Date: Mon, 17 Sep 90 08:31:58 EST From: Dwight D. McKay (The Moderator) Reply-To: Suns-at-Home@orchestra.ecn.purdue.edu Subject: Suns-at-Home Digest V3 #28 To: Suns-at-Home-List Suns-at-Home Digest Mon, 17 Sep 90 Volume 3 : Issue 28 Today's Topics: Sun 2/170 upgrade schemes (2 msgs) Sun 2/50 Jumper Info needed +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Submissions: suns-at-home \ @orchestra.ecn.purdue.edu | | Requests: suns-at-home-request > -- or -- | | Archives: suns-at-home-archives / ...rutgers!pur-ee!... | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 11 Sep 90 22:24:21 GMT From: ames!quack.sac.ca.us!mrapple (Nick Sayer) Subject: Sun 2/170 upgrade schemes To: suns-at-home@orchestra.ecn.purdue.edu Thanks to all who replied (esp. G. Onefur). I have received a pointer to "Minicomputer Exchange" in Sunnyvale. They had a nice salesman there willing to chat for a while. According to him, the best idea in my case would be to get three Multibus->VME adapters, put them on the disk controller, the tape controller, and the ALM-I, and plug them into a Sun 3/180 (which would fit nicely into the existing hole the 2/170 would make). I have no graphics hardware, and the console is a dumb-terminal rather than Sun hardware, so the result is a final cost of around $4600 (minus whatever I could get for a gutted 2/170. Pennies, no doubt). Quite managable as far as Sun hardware goes, quite outrageous as my college-boy budget goes. Time to pinch pennies. -- Nick Sayer | Disclaimer: N6QQQ [44.2.1.17 soon] | "Just because you're reading my post doesn't mrapple@quack.sac.ca.us | mean we're gonna take long showers together." 209-952-5347 (Telebit) | -- Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Highway ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Sep 90 13:26:35 -0700 From: Greg Onufer Subject: Sun 2/170 upgrade schemes To: mrapple@quack.sac.ca.us (Nick Sayer) In cheers.suns-at-home you write: >If/when I upgrade, I want to keep the drives, the CDC tape drive, >and the MTI-1600. At uop.edu, we have a setup that's just about >ideal. It's a 3/160 with an MTI-1600, an Eagle and a tape drive >similar to the CDC. How did they do it? Do Sun 2 boards plug >into the 3? What sort of adapter is necessary to achieve this (if >any)? As I have mentioned to you before, you need to use a Multibus-to-VMEbus adaptor (like the ones uop uses for the VME drive, the tape drive, and the ALMs). If I recall correctly, the adapter is part number 501-1186 (at least for the Xylogics 450 SMD controller). The drawback, of course, is that Multibus is spec'd at 10Mhz, so using Multibus boards in a VME system is not a great idea, especially for things like disk controllers. It probably does not matter much for the ALM, or even the tape drive. >How much would it cost to get a Sun 3 with a CPU and the necessary >adapters or new controllers to get the CDC, SMD disks and the >MTI working? >The only thing I really want to preserve is the MTI-1600. I can get >used to 1/4" if I have to, and SCSI disks would be nicer, but the >idea behind keeping half the old hardware is saving money. If you wanted to save money, you should probably use a completely SCSI mass storage system. With those limitations, you're looking at a 6/12-slot VME system, since those boards would immediately fill up the cheaper three-slot models (and leave no room for memory expansion -- 4 Mb would not be fun). Basically, you have to buy a more expensive system in order to use the older disk/tape controllers instead of a smaller, cheaper system that has SCSI. So, to sum up: systems that have enough VME to work: 3/150 Probably would work (6-slot VME) 3/160 Probably would work (12-slot VME) 3/180 12-slot VME 3/260 12-slot VME 3/280 12-slot VME ... and higher numbered Sun-3's... 4/150 6-slot VME 4/260 12-slot VME 4/280 12-slot VME ... and higher numbered Sun-3's ... Cheers!greg PS. Please call Minicomputer Exchange in Sunnyvale and ask for a catalog. They pretty much have the going prices on used Sun equipment and can answer many of your questions. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Sep 1990 11:55:32 -0400 (EDT) From: Bill_von_Hagen@transarc.com Subject: Sun 2/50 Jumper Info needed To: internet.suns-at-home@transarc.com I'm getting close to actually getting my 2/50 up and running. However, whenever I turn it on (before the machine searches the bus for a boot device), I get the following message along with the other standard messages: "Using RS232A Input" I also can't initially get the monitor's attention using (L1-a) without unplugging the keyboard and plugging it back in (honest, this works!). Does this mean that my 2/50 is jumpered to initially ignore the keyboard as a console? (Remember, this is a 2/50 desktop machine, not a floor model.) If so, does anyone know which jumper I can change to make things work "right" initially? In genereal, if anyone has a listing of the jumper on the 2/50's CPU board and what they mean, I'd really appreciate a copy. Thanks!!! Bill von Hagen (wvh@transarc.com) As always, in search of (cheap) 2/50 parts.... [ Have you looked at the EEPROM settings? Does a 2/50 have an eeprom? --ddm ] ------------------------------ End of Suns-at-Home Digest ******************************