The MIPS Magnum was a line of computer workstations designed by MIPS
Computer Systems, Inc. and based on the MIPS series of RISC microprocessors. The first Magnum was released in
March, 1990, and production of various models continued until 1993. Some models were also rebadged and sold by Groupe Bull and Olivetti. In addition,
headless (i.e., without a framebuffer or video card) versions were marketed as servers under the name "MIPS Millenium".
Series
- MIPS Magnum 3000
- Alternative model name: MIPS RC3230
- Release: March, 1990
- Initial price: $9000 USD
- Maximum possible RAM: 128 MB
- MIPS Magnum R4000
- Two subtypes: The R4000 PC-50 and R4000 SC-50
- Release: April, 1992
- Initial price: $12,000.00 USD
- Maximum possible RAM: 256 MB
Components
Processors
As mentioned, the MIPS Magnum 3000 includes a MIPS R3000A processor running at either 25 MHz or 33 MHz.
The MIPS Magnum R4000 PC-50 includes a MIPS R4000PC processor with only 16 kB primary cache (but no
secondary cache), running at an external clock rate of 50 Mhz (which was internally
doubled in the microprocessor to 100 MHz).
The MIPS Magnum R4000 SC-50 is identical to the Magnum R4000PC, but includes one megabyte of secondary cache in addition to
the primary cache.
The MIPS Magnum 3000 accepted 30-pin true-parity, 80ns SIMMs up to a maximum of 128 MB.
The MIPS Magnum R4000 accepted eight 72-pin true-parity SIMMS, up to a maximum of 256 MB.
The MIPS Magnum R4000 (both the R4000 PC-50 and R4000 SC-50) includes a single on-board SCSI bus using the on-board NCR 53c94
fast-narrow SCSI chipset. An internal cable with four 50-pin connections links internal
SCSI devices, and also interfaces external SCSI devices via an endlink mounted on the rear of the case.
The MIPS Magnum R4000 includes an on-board Sonic ethernet chipset and an AUI ethernet connector mounted on the
case.
The video output for the Magnum R4000 consists of a proprietary framebuffer available as a custom full-length option card — the G364 framebuffer. The G364
includes a SUN 13W3-style output (which can be converted to the more
common VGA pin-out), and is capable of pixel screen resolutions of 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, or 1280x1024. Because it is a simple framebuffer, the G364
does not include any accelerated graphics functions.
Serial and Parallel I/O
The MIPS Magnum R4000 also includes two standard RS232-capable serial ports and an IBM AT-compatible
parallel port.
Also, the MIPS Magnum R4000 had an IBM AT-compatible floppy disk controller and a single floppy drive bay.
Historical development
The MIPS Magnum 3000 used a MIPS R3000 processor and a custom, proprietary motherboard which
incorporated the Turbochannel bus licensed from DEC (it is noted that DEC also manufactured the
DECStation line of workstations
running Ultrix, which also used MIPS processors and the Turbochannel bus). The Magnum
3000 ran only MIPS Computer Systems, Inc.'s port of UNIX System V, known as RISC/os.
The later Magnums, the MIPS Magnum R4000PC and MIPS Magnum R4000SC, also used a MIPS microprocessor — the MIPS R4000, a full 64-bit microprocessor
available either in a low-cost version (the R4000PC) having 16kB of primary cache but no secondary cache, or a higher-performance version (the R4000SC) with 1MB of secondary cache in
addition to the 16kB of primary cache.
As MIPS Computer Systems, Inc. had co-founded the Advanced Computing Environment consortium with Silicon Graphics, Microsoft, Motorola and others, the MIPS Magnum R4000 was intended to be MIPS' entry into the Windows NT workstation market. However, because MIPS Computer Systems, Inc.'s in-house
effort to design a MIPS-based Windows NT system had met delays, MIPS Technologies abandoned its in-house efforts and instead
licensed the Jazz design which Microsoft had developed in the
early 1990s to facilitate the porting and development of Windows NT (it is to be noted
that Windows NT was first developed on the MIPS architecture, and was only later ported to the Intel
386, DEC Alpha, and PowerPC
architectures).
As such, the MIPS Magnum R4000 (and indeed all Jazz-based systems, such as the Acer
PICA, NEC RISCstation, Olivetti M700,
Siemens-Nixdorf RM200, etc.) incorporated many features more common to Intel-based PC's than to the commercial UNIX workstations of the era — for example, the Magnum R4000
included an EISA bus, used IBM
PS/2-compatible keyboards and mice, and used commodity chipset components whose control registers were mapped to memory
locations set forth in the IBM AT standard.
Operating Systems
Windows NT
The MIPS Magnum R4000 ran either Windows NT (beginning with version 3.1)
when equipped with the little-endian ARC firmware,
or RISC/os when MIPS Computer Systems, Inc.'s proprietary big-endian firmware
(the "MIPS Monitor") was installed. The firmware could be switched between ARC or MIPS Monitor by loading either one into the
Magnum's FLASH memory/NVRAM from
floppy disk, and thus the Magnum R4000 could dual-boot between Windows or
UNIX.
The MIPS Magnum R4000 was supported by Windows NT from version 3.1 (released in 1993)
through version 4.0 (released in 1996). However, support by Microsoft for all MIPS systems
ended with the release of Windows NT version 4.0, and useful software for Windows/MIPS — either from Microsoft or
third-party vendors — was very scarce even when MIPS was supported (for example, Microsoft never ported its own Microsoft Office suite to MIPS).
The MIPS Magnum 3000, unlike the MIPS Magnum R4000, was not able to run Windows NT.
RISC/os
All Magnums could run RISC/os, MIPS Computer System, Inc.'s proprietary port of
UNIX. Running RISC/os on the MIPS Magnum R4000 requires use of the big-endian MIPS Monitor firmware.
NetBSD and OpenBSD
The MIPS Magnum can run either NetBSD or OpenBSD (although support for ARC machines has atrophied in OpenBSD).
For the earlier, RISC/os-only MIPS Magnum 3000 machines, the correct port is NetBSD/mipsco. For the later, Windows NT-capable
MIPS Magnum R4000, the correct port is NetBSD/arc.
Linux
The MIPS Magnum R4000 was among the earliest supported machines in the effort to port Linux to MIPS (Linux/MIPS), with initial support begun April, 1995. Support for the Magnum R4000 became stable in the 2.1
development tree (around 1999); however, support for the Magnum in Linux has atrophied
since then, because none of the core developers of Linux/MIPS has access to a Magnum.
Emulation
As the MIPS Magnum machines ceased production in the early 1990s, few machines are available for hobbyists or operating system developers to tinker with. However, the mips64emul project has incorporated emulation of the Olivetti M700, which is nearly
identical to the MIPS Magnum R4000.
External Links
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