izen@amelia.nas.nasa.gov (Steven H. Izen) (01/05/90)
I just took delivery of a 4D/25 today. My reaction in one word: WOW!
I was extremely impressed by the documentation (quantity-I haven't had the time
to judge quality yet) and by the speed and willingness to help which I
experienced when dealing with the SGI hotline. Of course, I'm used to the
lousy 386/ix documentation and the incompetent excuse for user support coming
out of Hollis, NH for 386/ix, so perhaps anything would look better.
Now for the question:
My system was supposed to have been shipped with the turbo graphics upgrade,
but wasn't. My salesman mumbled something about a hardware bug on the turbo
upgrade board and that shipments have been halted until it's fixed. He could
not provide a date. So, to anyone out htere, especially the SGI people who
read this group, What's the real scoop? Was there in fact a hardware bug? Or
is it just a production delay? (Sorry if I sound cynical, I've been mislead by
Hollis, NH people too many times before...) Is there any (off the record if
that makes you more comfortable) date on when the turbo graphics upgrade will
start shipping again?
Thanx,
Steve Izen
--
Steve Izen: {sun,uunet}!cwjcc!skybridge!izen386!steve / Quote corner:
or steve%izen386.uucp@skybridge.scl.cwru.edu /
or izen@cwru.cwru.edu /-------------------------/ My second bike is a car.
| My other computer is a Personal IRIS.spl@mcnc.org (Steve Lamont) (01/05/90)
In article <4411@amelia.nas.nasa.gov> izen@cwru.cwru.edu (Steven H. Izen) writes: >I just took delivery of a 4D/25 today. My reaction in one word: WOW! > >I was extremely impressed by the documentation (quantity-I haven't had the time >to judge quality yet) ... Huh? All we got was one funky little User's Manual with our 4D/20. The fellow that set it up had problems getting it on the network because there was not sufficient information -- spent a lot of time on the hotline and on the phone with the salesperson, ferreting out documentation. Good little box, though. spl (the p stands for Personal Iris? My *other* computer is a Cray...) -- Steve Lamont, sciViGuy (919) 248-1120 EMail: spl@ncsc.org NCSC, Box 12732, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 "That's People's Commissioner Tirebiter -- and NOBODY'S sweetheart!" - F. Scott Firesign
dunlap@bigboote.sgi.com (D. Christopher Dunlap) (01/06/90)
In article <6003@alvin.mcnc.org> spl@mcnc.org.UUCP (Steve Lamont) writes: >In article <4411@amelia.nas.nasa.gov> izen@cwru.cwru.edu (Steven H. Izen) writes: >>I just took delivery of a 4D/25 today. My reaction in one word: WOW! >> >>I was extremely impressed by the documentation (quantity-I haven't had the time >>to judge quality yet) ... > >Huh? All we got was one funky little User's Manual with our 4D/20. The >fellow that set it up had problems getting it on the network because there was >not sufficient information -- spent a lot of time on the hotline and on the >phone with the salesperson, ferreting out documentation. If you just buy the PI, then you just get the Owner's Manual. If you get the Development System (C compiler and stuff) then you get a big bunch of Doc. There's also a "System Administrator's Manual Set" which includes lots of the system admin and network admin doc, without all the compiler stuff and graphics library stuff. The theory here is basically that all this doc is expensive, and most PI customers buy multiple systems, so they really don't want a full set of manuals for every one of those systems. > >Good little box, though. > We think so... ;-} > spl (the p stands for > Personal Iris? My > *other* computer is a > Cray...) >-- >Steve Lamont, sciViGuy (919) 248-1120 EMail: spl@ncsc.org >NCSC, Box 12732, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 >"That's People's Commissioner Tirebiter -- and NOBODY'S sweetheart!" > - F. Scott Firesign D. Christopher Dunlap Product Support Customer Support Division email: dunlap@sgi.sgi.com Silicon Graphics Computer Systems
sd%chem@UCSD.EDU (Steve Dempsey) (01/06/90)
>Date: 5 Jan 90 12:25:10 GMT >From: Steve Lamont <spl@mcnc.org> >Organization: Foo Bar Brewers Cooperative >References: <4411@amelia.nas.nasa.gov> > >> >>I was extremely impressed by the documentation (quantity-I haven't had >>the time to judge quality yet) ... > >Huh? All we got was one funky little User's Manual with our 4D/20. The >fellow that set it up had problems getting it on the network because >there was not sufficient information -- spent a lot of time on the hotline >and on the phone with the salesperson, ferreting out documentation. The problem here is that you don't get the complete documentation UNLESS you order the SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT OPTION, even though most of the docs have nothing to do with software development. As Steve Lamont noted, configuring the network software for anything but the simplest situation requires more info than one can get from the User's Manual. It seems that SGI could do it's future customers (and those harried folks manning the HOTLINE) a favor by including sufficient documentation to operate the basic hardware, or by having an explicit DOCUMENTATION option for those folks who don't want to be tempted by the evils of software development. However, I would consider it to be one of those oxymoronic 'mandatory options'. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steve Dempsey (619) 534-0208 Dept. of Chemistry Computer Facility, B-014 INTERNET: sdempsey@ucsd.edu University of Calif. at San Diego BITNET: sdempsey@ucsd La Jolla, CA 92093 UUCP: ucsd!sdempsey