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

From: Jochen Kunz <jkunz_at_unixag-kl.fh-kl.de>
Date: Wed Jun 4 16:32:00 2003

On 2003.06.04 20:50 Ethan Dicks wrote:

> Oh... I was thinking that the 4/6xx was a straight sun4,
It is more or less a SS10 in 9U VME form factor. (Or the SS10 is a 4/6xx
in a pizza case without VME adapter.)

> (as an aside, I've been attempting to surf lately on a Classic
> with Netscape 4.7... one word comes to mind... Ow!)
Ewwww. A Clasic might be the slowest sun4m machine ever build. AFAIK it
is comparable in "slowness" to a IPX. Hmmm, sun.hardware.FAQ.txt:
    SPARCclassic (SPARCclassic Server)(SPARCstation LC) (4/15)
        Processor(s): microSPARC _at_ 50MHz, 59.1 MIPS, 4.6 MFLOPS,
                        26.4 SPECint92, 21.0 SPECfp92,
                        626 SPECintRate92, 498 SPECfpRate92

    SPARCstation IPX (4/50)
        Processor(s): Fujitsu MB86903 or Weitek W8701 _at_ 40MHz, FPU on
                        CPU chip, Sun-4c MMU, 8 hardware contexts,
                        28.5 MIPS, 4.2 MFLOPS, 21.8 SPECint92,
                        21.5 SPECfp92, 517 SPECintRate92, 510
                        SPECfpRate92


> I looked at putting a large VME CPU in a 3/60 case... isn't there an
> issue with power distribution -
Yes. The 3/60 case doesn't deliver -12 V. The 4/6xx CPU needs -12 V at a
few mA only for the serial lines. It will run with a framebuffer, but
you can't use the serial lines. I solved this problem with a simple
charge pump voltage inverter that generates about -10 V from +12 V that
I mounted in the 3/60 PSU. I have a shematic in PS somewhere.

> 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!
Well, as long as you don't need 30 A (smal config, peak 130 A at power
on) three phase 400 V power for a single computer... (I know someone
with a machine like that.)
-- 
tsch??,
       Jochen
Homepage: http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/
Received on Wed Jun 04 2003 - 16:32:00 BST

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