SGI Personal Iris
In September 2009 I started to downsize this collection to a few items and then archived this section to its own subdomain at the start of October 2011.
This system
In mid 2003 I purchased via eBay a bulk lot of old computers which included,
among other things, three partial SGI Personal Iris systems (4D/20 models).
From these three systems I was able to sort the hardware out into two complete
systems and I sold one of these on eBay in late 2003 for the massive sum of
AU$15.
Unfortunately I wasn't finding the time to get Irix booting on my remaining
system so I offered them up on the Classic
Computing mailing list for free and it was picked up the next day.
Images
 |
personal-iris-01.jpg, 1280x1024, 162KB |
| The components of a typical SGI Personal Iris system include the system unit, a
21" monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse. This particular mouse is an early optical
model that requires a special metal mouse pad that has a pattern printed on it
(not pictured).
|
 |
personal-iris-02.jpg, 1280x1024, 140KB |
| The front of the unit is very unassuming with no visible switches or drives.
There are two indicator lights that are visible at the bottom of the drive door
(immediately below the 'Personal Iris' wording).
|
 |
personal-iris-03.jpg, 1280x1024, 157KB |
| The door on the upper front opens to reveal two half height 5.25" drive bays,
the power switch and reset switch. A panel lower down on the front can be
removed to gain access to a full height 5.25" drive bay.
|
 |
personal-iris-04.jpg, 1280x1024, 142KB |
| The back of the unit is not as unassuming as the front. However all there is to
see is an information panel, power sockets, the power supply exhaust fan, some
kind of latch and a space that would normally have cables protruting.
|
 |
personal-iris-05.jpg, 1280x1024, 178KB |
| Releasing latch allows the entire side panel to be removed in order to gain
access to the variety of I/O ports and to the two black levers above the
emodule that release the drive cages in the two upper bays.
|
 |
personal-iris-06.jpg, 1280x1024, 171KB |
| The simple removal of a couple of screws allows the emodule to be tilted out in
order to expose the connections for power, the SCSI bus, and for the front
panel switches and lights.
|
 |
personal-iris-07.jpg, 1021x1163, 181KB |
| After disconnecting the electrical connections between the emodule and the
chassis the emodule simply folds down and can be removed. At This point the
chassis has been reduced to a power supply and three drive bays.
|
 |
personal-iris-08.jpg, 1280x1024, 180KB |
| The I/O ports on the emodule include: AUI ethernet, parallel, two serial,
keyboard, audio in, microphone, audio out, RGD video out, genlock clock and
genlock option.
|
 |
personal-iris-09.jpg, 1280x1024, 288KB |
| Removing the side panel from the emodule allows access to the (fully populated)
memory slots and the two expansion slots. (The emodule does not have to be
removed from the chassis for this side panel to be removed)
|
 |
personal-iris-10.jpg, 1600x1200, 413KB |
| Removing the other side panel from the emodule exposes more of the logic
boards.
|
 |
personal-iris-11.jpg, 1280x1024, 166KB |
| Some of the manuals that came with this sustem include the owners guide, NFS
and NIS manuals, and a Fortran language guide.
|
 |
personal-iris-12.jpg, 1280x960, 132KB |
| A collection of manuals including IRIX administration and programming guides.
|
Other resources
