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 ("agnes")
- 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 a 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 has done duty as a scanner server until
the hard drive failed and is now waiting for a new job.
- SPARCstation 20
- It has two SM71 CPUs and a 8MB VSIMM. I used it to experiment
with Aurora Sparc Linux, however, unfortunately Sparc Linux does
not support SMP under kernel 2.6.x. Hence, this machine is waiting
for a new purpose - probably some "retro" Solaris or SunOS
installation just for the fun of it.
- Ultra 10/440 ("tiffany") and Ultra 10/333
- These machines were taking turns at doing duty as
firewall/webserver/fileserver but got now replaced by a dual
PIII/550 - more performance and less energy consumption…
The U10/440 now got a Creator 3D Series 3 card and is now used as
an experimental machine (currently trying Ubuntu 9.04 Sparc),
whereas the U10/333 is for sale now.
- 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. It was down for a while due to a dead NVRAM, but this got
solved permanently using a soldring iron… I will post some
information about this - hopefully - at some point, but for now, the
gist of it is that the procedure shown in Fixing your Sun
NVRAM not only applies to the M48T02 NVRAM used in older Suns,
but also to the M48T59Y that is used in e.g. U5/U10/AXi.
- 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 ("gytha")
- The "crown" of my personal SPARC collection (as the newer machines
are still unaffordable for me at the moment), with two 450MHz
UltraSPARC II CPUs, two Creator 3D Series 3 frame buffers a
SunPCI card and a bunch of RAM. This is my main Solaris box.
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…