Gentoo Forums
Gentoo Forums
Gentoo Forums
Quick Search: in
A cheap way to get into 64bit computing.
View unanswered posts
View posts from last 24 hours

 
Reply to topic    Gentoo Forums Forum Index Gentoo on Sparc
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
stonent
Veteran
Veteran


Joined: 07 Aug 2003
Posts: 1139
Location: Texas

PostPosted: Wed Dec 03, 2003 4:20 am    Post subject: A cheap way to get into 64bit computing. Reply with quote

I've seen quite a few Sun Ultra AXe boards with a 300MHz UltraSparc IIi CPU on Ebay for around $55 . They are very close in hardware to the Ultra5 but they are meant for OEM integration, so they fit into a normal ATX case and use PS/2 keyboards / mice. They also use IDE drives so it is cheap to add hardware to.

High Res pic of the board:

http://www.sun.com/smrc/photohtmls/ppmicroseaxe-4s.html

One interesting feature, 4 serial ports!

I'm picking one up for fooling with Gentoo Sparc and Solaris. It may be picky about memory so I picked up some Ultra AXe memory as well.

Manual:

http://www.sun.com/oem/products/manuals/AXe.pdf

EDIT: I had the Ultra AXi manual listed.. Oops.
_________________
Inspiron 4100 & Sun UltraAXe
Portage on Solaris|Dell Laptop Hacks
The way you feel about organized religion is the same way I feel about organized socialism.


Last edited by stonent on Sat Dec 06, 2003 2:40 am; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
verruckt
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 22 Sep 2003
Posts: 169
Location: missing Hörvelsingen...

PostPosted: Wed Dec 03, 2003 5:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I saw those, and am still thinking about getting one. But i just bought these two critters here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3060291239&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOAB:US:6
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3060291247&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOAB:US:6

And yes, if you saw on the page, that was 69 CENTS!! :D Of course shipping might cost me all of $30 for the two of them. :lol:

I just started a new job so need to get a few more checks before i can get some more stuff. But those AXe boards sound like a good deal. I havent been able to read too much on them. But they look promising for a project. :twisted:
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
NewBlackDak
Guru
Guru


Joined: 02 Nov 2003
Posts: 512
Location: Utah County, UT

PostPosted: Wed Dec 03, 2003 5:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

was looking at them myself. Might make for a CHEAP sparcbox. I've never seen one before, so I dunno who can vouch for stability.
_________________
Gentoo systems.
X2 4200+@2.6 - Athy
X2 3600+ - Myth
UltraSparc5 440 - sparcy
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
stonent
Veteran
Veteran


Joined: 07 Aug 2003
Posts: 1139
Location: Texas

PostPosted: Wed Dec 03, 2003 5:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well they are made by Sun Microelectronics for clone manufacturers. They come with right angle riser card so you can put a single pci card in parallel to the board and mount in a 1U enclosure. A web search on "Ultra AXe" turns up a lot of companies using them such as Aries Research. My SS5 clone is made by them... Basically an SS5 board in a SS1 style case.

I looked at those 2 tatung systems but didn't realize how cheap they were because I was looking for Cheap ultras. It appears the Tatung system has two NICs and an ISDN or 3 NICs, I can't tell.
_________________
Inspiron 4100 & Sun UltraAXe
Portage on Solaris|Dell Laptop Hacks
The way you feel about organized religion is the same way I feel about organized socialism.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
verruckt
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 22 Sep 2003
Posts: 169
Location: missing Hörvelsingen...

PostPosted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 1:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

stonent wrote:
I looked at those 2 tatung systems but didn't realize how cheap they were because I was looking for Cheap ultras. It appears the Tatung system has two NICs and an ISDN or 3 NICs, I can't tell.


I should have them in a few days. Ill show some pics once i get them sorted. :D
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
stonent
Veteran
Veteran


Joined: 07 Aug 2003
Posts: 1139
Location: Texas

PostPosted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 2:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sweet, I'm interested!
_________________
Inspiron 4100 & Sun UltraAXe
Portage on Solaris|Dell Laptop Hacks
The way you feel about organized religion is the same way I feel about organized socialism.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
bazik
Retired Dev
Retired Dev


Joined: 22 Jul 2002
Posts: 277
Location: Behind you.

PostPosted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 8:22 am    Post subject: Re: A cheap way to get into 64bit computing. Reply with quote

stonent wrote:
They also use IDE drives so it is cheap to add hardware to.


Sure? The ones I saw are scsi only. And who needs slow IDE? ;)
_________________
Gentoo Linux/Sparc Developer
http://dev.gentoo.org/~bazik/
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
stonent
Veteran
Veteran


Joined: 07 Aug 2003
Posts: 1139
Location: Texas

PostPosted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 4:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, some people drop in a NCR/SYMBIOS/LSI card in the low end Ultras. The U10 and U5 both use IDE drives in the default configuration.
_________________
Inspiron 4100 & Sun UltraAXe
Portage on Solaris|Dell Laptop Hacks
The way you feel about organized religion is the same way I feel about organized socialism.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
kalisphoenix
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 28 Sep 2003
Posts: 211
Location: Ohio

PostPosted: Fri Dec 05, 2003 8:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

eBay's pretty tight for that sort of thing. I picked up 3 SS-10's and 2 SS-20's for a paltry $15 + S&H, all of which are in great shape, have RAM and decent processors, etc. I saw a pretty cute Alpha on there, but I've overextended my holiday budget as it is ;-)

I'm interested about your experiences with the Ultras -- I know that the 10's I have are fairly slow dinosaurs, but they should be perfect for their intended purposes... I'm considering making some sort of low-tech workstations out of the 20's, and I'm using a couple Indigos as IRIX workstations... all the same, I haven't really had the chance to get under the hood, so to speak...

So basically, I hate to create such a horrid change of topic, but what are you guys intending to use them for?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
verruckt
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 22 Sep 2003
Posts: 169
Location: missing Hörvelsingen...

PostPosted: Sat Dec 06, 2003 10:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

kalisphoenix wrote:
So basically, I hate to create such a horrid change of topic, but what are you guys intending to use them for?


Well I think I started the OT thing with my 32 bit gloating...

I also have an Axil 320 (sparc 20 clone) and an Ultra 5. My ultra 5 is my primary workstation. These new Tatungs, and my Axil will become mail and dns i think. Maybe even a firewall. To be quite honest, i havent put alot of time into thinking exactly _what_ im going to do. :lol: My administration skills need to be worked on a bit, so I may set each one up and get some stuff going here at the house. May just even put one up for the kiddies, who knows. Get them on *nix young. :D
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
kalisphoenix
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 28 Sep 2003
Posts: 211
Location: Ohio

PostPosted: Sat Dec 06, 2003 11:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

verruckt wrote:
My administration skills need to be worked on a bit, so I may set each one up and get some stuff going here at the house. May just even put one up for the kiddies, who knows. Get them on *nix young. :D


Nice! These things certainly do seem to be built like tanks. My best friend started out at the age of 2-3 messing around with his dad's TI-99 ;-) I think he actually started programming at 8 or 9. That's one of the best things to do for a kid, I think, is get them accustomed to technology young...
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
bazik
Retired Dev
Retired Dev


Joined: 22 Jul 2002
Posts: 277
Location: Behind you.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 07, 2003 1:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

stonent wrote:
Well, some people drop in a NCR/SYMBIOS/LSI card in the low end Ultras. The U10 and U5 both use IDE drives in the default configuration.


I know :)

My Ultra5 is full SCSI. I used a Symbios Logic 22801 Dual Channel controller before and replaced it yesterday with a Adaptec 39160 Dual Channel (which I got really cheap).
_________________
Gentoo Linux/Sparc Developer
http://dev.gentoo.org/~bazik/
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
stonent
Veteran
Veteran


Joined: 07 Aug 2003
Posts: 1139
Location: Texas

PostPosted: Sun Dec 07, 2003 11:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just out of curiosity. Are you using Sun branded cards or generic ones. I just picked up a Diamond Fireport 40 card today for $6.99. It has a Symbios 53c875j chipset. My Ultra AXe sees the card and the drives attached to them from OBP but I can't seem to boot from them.

I'm guessing maybe a firmware issue on the card but, I figured if it can see the disks, it should be able to boot from them right?

Code:

UltraAXe(UltraSPARC-IIi 300MHz), PS/2 Keyboard
OpenBoot 3.14.1 ME , 256 MB memory installed, Serial #16280317.
Ethernet address 8:0:20:f8:6a:fd, Host ID: 80f86afd.



Initializing Memory   
Boot device: net  File and args:

ok probe-scsi-all
/pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@1
Target 3
  Unit 0   Disk     HP      C3725S          5153
Target 6
  Unit 0   Removable Read Only device    PIONEER DVD-ROM DVD-U02R1.06

ok show-disks
a) /pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@1/disk
b) /pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ide@3/cdrom
c) /pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ide@3/disk
d) /pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ebus@1/fdthree@14,3203f0
q) NO SELECTION
Enter Selection, q to quit: a
/pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@1/disk has been selected.
Type ^Y ( Control-Y ) to insert it in the command line.
e.g. ok nvalias mydev ^Y for creating devalias mydev for /pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@1/disk
ok show-devs
/SUNW,UltraSPARC-IIi@0,0
/pci@1f,0
/virtual-memory
/memory@0,10000000
/aliases
/options
/openprom
/chosen
/packages
/pci@1f,0/pci@1
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1
/pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@1
/pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@1/tape
/pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@1/disk
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ide@3
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/network@1,1
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ebus@1
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ide@3/cdrom
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ide@3/disk
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ebus@1/fdthree@14,3203f0
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ebus@1/i2c@14,600000
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ebus@1/SUNW,CS4231@14,200000
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ebus@1/SUNW,pll@14,504000
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ebus@1/auxio@14,726000
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ebus@1/beeper@14,300078
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ebus@1/watchdog@14,30002e
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ebus@1/power@14,724000
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ebus@1/ecpp@14,340278
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ebus@1/se@14,400000
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ebus@1/su@14,3602f8
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ebus@1/8042@14,300060
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ebus@1/su@14,3803f8
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ebus@1/flashprom@10,0
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ebus@1/eeprom@14,0
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ebus@1/i2c@14,600000/adc@0,9e
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ebus@1/i2c@14,600000/gpio@0,40
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ebus@1/8042@14,300060/kdmouse@1
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ebus@1/8042@14,300060/kb_ps2@0
/openprom/client-services
/packages/sun-keyboard
/packages/ps2-keyboard
/packages/SUNW,builtin-drivers
/packages/cdfs
/packages/ufs-file-system
/packages/disk-label
/packages/obp-tftp
/packages/deblocker
/packages/terminal-emulator

ok boot /pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@1/sd@6,0

Boot device: /pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@1/sd@6,0  File and args:

Can't open boot device

ok boot /pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@1/sd@6,0:d
Boot device: /pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@1/sd@6,0:d  File and args:

Can't open boot device

ok boot /pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@1/sd@6,0:c
Boot device: /pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@1/sd@6,0:c  File and args:

Can't open boot device

ok

_________________
Inspiron 4100 & Sun UltraAXe
Portage on Solaris|Dell Laptop Hacks
The way you feel about organized religion is the same way I feel about organized socialism.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
rocket169
n00b
n00b


Joined: 16 Mar 2003
Posts: 1
Location: California

PostPosted: Wed Dec 10, 2003 4:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

stonent wrote:
Just out of curiosity. Are you using Sun branded cards or generic ones. I just picked up a Diamond Fireport 40 card today for $6.99. It has a Symbios 53c875j chipset. My Ultra AXe sees the card and the drives attached to them from OBP but I can't seem to boot from them.

I'm guessing maybe a firmware issue on the card but, I figured if it can see the disks, it should be able to boot from them right?



Sounds like maybe the disk doesn't have a Sun disk label on it. Have you used this disk in a SPARC machine before?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
stonent
Veteran
Veteran


Joined: 07 Aug 2003
Posts: 1139
Location: Texas

PostPosted: Wed Dec 10, 2003 5:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The disk was a 2.1gb HP branded Seagate drive labeled as SUN2.1GB

Unfortunately, I found out, the card does not match the reference design close enough for the system to be able to boot from it. I also found that the Solaris driver can't initialize the card even though I added it to /etc/driver_aliases

I found a usenet post on it.
_________________
Inspiron 4100 & Sun UltraAXe
Portage on Solaris|Dell Laptop Hacks
The way you feel about organized religion is the same way I feel about organized socialism.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Gentoo Forums Forum Index Gentoo on Sparc All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum