SGI Fuel
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer hardware |
| Founded | November 1, 1981 |
| Founder | Jim Clark |
| Defunct | April 1, 2009 |
| Fate | Bankruptcy; assets acquired by Rackable Systems |
| Headquarters | Mountain View, California , United States |
| Products | Workstations, servers, software |
Number of employees | 3,000 (2006) |
| Website | sgi |
The SGI Fuel represents a mid-tier workstation created and produced by Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI), introduced in January 2002 with a starting price of US$11,495. Its general sales concluded on December 29, 2006. SGI made a return to this market category in 2008 through the Virtu series, which incorporated x86 processors alongside Nvidia graphics solutions.
While occasionally regarded as the follow-up to the SGI O2, the Fuel was designed primarily for clients needing a uniprocessor workstation rather than entry-level users. Its maximum memory capacity of 4 GB limited its appeal, especially for applications demanding extensive RAM, such as ANSYS. The larger model in this lineup is the SGI Tezro, which accommodates up to four 1 GHz R16000 CPUs each equipped with 16 MB of L2 cache. Both the Fuel and Tezro are built upon the architecture used in SGI's Origin 3000 platform.
Architecture
Fundamentally, the Fuel is a single-node, single-processor iteration of the high-performance Origin 3000 server, sharing numerous components and design elements.
Processors
The Fuel employs either an R14000 or an R16000 processor. The R14000 is available at 500 or 600 MHz speeds with either 2 or 4 MB of L2 cache correspondingly. The R16000 comes in variants running at 700, 800, or 900 MHz, each paired with a 4 MB L2 cache—except for the uncommon 900 MHz model, which features an 8 MB L2 cache. The L2 cache operates at half the processor’s clock frequency (for instance, 250 MHz on a 500 MHz R14000). Despite comparatively lower clock rates, performance tests reveal that a Fuel equipped with a 700 MHz R16000 can match the capabilities of a 3.0 GHz Pentium 4 in certain specialized workloads.
The introduction of the 700 MHz R16000 occurred on January 9, 2003.
Memory
Standard memory configuration for the Fuel includes 512 MB of proprietary DDR SDRAM installed via DIMMs, expandable up to a total of 4 GB through four slots arranged in two banks.
Graphics
Two VPro graphics options are available for the Fuel: the V10 model with 32 MB and the V12 variant featuring 128 MB of combined graphics memory. Memory not used for display purposes functions as texture memory. The V12 supports superior-quality 48-bit RGBA color imaging, while both models provide hardware acceleration for 2D imaging using OpenGL ARB extensions. Additionally, the system utilizes its 3D graphics hardware to enhance video playback performance, including formats such as DivX and MPEG4.
Audio
Built-in audio hardware is not included in standard configurations; instead, audio functionality is generally implemented through USB sound devices or PCI expansion cards. Popular choices consist of the M-Audio Revolution 7.1 PCI card and the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS.
Expansion
The Fuel comes equipped with four PCI slots operating at 64-bit and 3.3V—two slots run at 33 MHz and two at 66 MHz—and incorporates two internal Ultra160 SCSI channels supporting up to two internal devices sized at 5.25" and three hard drives. Initially shipped with 10,000 rpm SCSI disks, it also supports faster drives spinning at 15,000 rpm, delivering sustained throughput up to three times higher than that of the Octane2’s internal UW bus. Notably, the Fuel was SGI’s inaugural system to provide USB device support under IRIX, albeit limited to audio peripherals and human interface devices.
Operating System
The Fuel operates solely on SGI’s proprietary IRIX operating system, beginning with version 6.5.17.