Thanks to all who replied to my quarry about Silicon Graphic's O2
computer and it's compatibility with 3D's Maestro and Stratasys'
QuickSlice.
In addition to summary of responses below, I had a chance to ask
Stratasys about using their software on the O2 and was advised that
the serial port on this workstation will not communicate with the
FDM's.
You told me:
"We tested it against Pentium Pro200 a few months back and are now
purchasing the Pentium PC. Suggest a head to head test to see if
anything has changed, but you can probably configure a fatser PC for
less dollars. Please let me know if you have different results."
***
"We have communicated in the past. The O2 is an awesome box, can't go
wrong!"
***
"Beware the memory bug which limits the O2 to 256Mb!"
***
"We have just acquired SGI O2 and Maestro 1.9. The combination is
superb and flawless. What you need is to make sure the SGI has
sufficient RAM (I have 96 MB and 2GB H/D)."
***
"We have 14 SGI O2's here at the Innovative Manufacturing Centre in
Nottingham, UK.
The IMC is a technology transfer centre primarily working in the areas
of CAD, RP & RT. We produce prototypes, tools etc for client business
projects as well as running a comprehensive training & seminar
programme. Our main software packages are EDS Unigraphics, 3D's
Meastro & Quickslice from Stratasys. To complete the picture of this
place we also have SLA*2, FDM, LOM & MJM.
The O2's are fine for our needs and have proven to be reliable
workhorses. We would suggest a minimum of 512 MB RAM as Maestro can
take quite some time over certain geometry's.
Given our time again I would settle for 10 O2's and 1 Octane."
***
"O2s are a different beasts than Indys. Since the same RAM is used for
all operations in the O2, it can be somewhat slower.
If money permits - buy an Octane rather than an O2.
If you do buy O2 - buy R10000 and also buy lots of RAM atleast 256 MB,
which can get expensive to buy from SGI.
My personal experience with O2s has been less than kind. Like with new
architectures and new OS it comes with its own problems."
Thanks again to everyone.
Rick Lott
Hughes Space and Communications
Los Angeles, Calif.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jun 05 2001 - 22:40:56 EEST