Hacking on a Sun 4/6xx (was Re: New to list...)

From: Ethan Dicks <erd_6502_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Wed Jun 4 13:55:00 2003

--- Jochen Kunz <jkunz_at_unixag-kl.fh-kl.de> wrote:
> The Sun 4/6xx is sun4m and that is newer then sun4c. In fact, the 4/6xx
> was the very first sun4m machine.

Oh... I was thinking that the 4/6xx was a straight sun4, not sun4m
or sun4d, etc. I do know the difference in the desktop line - my
present home server is a SPARC5/110 (sun4m) that replaced a SPARCclassic
and a SPARC-LX that preceeded it (as an aside, I've been attempting to
surf lately on a Classic with Netscape 4.7... one word comes to mind...
Ow!)

> BTW: You can patch Solaris 8 (and 9?) and get it on the 4/6xx. A friend
> did this with a 4/6xx board in a 3/60 case. But NetBSD would be a very
> good choice, especially if there isn't enough RAM...

I do recall there being a patch for a later version of Solaris (wasn't
sure if it was 7 or 8), because all they did was to test the processor
type early on and halt if it was a VME cage. Sun threatened to remove
driver support for VME devices, but I don't know if the ever followed
through with it.

I looked at putting a large VME CPU in a 3/60 case... isn't there an
issue with power distribution - i.e. the 4/6xx CPU depends on being
in a real VME cage to get all the power pins lit up, and the 3/60
case only has one live connector. I think the 3/110 was the smallest
chassis I heard of used to hold an unmodified 4/6xx CPU board.
 
> > I can understand that. This stuff wasn't exactly designed for home
> > use.
> I.e.: It makes a lot of fun. :-)

Naturally. I wouldn't have several 42" racks of DEC equipment in my
basement (plus many 72" racks elsewhere) if I didn't think big stuff
was fun!

-ethan
Received on Wed Jun 04 2003 - 13:55:00 BST