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Id Auctioning Off SGI That Created Q2 And Q3A
shiwala writes: "id software is auctioning the SGI Origin 2000 used to process all of the map data for Quake II and Quake III Arena." Hemos and I have been debating auctioning off the case that was the 2nd Slashdot (for a six months). I've been trying to find the alpha that was Slashdot for the first 9 months of its life (it served the first million pages: if I only knew that we would serve that many pages every day). Probably donate the $ to the FSF or Project Gutenberg or something. Anyway this id box amuses me: opening bid is $7500.
Microsoft held an auction over the weekend for the computer on which the first Windows was designed. It sold for $.50, was taken into the parking lot, and burned. Bill Gates was seen, later that day, crying over the loss of his 'baby' and screaming 'First my company, then my dearest!'.
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Crudely Drawn Games
I think it was about $ 700k.
I wonder what they're replacing it with. If I had one of those things, I'd really hate to see it go - they have panache.
D
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a shared memory supercomputer, even to today's standard...you may have to add more processors though.
With Apple claiming the G4 as supercomputer, you will actually need to subtract processors from your Origin to make it meet todays standard of supercomputing.
--Shoeboy
Here is one of the .plan anouncements that first pointed to it, and
here are a few pictures of the actual machine.
This is a really interesting point!
... am I feeling ... lucky?)
...
Now, there *are* professional bidders already, of course, but they're not something the ordinary Joe gets to use. There are specialized professional bidders in all kinds of esoteric things, but of course that's not what you're talking about. The interesting thing about near-simultaneous, wide-ranging electronic communications is that the level at which it's practical to have things like this creeps lower -- you don't have to be as rich to use such services if you're paying incrementally in combination with other people (services like ubid.com), and the actual bidding services can be done cheaper and for products for which it wouldn't have made sense a few years ago. (priceline.com, for instance -- groceries etc).
Even pricewatch.com can be seen as a sort of reverse auction, where you can say "Gee, I'm looking for a D-Link PCMCIA modem / ethernet card. Wonder who can give me the best deal on one?" -- BAM a few search terms later, you find one ($128, as of yesterday). Much nicer than trying to sort through dozens of sites for a few bucks' difference.
And the new-economy thing I want to see most is the chance to "roll for more" as featured in R. Heinlein's "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress." It's been a few years, but I believe the basic concept is, when buying anything from a meal to a motel room, it's traditional to pay slightly more in exchange for the chance to win it for free instead. It's gambling, so the house wins (in aggregate) but the player sometimes wins, and to the player wins large. (I'd like that at Motel 6, for instance
Of course, given current ridiculous attitudes about gambling this isn't likely to happen, but
simon
"Hey Carlito, r'membah me? Benny Blanco from the Bronx!"
Whole new services might even appear where people pay fixed fees to 'professional bidders' who would take care of the whole bidding process for them. This would appeal to people who just want to buy stuff, and would create a whole new career.
... you mean the way stock exchanges and commodity markets work right now, for instance?
Errrr
It looks to me like you're predicting that once we disintermediate everything we're going to find it's TOO DAMN MUCH HASSLE to live without the dissed intermediaries and we're going to reintermediate right back.
I think I'm with you on that, actually. Now, how can we make an IPO out of this?
Offer not valid in UT,
Aw... come on, why not?
Because IBMs, like coffee, porn, and enjoying life, are against the Mormon religion. He doesn't want to face the wrath of one of the richest cults in the world.
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It's not just the raw-cpu power of these things but the internal-bandwidth the ccNuMA architecture can support.
I guess as it goes today, they are a bit out-dated on the processor level, but would still make a fantastic file server. (That spec of Origin can maintain about 2 gigabyte of sustained internal bandwidth per second. A top end 1Ghz Athlon can only sustain about 800mb per second on the bus.
I could have sworn reading a .plan file that carmack posted saying something about those NeXT boxes to the effect of 'first four people to get down here will go home with one NeXT box'. That was a real cool thing of them to do. I wonder why id feels they need to sell that puppy. You would figure John to donate that or something. A box like that would make a great donation to FSF for example and I would guess that the donation would be tax deductable to boot.
Prospecting Stinks. Stop Wasting Time on Cold Calling.
Do they wipe it when they auction it off? ;)
Or do we finally get their sgi compile tools?
I know quite a few mappers with 64 processor sgi machines that want to know
"And real life has warts and smelly feet" -- Paul Jaquays, id Software
Gee, I thought programmers created Quake. Well, I guess artifical intelligence is a further than I thought.
-- v --
Poll: how many people are interested in this SGI box?
Caffeine underflow
Brain dumped
Poll Mastah
ladies and gentlemen...i, FluXraD, am auctioning off the first ever computer i installed linux on
a beautiful IBM Craptiva with an enormous 64 meg of RAM, a beautifully stylish mobo with onboard crystal sound and an ATI Rage video card (you guessed it: the 2meg) This beautiful desktop unit is fully functional, it can be used as BOTH a paperweight for those outside offices, or a projectile. Either way, you'll be a winner with this baby!
Bidding will start next week...reserve is a bargain at a low low $32k. (Make checks payable to the FluXraD retirement fund. Seller makes no guarantee of implied warranty or viability of said IBM Craptiva. Purchaser takes product as is with no refunds unless expressly stated. Upon return a %100 stocking fee may be charged the buyer. Offer not valid in UT, VT, TX and The People's Republic of China)
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -David Hume
I would like to announce the auctioning of the first computer I ever used to chat in an adult IRC chat room. It's a Mac 512ke that works fine, but the keyboard is a bit... sticky.
Back on topic....
Could the Auction will become the defacto engine behind the new economy?
In a way, we'd come full circle. In the beginning, purchases were bartered for. Two people would negotiate back and forth until the price was agreed on. Eventually, fixed prices started to replace this. Money became the accepted tender, and everyone was happy.
Now, however, it's becoming easy to do the bartering without the social interaction, bluffing, etc. Stores could set an opening bid on the things they wanted to sell. When demand went up, the prices would go up, but not because they raised prices, instead because customers would bid against each other.
Eventually, people might bid against each other from whatever evolves from web-enabled cell phones or bluetooth devices. The winner would get the goods right then, and the loser would need to wander around the store waiting for the next bidding cycle to start on that item. On the plus side, the customer might be able to snake great bargains if they come in at off peak hours, reducing the mob scene you find in stores between 5-7PM. People who needed to shop at peak hours would pay for the convenience, bidding against other people of like-mind.
Whole new services might even appear where people pay fixed fees to 'professional bidders' who would take care of the whole bidding process for them. This would appeal to people who just want to buy stuff, and would create a whole new career.
Maybe it's our destiny to go back to our roots, economically...
Well, to answer question 1, SGI wants $20K for a used system with fewer, slower processors ( Link here ).
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Email address is real.
According to the 1998 review of a Sun Enterprise 10000 at UnixReview (previously Performance Computing)
With half the processors dead, chances are that you could pull the dead boards and coax it to run on a 15A circuit (as long as you didn't have much/anything else on the circuit) Kitchen counter plugs are a good bet, since most building codes require each plug to be on a separate circuit.
The heat issue is real, though. I worked with an SGI crimson once, in a small room with not enough air conditioning to handle the output of the thing. At night we had to close the door to the room, and the temperature would consistently hit ~35C (~95F) (this was in Vancouver, not Phoenix). One night it got so hot that a termal protection fuse blew. It stumped the SGI service guy for a while (he didn't know about the thermal fuse).
Due to bureaucratic heel-dragging, it took almsost 6 months to upgrade the air conditioning in the room.
I don't know why it's power requirements would stop you from using it in a residential neighbourhoood, but chancces are that it's only FCC 15B (industrial) rated. -- I mean, who's going to put an Onyx in their basement?? (OK, put your hand down, I take that back!)
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
I'll give you $20 for it :)
And the best part is... Q3A for IRIX just went alpha today. So you can have your quake and eat it, too.
-Chris
"Comes autographed by the id development team and an official certificate of authenticity!"
I got this all from a small booklet (Product Guide) that I got while on a field trip to SGI in highschool 2 years ago... As for comparing against a dual PIII 800, I'm not sure what the R10K's can do... they're not mega-powerful 64-bit processors but the machine concentrates on the I/O bandwidth more than anything...
the real at&t mix
Actually, it DOES run linux. Or at least, there's partial kernel support for it. Download a 2.3 kernel and take a peek inside.. there's support for SGI IP27 systems. IP27's are Onyx2 and Origin 2000 boxes. Sure, it may not support multiple-module systems, but since this thing has half the node cards dead, you're set anyway.
-Chris
I'm not sure, but the voltage that falls smack in the middle of the range there is 208V... Which is also a standard voltage for computing devices (there are many UPS' for 208V wiring). I believe this was done to keep current requirements down, but I think the 230 VAC available in a residential district is adequate.
It's a really wide voltage range (probably meant to use 208V if you have it, 230/240 if you don't). Only one problem - most residential power distribution centers/power meters only handle 100A or so, so you have to convince spouse to not cook and do laundry at the same time.
Uptime hosed because of dinner and laundry. Hmm.
4. Does that come with a color monitor? (grin, Dilbert reference)
Too bad this isn't a mauve Origin2K; I think they have the most RAM...
I use Macs for work, Linux for education, and Windows for cardplaying.
Rosebud!
Wah!