Systems

IRIS 1000

Introduction

General

The 1000 and 1200 computers used a Motorola 68000 microprocessor clocked at 8 Mhz and were sold as diskless systems intended for use as a terminal. The 1400 and 1500 had 10 MHz Motorola 68010 microprocessor, 1.5 MB of RAM and did support ST-506 or SMD drives. The mainboard in the IRIS 1x00 machines was Licensed from Andy Bechtolsheim, Stanford University before Sun was founded. It is used in two variants: PM1 in 1000/1200 and PM2 in 1400/1500.

An old message turned up by Google clarifies the difference between IRIS 1000 (terminals) and IRIS 1400 (workstations) and even contains some information on pricing:

Date: Thu, 9 Aug 84 17:36:18 pdt
From: olympus!craig (Craig Olson) 
Message-Id: <8408100036.AA23238@olympus.UUCP>
Subject: 40% Discount On GRAPHICS UNIX WORKSTATIONS

Silicon Graphics, Inc. has agreed to a 40%  Educational  Discount
on  all  computer  products  purchased by accredited universities
prior to September 30, 1984.  A 45% ARPA Discount is  offered  at
universities  for  ARPA  contracts which fulfill certain require-
ments.

With the 40% discount, the price of an IRIS 1000 Terminal and  an
IRIS 1400 Workstation is $22,500 and $35,700, respectively.  The
IRIS 1400 includes a stand-alone,  68010-based  UNIX  environment
(System  V  with  4.2  BSD  enhancements  such as demand paging),
real-time 3D color graphics using the Geometry Engine, and Ether-
net  with IP/TCP or XNS protocols.  The Geometry Engine, a custom
VLSI graphics processor developed under an ARPA contract at Stan-
ford,  performs  over six million geometric floating point opera-
tions per second.

The IRIS 1400 comes standard with 1.5 MB of CPU  memory,  8  bit-
planes of 1024x1024 image memory, and a 72 MB Winchester disk and
controller.  Options include additional CPU and image  memory,  a
floating point accelerator, and large capacity disk and tape sys-
tems.

For additional information or to set up a demonstration,  contact
Silicon  Graphics in Mountain View, California (415/960-1980), or
one of the following regional sales and service offices:  Central
Region    (313/478-5446);    Southern    Region   (214/788-4122);
Northeastern Region (617/863-8670).

Craig Olson
Product Manager
Silicon Graphics, Inc.

Models

The following table includes a list of models which are listed by the SGI IRIS FAQ.

Model Type CPU Graphics Disk Chassis
IRIS 1000 Terminal PM1 IRIS Graphics none 10-slot
IRIS 1200 Terminal PM1 IRIS Graphics none 10-slot
IRIS 1400 Workstation PM2 IRIS Graphics ST-506 (72MB) 20-slot
IRIS 1500 Workstation PM2 IRIS Graphics SMD (474MB) rackmount?

 

History

The IRIS 1000 were first shipped around November 1983.

Processor

The following table includes a list of CPU boads associated with the IRIS 1000 line of terminals and workstations:

CPU Board Procesor Clockspeed
PM1 Motorola 68000 8 MHz
PM2 Motorola 68010 10 MHz

The PM1 board was licensed from Andy Bechtolsheim, Stanford University, before Sun was founded.

Memory

 

Graphics

 

Other

 

Options

  • Excelan EXOS/101 Ethernet board
  • Qualogy DSD 5217 ST-506/QIC-02
  • Interphase 2190 SMD
  • Peripherals: Dials and Buttons

Chassis

10-slot

The IRIS 1000 electronics cabinet including the narrow 10 slot backplane has the following dimensions:

width:     25,4 cm / 10"
height:    53,6 cm / 21"
depth:     68,6 cm / 27"

weight:    45,4 kg / 100 lbs

This model does not have any provisions for the internal installation a drive.

20-slot

The IRIS 1200/1400 electronics cabinet including the wider 20 slot backplane has the following dimensions:

width:     45,7 cm / 18"
height:    73,6 cm / 29"
depth:     68,6 cm / 27"

weight:    90,7 kg / 200 lbs

A boot floppy may be installed into this chassis there is also space for a harddisk which is installed in the IRIS 1400 workstation.

Specials

Problems

Operating System

Choosing an operating system.

The IRIS systems run the GL2 operating system which predates IRIX. The IRIS 1000 models are supported by GL2 Release 1 and GL2 Release 2. The last version to support any IRIS 1000 model is 2.3.

DIP Switches

What is the meaning of the DIP Switches?

The following is an explanation of the termials DIP switches (0 open / 1 closed):

Switch Name Setting Meaning
1 Reserved 0 Leave open
2-3 Serial Line

11
10
01
00

300 baud
19200 baud
1200 baud
9600 baud
4 Checkout

0
1

Additional testing
No additional testing
5-9 Boot environment 11111
11011
10111
10011
11001
Floppy disk boot
Network boot
PROM Monitor
Serial line boot
IEEE-488 boot

Parts

Pictures

Links

Websites

Videos

  • archive.org - a video that includes a presentation of an IRIS computer (from ~1984).