Ethernet is supported on board by the SEEQ 80C03 chipset coupled with the HPC (High-performance Peripheral Controller), which provides the DMA engine.

The HPC interfaces primarily between the GIO bus and the Ethernet, SCSI (WD33C93 chipset) and the 56000 DSP.

Much of the hardware design can be traced back to the SGI IRIS 4D/3x series, which shared the same memory controller, Ethernet, SCSI, and optionally DSP as the IP12 Indigo.

The final is the same, but adds a second video output, giving the computer the ability to have two "heads", or monitors.

It is ideal for low-cost wireframe operations, compared to more powerful, and expensive options for textured graphics.

[4] Part of SGI's Express line of graphics, four XS graphics options were produced for the Indigo: the XS-8 offers 8-bit color, with one VM2 video RAM module; the XS-Z adds the ZB-4 Z buffer; the XS-24 adds two VM2 modules and offers 24 color bits and 32 bits including brightness; and the XS-24Z adds a Z buffer.

Additionally, the free Unix-like operating system NetBSD has support for both the IP12 and IP20 Indigos as part of the sgimips port.