On 12 July Peter Guthrie wrote:
> Has anyone
> upgraded their SGI to IRIX 5.2?  Have you had any problems running ImageSpace
> 3.1 under IRIX 5.2?  We have an IRIS 4D/30G which is running well under IRIX
> 4.0.5, but the new Showcase will not run under 4.0.5.
 
I have made a number of installations of IRIX 5.2, but only on Indys so far.
The release is very stable on this platform, but I would hesitate to recommend
it for any SGI with less primary memory than 32MB
 
ImageSpace 3.1 and IRIX 5.2 is a very happy marriage. Even loading modules selectively into different Indigo Magic desktops works great, which means you can
flip from one desktop for 3D measurements, into another for 3D reconstruction,
and into a third for preparation of publication output.
 
Your combination of a Personal Iris 4D/30G running IRIX 4.0.5 is optimal,
upgrading to 5.2 will give you marginal improvements in functionality at a high
cost of memory and hence performance when you run multiple applications. The
only real benefits gained from 5.2 's Indigo Magic over 4.0.5 's Workspace is
multiple desktops and a somewhat fancier window for managing files and icons (or am I missing something? Would any SGI expert care to comment?). Of course if
you want to run the new Showcase then I guess you have to upgrade to 5.2. The
only thing that wories me is that you may seriously compromise the performance
of your system if you haven't sufficient RAM.
 
Regards
Robert England
KEBO Lab Digital Microscopy
Stockholm Sweden
 
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