CD05@DKAUNI46.BITNET (03/18/88)
Reliability of SGI and MIPS hardware and software: We have purchased an IRIS-4D/60 (the one with the single-board) in November, 1987. In fact there were some hardware-problems: - one (of three) 4-Mbyte memory-bank on the main-board, - one (of two) 380-Mbyte disk-drive and - the buttons-and-dials-box did not work properly in the beginning. The memory problem was fixed by the tech in the second attempt one week after the first installation. With the disk and the buttons we had to wait until replacement arrived from USA, and the machine was working with it's desired hardware configuration in January, 1988. I know that similar problems occured in other IRIS-4D-installations in Germany. However, I cannot complain about local service here. There were no problems to get reactions from SGI. They always invested much personal power to solve our problems, e.g. they came along with a spare machine and tried to replace parts of the hardware-equipment to locate our bugs. Concerning the software there are some (minor?) problems too: - MIPS-FORTRAN does not work properly with the optimization features. - AT&T UNIX (V.3) seems to have some problems on the IRIS-4D (cron crashes sometimes). - the UNIX-kernel (probably by SGI?) locks on interactive requests some- times, while background-processes continue operating. The system has to be rebooted, to wake up the machine. - SGI-graphics sometimes dies and the graphics-console cannot be used, while interactive usage on the attached ascci-terminals (three) is still possible. The system has to be rebooted, to allow usage of graphics again. - in the documentation there are references to tools which are not available. We were told from our local-dealer, that most of these bugs are fixed in the next software update (announced for March or April). None the less the IRIS is an excellent and powerful machine and we like to work with it. Stefan (from Theoretical Chemistry, University of Karlsruhe, Germany)