Just a few words about my Sparc-collection, for the curious
amongst you… ;-)
Currently, I own:
- SPARCstation IPX (2x)
- At the moment, they're not doing anything - and both need a new
NVRAM… One makes a nice monitor stand, though… ;-)
I actually wrote my final thesis on one of
those! Lunchbox SPARCS are just sooo cute! ;-) Maybe, one
day, I take the time to dust one of these off and install some
version of SunOS on it - for old times' sake…
- Solair WS19L ("detritus")
- Well, that's what it says on the case… It is a
SPARCstation 10 clone - so I got one after all… I actually decided
against getting one when I got the SS20, but I got the SS10
together with the Solair Classic+ for free - and couldn't resist.
It has successfully refused to have Aurora Sparc Linux 2.0
installed on it, so I ended up installing OpenBSD, which works
like a charm. This machine now does duty as a scanner server.
- SPARCstation 20 ("verence")
- It has two SM71 CPUs and a 8MB VSIMM. I use it to experiment
with Aurora Sparc Linux.
- Ultra 10/400 ("lancre") and Ultra 10/440
- One of those is my firewall/webserver/fileserver, while the
other one plays back-up machine - every half year (i.e. when the
next OpenBSD version arrives) those two swap. Both have SCSI cards
and a second ethernet connection. The 400MHz CPU in the first of
the two is non-standard, by the way - it came from a U5/400 which
I once owned.
- Tatung COMPstation U10 ("shawn")
- Another U10 - well, sort of. Based on the AXi board, this
machine is a lot more interesting than an actual U10 - it's a
"U10 done right[tm]"… Mine has a Creator 3D Series 3 and a
440MHz UltraSPARC IIi CPU. It's one of my main Aurora
machines.
- Solair Ultra 2 ("agnes")
- Another clone. It's virtually identical to a 'real' U2 -
only the case is different. This one came with two 360MHz
UltraSPARC II CPUs, which I found interesting, as these CPUs
are not officially supported in Sun's U2. Works flawlessly,
though, making it my second main Aurora box. This one has a
Creator frame buffer as well - and a Sun Video card, which is
why it will become a dual boot machine (with Solaris 10) at
some point.
- Ultra 60 ("lu-tze"/"gytha")
- The crown of my personal SPARC collection, with two 450MHz
UltraSPARC II CPUs, two Creator 3D Series 3 frame buffers a
SunPCI card and a bunch of RAM. Even though any of my PCs still
has more grunt than this baby, I use it quite often. It runs
Aurora 1.92 and Solaris 10.
I have owned in the past:
- SPARCstation 2
- SPARCclassic
- Solair DTKstation/Classic+
- SPARCstation LX
- SPARCstation 4/110
- SPARCstation 5/85 (this was actually a Sparc 5 upgrade board
in the case of a SPARCstation 2)
- SPARCstation 5/170 (2x)
- Ultra 1
- Ultra 5 (360 and 400)
I'd have loved to keep them all, but unfortunately, neither
space nor money allow this…