550 also supported Windows NT and 2000. In addition, SGI offered these systems pre-loaded with release 6.2 of the Red Hat Linux distribution.[4] These systems have the letter "L" appended to their model numbers.
Visual Workstations often out-perform Intel PCs of similar configuration in graphically intensive or memory bound applications because of the various SGI enhancements, in particular for the 320 and 540. However, it was more cost effective to purchase an entire new higher-spec non-SGI PC rather than purchase upgrades to a Visual Workstation, due to the hefty upgrade costs for the non-standard components.
All the Visual Workstations support conventional CRT monitors and have VGA display connectors. As the 230, 330, and 550 models use Nvidia Quadro cards they also support DVI. The SGI 320 and 540 models shipped with the groundbreaking and stylistically matched 1600SW LCD, using an OpenLDI display connector that requires an accessory flat panel adapter. The SGI O2 also supports the 1600SW with an adapter.
The model numbers of the Visual Workstations:
Visual Workstations were initially equipped with either a single Pentium II or Pentium III processor or dual (SMP) Pentium III processors. The 540 and 550 models support the Xeon implementation of the Pentium series, and could support up to four Xeons in an SMP configuration (only two for the 550).[2][5] Although no SGI Visual Workstation was ever released with a CPU running higher than 700 MHz, some hobbyists have been able to run faster processors.
For the SGI 320, the limit is dual 1 GHz Pentium III processors or a single 1.4 GHz Celeron.
Dual 1 GHz processors require a specific model of CPU, which is intended for Intel servers. Further, the voltage regulator, PROM, and revision of the motherboard also have to be correct for the setup to work.
With single processors the Powerleap Pl-iP3T "slocket" adapter and a Tualatin 1.4 GHz Celeron processor is the limit, and is a straight bolt-in installation. The Tualatin core gives a more modern processor, and the Powerleap adapter handles the voltage regulation to the CPU.
The SGI 540 has been reported to handle up to 900 MHz quad Xeon processors.[citation needed] These are the fastest Pentium III Xeons with the 100 MHz front side bus speed of the 540.
The 230, 330, and 550 models are essentially standard PCs and have the same capabilities and upgrade limits as other PCs of the time. The 230 and 330 are based on VIA chipsets, used socket 370 processors, and conventional SDRAM. The 550 used Slot 2 Xeon processors, the Intel 840 chipset, and RDRAM. The video cards these systems used are Nvidia AGP cards based on the Quadro 2 chipset, and differ from aftermarket Quadro GPUs in their drivers.
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
SGI Visual Workstation is a series of workstation computers that are designed and manufactured by SGI. Unlike its other product lines, which used the 64-bit MIPS RISC architecture, the line used Intel Pentium II and III processors and shipped with Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 as its operating system instead of IRIX. However, the Visual Workstation 320 and 540 models deviated from the architecture of IBM-compatible PCs by using SGI's ARCS firmware instead of a traditional BIOS, internal components adapted from its MIPS-based products, and other proprietary components that made them incompatible with internal hardware designed for standard PCs and hence unable to run other versions of Microsoft Windows, especially Windows 9x. By contrast, the remaining models in the line are standard PCs, using VIA Technologies chipsets, Nvidia video cards, and standard components.
The 1600SW is a widescreen flat panel video monitor from Silicon Graphics introduced in 1998. It won many awards after release and sold 54,000 units. It is notable for longevity, with used models still actively traded on eBay a decade later, though difficult to adapt the OpenLDI video interface to modern video cards.. SGI released a separate device to resolve this problem roughly a year later, the MultiLink Adapter. The 1600SW was advanced for its time, featuring a 17.3 inch diagonal wide screen panel in a market then dominated by CRT monitors. The 1600SW has a 25:16 aspect ratio (referred to by SGI as SuperWide) with a resolution of 1600 x 1024 pixels. The refresh rate is 60 Hz in 24-bit color and 110 dpi, which makes a smaller dot pitch than most competitive monitors. The 1600SW shared the same styling motif as the SGI Visual Workstation 320, 540, and O2, with a unique off-center mount. The display won several international awards and compares well to modern displays produced a decade later. It was introduced at about US$2,500 (equivalent to $4,940 in 2025). Formac sold the same monitor bundled with its own OpenLDI graphics adapter as the ProNitron 18/500, Radius sold the monitor as the Artica which differs mainly in a translucent “blueberry” & white case themed to match the latest fruit-colored Powermac G3 and a conventional mount. SGI sold the monitor primarily as Model #AM173Y01.
The SGI Fuel is a mid-range workstation developed and manufactured by Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI). It was introduced in January 2002, with a list price of US$11,495. Together with the entire MIPS platform, general availability for the Fuel ended on December 29, 2006. An equivalent product for the same market segment was not provided until 2008, when the Virtu product line was introduced, based on x86 microprocessors and Nvidia graphics. The Fuel is sometimes perceived as the successor to the SGI O2, but it is not (SGI never made a new low-end system after O2). The Fuel was SGI's mid-range response to customers who only wanted a uniprocessor system, though the 4 GB RAM limit led to fewer sales than would otherwise have been the case, e.g. customers using ANSYS would have preferred at least 8 GB maximum RAM. Fuel's larger sibling is the SGI Tezro, a system that can have up to four 1 GHz R16000 CPUs with 16 MB L2 each. Both Fuel and Tezro are based on SGI's Origin 3000 architecture.
A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by a single user, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems. The term workstation has been used loosely to refer to everything from a mainframe computer terminal to a PC connected to a network, but most commonly refers to the class of hardware offered by several current and defunct companies such as Sun Microsystems, Silicon Graphics, Apollo Computer, DEC, HP, NeXT, and IBM beginning in the 1980s, and powered the 3D computer graphics revolution through the late 1990s. At the peak of their popularity, workstations offered higher performance specifications than mainstream personal computers, especially in terms of processing, graphics, memory, and multitasking. Workstations are optimized for the visualization and manipulation of different types of complex data such as 3D mechanical design, engineering simulations like computational fluid dynamics, animation, video editing, image editing, medical imaging, image rendering, computational science, generating mathematical plots, and software development. Typically, the form factor is that of a desktop computer, which consists of a high-resolution display, a keyboard, and a mouse at a minimum. The form factor can also offer multiple displays, graphics tablets, and 3D mice for manipulating objects and navigating scenes. Workstations were the first segment of the computer market to present advanced accessories, and collaboration tools like videoconferencing. The increasing capabilities of mainstream PCs since the late 1990s have reduced the distinction between PCs and workstations. Typical 1980s and 1990s workstations had expensive proprietary hardware and operating systems to categorically distinguish from standardized PCs; most had RISC-based processors and ran UNIX-based operating systems, but by the early 2000s, workstation offerings shifted to highly commoditized hardware dominated by large PC vendors, such as Dell, HP Inc., and Fujitsu, selling x86-64 systems running Windows or Linux.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →The Greenwood District.
