[vcf-midatlantic] Cool yet sad rescue coming up this fall

[Ethan O'Toole]

Heya! Do you know what the cabinet looks like? Usually SGI machines like 
the Challenge XL and Origin 2000 are pretty light compared to the other 
machines of their day.

I've helped side a Challenge XL down stairs when I bought one years ago 
from somewhere out near Blacksburg VA (from someone called F-One 
Consulting.)

Also I bought a full rack SGI Origin 2000 a number of years ago and it was 
shipped via crate to me.

Both of them are light enough that two people can probably flip it onto 
it's back into a pickup with blankets down, although the XL IIRC has a 
back door that gets in the way with doing that.

The boards for the XL are the same as the Onyx and Challenge L, it 
shouldn't be hard to get those back in service.

The boards for the 4d/480 are same as the 4d/420, 4d/440 and such. 
Shouldn't be hard to get those back in service.

The boards for the Origin 2000 are same as the Onyx2 mostly. Same as the 
others.

It should be possible to get these back online with sourced boards.




> Everyone,
>
> Sometime this fall, we're going to rescue a pair of SGI cabinets from the 
> Princeton University data center.
>
> SGI customized the cabinets in black and orange ... because Princeton Tigers.
>
> Their data center VP said these systems almost certainly can't ever run 
> again. Too much disassembly already happened. So all he's promising us are 
> the actual cabinets, not the remaining innards.
>
> However, he asked if we can help disassemble those remaining innards, in 
> order to make the cabinets lighter/safer to move.
>
> I said what if we agree, but in exchange our guys get to keep those parts if 
> desired? :)
>
> Waiting to hear back.
>
> I don't yet know much about the system. VP is asking some of his old-timers 
> to write down its history for us.
>
> Here is a picture: https://tinyurl.com/y6ldajlb
>
>