[SunRescue] SPARCstation4/110

[James Lockwood]

On Fri, 25 Jun 1999, Chris Conn wrote:

> No, not the SUN4/110, the SPARCstation4; it has some sort of an upgrade
> chip or something.  In any case, on the CPU itself it says MICROSPARC
> II.  Sorry for the confusion.

Ok then...

The Sparc 4 is, indeed, a stripped down Sparc 5.  Performance should be
nearly identical to a 110MHz Sparc 5 with the possible exception of video
(the Sparc 4 came with a builtin TCX framebuffer on the motherboard).
Makes a pretty good desktop workstation with enough memory.  Not very
expandable, but that isn't a concern with most people.  Audio was an
extra-cost option, if your Sparc 4 doesn't have it then you can get the
audio card for $23 from MemoryX (http://www.memoryx.com).

It takes Sparc 4/5 DIMMs (8mb or 32mb) singly.  With 5 DIMM slots you are
limited to 160mb memory max.  MemoryX, Kingston and others sell memory,
expect to pay around $2-3/mb depending on warranty and source.

You can use any Sun type 4 or 5 (or 6, I suppose) mouse with it.  If the
pad is truly the only problem then you can order just the pad directly
from Sun for under $15, assuming you have a type 5 optical mouse.  Is the
mouse big and rectangular with three oval buttons (type 4) or rounded with
3 rectangular buttons (type 5)? 

Sun also sells the "Compact-1" optomechanical ("ball") mouse by itself.
Search on their online store pages if you can't find another source.

-James