I think the BeBox is one of the coolest pieces of computer history. I see that there are two rows of lights at the front of the case. They are most often (and lovingly) referred to as “Blinkenlights”. I know they were meant to display CPU usage, but did they BOTH do the same thing, or two different purposes? (ie. one was CPU and the other was Disk Read/Writes? I can’t find any sources that answer this, only that there were two sets of lights and that they displayed CPU usage. Thanks.
Dual CPU, hence 2 rows
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The BeBox first utilized a pair of AT&T Hobbit processors, then later a pair of powerpc 603 cpus, so one column per CPU, one of the lights on one side may have been a disk drive activity indicator IIRC
Um, no, there never was such a machine
Early prototypes used one AT&T Hobbit and 3 DSPs. The Hobbit was dscontinued, and for production models, two PowerPC 603 processors (and no DSPs) were used instead.
The correct answer is, cpu - left cpu 1, right cpu 2, except the very bottom led on the left was the drive access and was red not green when shown.
Of course it’s for dual CPU’s. I should have realized that. Thanks.
That is technically a “Be Machine” as BeBox was used for the PowerPC mainly iirc.
Yes, but there are indeed two Hobbit CPUs in addition to the 3 DSPsso I was wrong about that. Did the Hobbit prototypes have blinkenlights as well?
No, they were in regular PC beige cases. The selling point was the DSP and add on cards. The PowerPC BeBox was a reaction to the wasted effort, where all the busses were standard and used consumer parts, rather than being completely custom.
If I may be so keen as to omnibus my question from earlier on IRC: Does anyone know how many LEDs are in each bar?
This is from here : BeBox
Looks like the drive access might b on the right. I haven’t had a BeBox since about 2007, so my memory is hazy. Looks like 16x2 green and one for drive access that is red.
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