|
|
|
|
|
Sparcstation 1The SPARCstation 1 (or Sparc 4/60. Sun4c architecture) is a SPARC-based SunOS computer sold by Sun Microsystems from April 1989 (end of Sun support was 1995). A workstation, the computer was designed for ease of production with heavy integration in a distinctive slim enclosure (a square 3 inch high "pizza box"). It was designed to compete in the market with high-end PCs or Macs and sold for between $8,995 (no hard disks) and around $20,000. In the first year around 35,000 units were sold. The computer was based around a LSI Logic RISC CPU running at 20 MHz, with a Weitek 3167 (or 3170) FPU coprocessor, it was the second Sun computer to use SPARC architecture. The system could support a maximum of 64 MB of RAM (shipped with 8 MB) and came with either one or two 104 MB SCSI-2 hard disks and a single 1.44 Mb or 720 KB floppy drive. The motherboard offered three SBus slots and had built-in AUI ethernet and 8 kHz audio. The basic display ran at 1152x900 in 256 colours, monitors were 16 to 19 inch greyscale or colour. Memory The sparcstation 1 takes 30 pin simms in groups of four It can take either 1Mb or 4Mb simms as long as the size is consistent in a bank. There are a total of four memory banks. which can give a total of 64Mb of memory. The memory bank nearest the floppy disk drive should be filled first. If not, the Openboot bios will Hang while memory checking. Note that the first simm in each bank (The one nearest the disk drives) is the one probed for the size of the bank. So if you dont have 4 of one type of Simm (And these things are starting to get rare), it is possible to put your simms in the bank as long as the 1Mb simm is first in the bank (Although if you do this, the bank will be detected as a bank of 1Mb simms). If you put the 4Mb simm first, the memory check will fail. Although this has been demonstrated experimentally to work, is not recommended. Disk drives The sparcstation 1 has space for up to two hard drives and one floppy drive internally. The machine will take any 50 pin SCSI hard drive, but the Openboot bios will not boot from any partition which starts or ends after 1024Mb. the floppy drive is unusual in that it has an electromechanical eject mechanism rather than the conventional eject button, and therefore must be ejected by the operating system or Openboot. The machine can connect to any SCSI CD drive, via either the SCSI connector on the back or by connecting it to any spare internal SCSI connector via a 50 pin cable. (Note, you cannot mount the CD drive internally however). It is conventional to set the CD drive to ID #6 for SUN machines. Note, that unless you can set the CD drive to output 512 byte sectors (An option on early CD drives, but not on the more modern ones) you will be unable to boot from it. NVRAM The Sparcstation 1 uses a M48T02 Battery backed up RTC with RAM chip. Basically this handles the real time clock and the bios parameter storage. The only problem with this chip is that the battery is Internal. This means you have to replace the whole chip when it runs out. As Sparcstation 1's are now older than the battery lives of the chip, a substantial number these boxes will now refuse to boot. You can tell if this is the case from the message Ethernet address ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff, Host ID ffffffff Invalid format type in NVRAM The IDPROM contents are invalid Fortunately its easy to fix these, you can buy the chips And then reprogram them from the SUN NVRAM/Hostid FAQ, or even drill the battery out and solder a conventional battery holder to the resultant leads. Operating systems The Sparcstation 1, 1+, IPC and SLC can take the following Operating systems: SunOS 4.0.3 through 5.7 Linux (Although modern versions may have trouble with the limited amount of memory in these machines) NetBSD - All versions OpenBSD - All versions. Related computers The SPARCstation 1+ (4/65) pushed the CPU to a 25 MHZ LSI L64801, upgraded the coprocessor to a Weitek 3172 and installed a new SCSI controller. The SPARCstation IPC is a version of the SPARCstation 1+ in a lunchbox style case and onboard video. The SPARCstation SLC is a version of the SPARCstation 1+ built into a monitor cabinet. The SPARCstation 2 is the machine's successor and was released in 1990. External links
|
 |
|
| Copyright 2005-2009 OnPedia.com. All Rights Reserved |
|
|