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stonent Veteran
Joined: 07 Aug 2003 Posts: 1139 Location: Texas
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Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2003 4:20 am Post subject: A cheap way to get into 64bit computing. |
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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 |
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verruckt Apprentice
Joined: 22 Sep 2003 Posts: 169 Location: missing Hörvelsingen...
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NewBlackDak Guru
Joined: 02 Nov 2003 Posts: 512 Location: Utah County, UT
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Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2003 5:48 am Post subject: |
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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 |
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stonent Veteran
Joined: 07 Aug 2003 Posts: 1139 Location: Texas
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Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2003 5:56 am Post subject: |
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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. |
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verruckt Apprentice
Joined: 22 Sep 2003 Posts: 169 Location: missing Hörvelsingen...
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Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 1:48 am Post subject: |
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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. |
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stonent Veteran
Joined: 07 Aug 2003 Posts: 1139 Location: Texas
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Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 2:23 am Post subject: |
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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. |
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bazik Retired Dev
Joined: 22 Jul 2002 Posts: 277 Location: Behind you.
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Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 8:22 am Post subject: Re: A cheap way to get into 64bit computing. |
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stonent wrote: | They also use IDE drives so it is cheap to add hardware to.
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Sure? The ones I saw are scsi only. And who needs slow IDE? _________________ Gentoo Linux/Sparc Developer
http://dev.gentoo.org/~bazik/ |
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stonent Veteran
Joined: 07 Aug 2003 Posts: 1139 Location: Texas
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Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 4:16 pm Post subject: |
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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. |
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kalisphoenix Apprentice
Joined: 28 Sep 2003 Posts: 211 Location: Ohio
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Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2003 8:14 am Post subject: |
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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? |
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verruckt Apprentice
Joined: 22 Sep 2003 Posts: 169 Location: missing Hörvelsingen...
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Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2003 10:58 pm Post subject: |
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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. 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. |
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kalisphoenix Apprentice
Joined: 28 Sep 2003 Posts: 211 Location: Ohio
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Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2003 11:36 pm Post subject: |
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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. |
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... |
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bazik Retired Dev
Joined: 22 Jul 2002 Posts: 277 Location: Behind you.
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Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2003 1:15 pm Post subject: |
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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/ |
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stonent Veteran
Joined: 07 Aug 2003 Posts: 1139 Location: Texas
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Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2003 11:43 pm Post subject: |
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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
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_________________ 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. |
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rocket169 n00b
Joined: 16 Mar 2003 Posts: 1 Location: California
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Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2003 4:38 am Post subject: |
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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?
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Sounds like maybe the disk doesn't have a Sun disk label on it. Have you used this disk in a SPARC machine before? |
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stonent Veteran
Joined: 07 Aug 2003 Posts: 1139 Location: Texas
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Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2003 5:17 am Post subject: |
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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. |
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