complains for SGI technical manual or books!!!

From: Niy (niy38_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 08/21/03 

Date: 21 Aug 2003 00:01:57 -0700

I suppose the book like "SGI Origin 3000 Series Owner's Guide"
should face the users. But I just feel very difficult to understand
some parts.

For example, in:
Appendix B. System Controller:

istat
Use the istat set of commands to view the status of the memory,
queues, tasks, and memory allocation. There are four commands in this
set:

istat memory

istat queues

istat tasks

istat pmalloc

Use istat memory to view the status of the memory. Example B-34 shows
sample output from this command.

Example B-34. istat memory Command Output

001c07-L1>istat memory
SYSMEM [0x30005cf8] Size: 41656 Avail: 26792
SMLPOOL [0x30005cbc] Size: 8704/ 272 Avail: 28
BIGPOOL [0x30005c80] Size: 16640/1040 Avail: 15
 

Use istat queues to view the status of the queues. Example B-35 shows
sample output from this command.

Example B-35. istat queues Command Output

001c07-L1>istat queues
CMD_REQQ [0x30008a54] Size: 10 Avail: 10 Msgs: 0
CMD_RSPQ [0x30008a9c] Size: 10 Avail: 10 Msgs: 0
SMP_RQUE [0x3000c8a0] Size: 10 Avail: 10 Msgs: 0
SMP_WQUE [0x3000c8e8] Size: 10 Avail: 10 Msgs: 0
SMP_IQUE [0x3000c930] Size: 10 Avail: 10 Msgs: 0
CTI_WQUE [0x3000f38c] Size: 10 Avail: 10 Msgs: 0
USB_WQUE [0x3000ee7c] Size: 10 Avail: 10 Msgs: 0
SCAN_QUE [0x30002440] Size: 20 Avail: 20 Msgs: 0
FLASH_Q [0x30009c64] Size: 5 Avail: 5 Msgs: 0
BDR_WQUE [0x3000a0c8] Size: 10 Avail: 10 Msgs: 0
 

Use istat tasks to view the status of the tasks. Example B-36 shows
sample output from this command.

Example B-36. istat tasks Command Output

001c07-L1>istat tasks
MAIN_TSK [0x300019f8] (SLEEP ) STACK: 2048 @ 0x300011f8 ( 904
used, 1144 free)
USB_CNTL [0x30007f38] (DRV_SUSP ) STACK: 1536 @ 0x30007fe0 ( 288
used, 1248 free)
CMD_ITSK [0x300096e4] (READY ) STACK: 3072 @ 0x30008ae4 (1936
used, 1136 free)
SMP_RTSK [0x3000e1c8] (EVT_SUSP ) STACK: 2048 @ 0x3000c9c8 ( 800
used, 1248 free)
SMP_ITSK [0x3000e318] (QUEUE_SUSP) STACK: 2048 @ 0x3000d9c8 ( 768
used, 1280 free)
SMP_WTSK [0x3000e270] (QUEUE_SUSP) STACK: 2048 @ 0x3000d1c8 ( 416
used, 1632 free)
ENV_PITK [0x3000a9ec] (SEM_SUSP ) STACK: 1024 @ 0x3000addc ( 276
used, 748 free)
ENV_FITK [0x3000aa94] (SEM_SUSP ) STACK: 1024 @ 0x3000b1dc ( 260
used, 764 free)
ENV_TITK [0x3000ab3c] (SEM_SUSP ) STACK: 1024 @ 0x3000b5dc ( 264
used, 760 free)
ENV_PMTK [0x3000abe4] (SEM_SUSP ) STACK: 1024 @ 0x3000b9dc ( 260
used, 764 free)
ENV_FMTK [0x3000ac8c] (SEM_SUSP ) STACK: 1024 @ 0x3000bddc ( 268
used, 756 free)
ENV_TMTK [0x3000ad34] (SEM_SUSP ) STACK: 1024 @ 0x3000c1dc ( 324
used, 700 free)
BDR_RTSK [0x30009f30] (DRV_SUSP ) STACK: 2048 @ 0x30016524 (1204
used, 844 free)
BDR_WTSK [0x3000a020] (QUEUE_SUSP) STACK: 1024 @ 0x30016d34 ( 532
used, 492 free)
CTI_RTSK [0x3000f23c] (DRV_SUSP ) STACK: 2048 @ 0x3001717c ( 892
used, 1156 free)
CTI_WTSK [0x3000f2e4] (QUEUE_SUSP) STACK: 2048 @ 0x3001798c ( 572
used, 1476 free)
USB_RTSK [0x3000edd4] (READY ) STACK: 1800 @ 0x300181d4 ( 732
used, 1068 free)
USB_WTSK [0x3000eeec] (QUEUE_SUSP) STACK: 1500 @ 0x300188ec ( 480
used, 1020 free)
SCAN_TSK [0x30002398] (QUEUE_SUSP) STACK: 2048 @ 0x30001b98 ( 600
used, 1448 free)
I2C_HIGH [0x30007154] (SEM_SUSP ) STACK: 1500 @ 0x300071fc ( 248
used, 1252 free)
I2C_LOW [0x30006a2c] (SEM_SUSP ) STACK: 1500 @ 0x30006ad4 ( 396
used, 1104 free)
FLASH_T [0x30009bbc] (QUEUE_SUSP) STACK: 1024 @ 0x300097bc ( 316
used, 708 free)
 

Use istat pmalloc to view the status of the memory allocation. Example
B-37 shows sample output from this command.

Example B-37. istat pmalloc Command Output

001c07-L1>istat pmalloc
 
small pool size: 272
small pool avail: 28
small pool used: 3
small pool max: 25
 
big pool size: 1040
big pool avail: 15
big pool used: 0
big pool max: 3
 
pmalloc calls: 0
prealloc calls: 3
 

Who can understand those? what's the small pool? what's the big pool?
for the next command "leds", what's the I/0 expanders? etc. Even you
search in the techpubs.sgi.com, you found nothing.

Probably those book or manual writer should go to www.tldp.org
to learn from the linux howtos writers. Remember, those writers don't
get
paid to write so nice technical publications!!!!

Now I realized some unix providers are even worse than M$. if both of
them will die someday, I bet M$ will die later.