From rraffer1@osf1.gmu.edu Wed Mar 12 18:58:09 1997 Received-Date: Wed, 12 Mar 1997 18:58:09 +0100 (MET) Received: from osf1.gmu.edu by Utopia.EUnet.fr (5.65c8d/EUNET-4.2.3) via EUnet-France id AA26331; Wed, 12 Mar 1997 18:55:46 +0100 (MET) Received: from localhost by osf1.gmu.edu; (5.65v3.2/1.1.8.2/07Sep94-1001AM/GMUv3) id AA11935; Wed, 12 Mar 1997 12:58:05 -0500 Date: Wed, 12 Mar 1997 12:58:05 -0500 (EST) From: Ryan Rafferty To: linux-mips Subject: Re: MIPS Magnum 4000 In-Reply-To: Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Tue, 11 Mar 1997, Jack Tihon wrote: > Hello, > I have Magnum 4000 and have a few hardware configuration questions > (since it didn't come with any documentation). > Which slots do I place my 2 parity SIMMs in? You need 4 parity SIMMs, unfortunately--the MIPS R4000PC chip has a 128-bit data path (compared to the Pentium's 64-bit data path) and since a single 72-pin SIMM uses 32 bits of data (and with parity, an extra four bits for ECC) 128 div 32 is four. > What video cards can I use? (will a Trident isa + 256k dram work?) You need a special video card for the Magnum. Regular ISA or EISA cards WILL NOT WORK. The video card is a 2meg VRAM frame-buffer video card based on the INMOS g364 chipset and has a fixed frequency output of 1280x1024x256 at 60 herz. Most newer multisync monitors can handle that. Unfortunately, however, the video card is extremely expensive (quoted price is $315) and is availible from only one place--Carrera Computers. > What hard drive controllers can I use (isa,mfm,rll)? The Magnum has an onboard SCSI controller (NCR 53C90 chipset) and the ARC console only knows how to use the onboard SCSI, so you will not be able to use IDE hard disks to boot Windows NT. Linux/MIPS may or may not have support some time in the future. > What should I see if I've successfully booted? > What does the LED on the m/b do? (I get a F,4,5 on boot When the LED stops at "5", it means that there's a memory problem. You need to install four true-parity SIMMs in the slanted slots under the drive bays. > Thanks for all/any help, Good luck--Lord knows it's been a battle these last few months for me to get my MIPS to a usable state. But now it runs NT like a dream, and I'm working on getting Linux/MIPS to run on it (I've hit a stumbling block for the time being). > -jt > . > > Ryan Read my MIPS: No new VAXES!