SGI Indigo² and Challenge M
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The SGI Indigo² and the SGI Challenge M were Unix computers marketed by SGI from 1993 to 1997. The Indigo² was a desktop workstation. The Challenge M was a server which differed from the Indigo² only by a slightly differently colored and badged case, and the absence of graphics and sound hardware. Both systems were based on the MIPS processors.
Both systems supported EISA and GIO64 expansion buses via a riser card. Indigo² systems also supported SGI IMPACT graphics hardware. The IMPACT graphics boards draw more power than the GIO-64 bus can deliver, so the IMPACT-ready systems have additional power connectors on the expansion riser card, with a separate connection to the power supply. An IMPACT-ready Indigo² must have an IMPACT-ready riser card, an IMPACT-ready power supply, and a sufficiently recent PROM revision.
The graphics boards available for the Indigo² were the pre-IMPACT boards (which included the SGI XL24, SGI XZ, SGI Elan and SGI Extreme) and the MGRAS IMPACT boards (the SGI Solid IMPACT, the SGI High IMPACT, the SGI High IMPACT AA, and the SGI Maximum IMPACT). The Impact's replacement, the SGI Octane, offered an upgraded bus but featured the same graphics options, albeit in repackaged form.
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