InfiniteReality2
InfiniteReality2 is what hinv (an IRIX utility that lists the hardware present in a system) refers to an InfiniteReality that is used in the Onyx2. The InfiniteReality2 however, was still marketed as the InfiniteReality. It was the second implementation of the InfiniteReality architecture, and was introduced in late 1996. It is identical to the InfiniteReality architecturally, but differs mechanically as the Onyx2's Origin 2000-based card cage is different from the Onyx's Challenge-based card cage.
Introduced by the InfiniteReality2 is an interface scheme that is used in rackmount Onyx2 or later systems. Instead of being connected to the host system via a FCI cable, the board set is plugged into the rear of a midplane, which can support two pipelines. The midplane has eleven slots. Slot six to slot eleven are for the first pipeline, which may contain one to four Raster Manager boards. Slot one to four is for the second pipeline, which may contain one or two Raster Manager boards due to the number of slots there are. Because of this, maximally configured Onyx systems use one midplane for each pipeline to avoid restricting half of the 16 pipelines to a maximum of two Raster Manager boards. Slot five contains a Ktown board if the midplane is used in an Origin 2000-based system (Onyx2) or a Ktown2 board if the midplane is used in an Origin 3000-based system (Onyx 3000). The purpose of these boards is to interface the host system's XIO link to the Host Interface Processor ASIC on the Geometry board. These boards have two XIO ports for this purpose, with the top XIO port connected to the right pipeline and the bottom XIO port connected to the left pipeline.
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