SGI Maximum IMPACT

Maximum Impact graphics are the highest tier of SGI's IMPACT graphics offered both on the Indigo2 and Octane workstations. They include a 27MB frame buffer and have 2 raster engines (i.e. are "2RSS" boards). On the Octane, you can upgrade a SSI/SSE graphics board to Maximum Impact (MXI/EMXI) by adding two texture RAM (TRAM) modules.

Indigo2 Maximum Impact Overview

The Indigo2 Maximum Impact included:

HQ3 Command Processor:

• Distributes graphics primitives to Geometry Engine
• GIO64 bus interface
• Pixel DMA engine
• 300,000 gates

Two GE11 Geometry/Image Engines:

• Power the graphics subsystem
• 960 MFLOPS for transforming triangles
• 960 MIOPS for processing pixels
• 600,000 gates each
• Note: The refreshed Octane 'E-series' Geometry engines were capable of 1344 MFLOPS

Two RE4 Raster Engines:

• Provide the pixel-fill capabilities
• 234 Mpixels/sec gouraud fill rate
• 300,000 gates each

Two TE Texture Engines:

• Fill, warp, and zoom image/texture data
• 295,000 gates each

One or Four MB Texture Memory:

• Interpolates image/texture data and performs MIP-mapping interpolation
• 1MB of texture memory with expandability to 4MB through optional Mezzanine card
• 60,000 gates + 8MB DRAM for each MB

Four PP1 Pixel Pipe Processors:

• Provide blending, depth and dithering
• 290,000 gates each

Live Video:

• Expansion port supports Indigo2 Mindshare Bundle, Indigo2 IMPACT Video, Indigo2 IMPACT Channel Option, or Indigo2 Presenter

See Also

• SGI Indigo2
• SGI Octane
• Octane_Graphics_Boards