SGI Tezro

SGI Tezro

Silicon Graphics Tezro tower (Andy Diller, CC BY-SA 2.0)
Specifications
Manufacturer	Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI)
Type	Workstation (tower or rackmount)
Released	July 2003
Discontinued	End of line announced July 2006
CPU	1, 2 or 4 MIPS R16000 on an IP53 node board
Memory	512 MB to 8 GB DDR SDRAM in eight DIMM slots (tower)
Storage	One or two internal SCSI disks on sleds; optional DVD-ROM
Display	DVI-I (analogue and digital) from the VPro board
Sound	Analogue audio on the I/O daughtercard (tower)
Graphics	VPro graphics board with 128 MB SDRAM; optional Dual Channel Display daughterboard
Expansion	Eight 64-bit 3.3 V PCI-X slots on four buses (2- and 4-processor towers), two XIO slots
Power	550 W supply (tower)
Dimensions	17 × 13.75 × 20.75 in (H × W × D, tower)
Weight	60.6 lb (27.5 kg, tower)
OS / Firmware	IRIX 6.5
Predecessor	SGI Octane2

The SGI Tezro (Silicon Graphics Tezro visual workstation) is SGI's last MIPS workstation line with in-house graphics, announced in July 2003. SGI sold it as a deskside tower and as a rack-mounted system, with one, two or four R16000 processors, VPro graphics and IRIX 6.5. It is built on the same Origin 3000-generation architecture as the SGI Origin 350 and SGI Onyx 350, and like them it is managed by an L1 system controller with a small display on the front. SGI announced the end of the series in July 2006, with the last systems shipping by the end of March 2007.

Hardware

Node board and memory

The processors and memory sit on an IP53 system node board, which plugs into the interface board through two connectors on its underside. Each R16000 has 64 KB of on-chip cache and 4 MB of external cache in SGI's 2003 tower guide. Processor upgrades are made by replacing the whole node board, and a one-processor tower cannot take a two- or four-processor board. sgistuff.net lists IP53 boards at 600, 700 and 800 MHz, and two- and four-processor boards at 1 GHz with 16 MB of secondary cache.

The eight DIMM slots form four pairs (slots 0-1, 2-3, 4-5 and 6-7). Pair 1 must be fitted, DIMMs go in pairs of the same size, and the minimum is 512 MB for a one-processor system and 1 GB for two or four processors, up to 8 GB. The DDR DIMMs are the same as those of the Origin 300, Origin 3000 and Onyx 3000, and do not fit the Octane, O2, Origin 200, Origin 2000 or Onyx2.

I/O and graphics

The interface board carries the PCI-X and XIO slots and distributes power. The two- and four-processor towers have eight 64-bit, 3.3 V PCI-X slots on four buses, each bus running at up to 100 MHz; the one-processor tower has four slots on two buses and one XIO slot. The IO9 board always occupies bus 1, slot 1. It provides the IDE connector for the DVD-ROM drive, internal and external SCSI, real-time interrupt input and output, Ethernet, and the system's non-volatile RAM and time-of-day clock. An I/O daughtercard at the rear carries the PS/2, audio, two serial ports, the console port and the L1 diagnostic USB port.

The graphics module near the bottom of the tower holds a VPro board with 128 MB of SDRAM and a single DVI-I port, plus the optional Dual Channel Display daughterboard with two more DVI-I ports. The DMediaPro DM3 board uses the second XIO slot.

Power and cooling

The tower's power supply sits in the top rear quadrant. SGI's overview gives it as up to 550 W, while the specification table limits the combined 3.3 V, 5 V and 12 V output to 500 W and gives the system input as 100-240 V, 7.0-3.0 A, 430 W. Eight fans cool the tower: a fan wall of two 60 mm and two 80 mm fans for the interface board, PCI boards and graphics, an 80 mm fan behind the disks, a rear assembly of three 80 mm fans for the node board and memory, and the power supply's own fan.

Tezro tower power supply outputs (Hardware User's Guide, Table A-2)

Output	Rating
3.3 V	24 A
5 V	24 A
+12 V1 / +12 V2 / +12 V3	8 A / 12 A / 18 A
−12 V	0.5 A
+5 V standby	2 A
Combined 3.3 V, 5 V and 12 V	500 W

Rackmount Tezro

The rack-mounted Tezro has its own hardware guide. Its supply accepts 110/220 V and provides up to 500 W, and its enclosure can be linked to a second enclosure for more PCI slots and memory. sgistuff.net describes it as the same hardware as the Onyx 350 with less room for expansion.

Known faults

• The L1 controller's clock module (a Dallas DS1742W) and the IO9 board's SNAPHAT clock each keep data on a battery. IRIXNet members have traced an L1 that would not start to a dead L1 module, and "NVRAM checksum is incorrect" after every power cut to a dead IO9 battery. Replacing the L1 module can leave the system reporting an invalid serial number until it is set again from the L1 prompt.
• Original power supplies fail with age; one owner's supply had lost its 5 V output. IRIXNet members have recapped them and have run Tezros from rewired ATX supplies.
• The system powers itself off if a fan runs below 80% of its rated speed, a sensor reaches 70 °C, or a voltage drifts 20% from nominal.
• SGI's tower guide asks owners to leave the soldered lithium batteries to qualified service staff.

See SGI Tezro Troubleshooting Guide, SGI Tezro General Maintenance and SGI Tezro Capacitor Replacement Guide.

Documentation

• Silicon Graphics Tezro Visual Workstation Hardware User's Guide: Tower Configuration, 007-4564-001: File:SGI Tezro Hardware User's Guide, Tower Configuration (007-4564-001).pdf
• Hardware User's Guide: Rackmount Configuration, 007-4643-003: File:SGI Tezro Hardware User's Guide, Rackmount Configuration (007-4643-003).pdf
• SGI L1 and L2 Controller Software User's Guide, 007-3938-006: File:SGI L1 and L2 Controller Software User's Guide (007-3938-006).pdf

Details are on SGI Tezro Documentation.

Gallery

• 
  Front with the drive shroud off and the L1 display reading "Prom Running" (Telecineguy, CC BY-SA 3.0)
• 
  Two rackmount Tezro enclosures (Telecineguy, CC BY-SA 4.0)
• 
  Tower interior from the right (SGI Hardware User's Guide, Figure 2-1)

Related pages

• SGI Tezro General Maintenance
• SGI Tezro Troubleshooting Guide
• SGI Tezro Capacitor Replacement Guide
• SGI Tezro Documentation
• SGI Fuel
• SGI Onyx 350