[SunRescue] How FAST is a SUN IPC

[Dave McGuire]

On July 6, John F. Davis wrote:
> >     How fast or strong is a SUN IPC?
> 
> Probably about as fast as a 486DX266.

  They "feel" a bit faster than that to me.  But I think that's just
the multitasking ability of the hardware.  Sparcs tend to handle
load much more gracefully than Intel boxes, in general.

> > - a second Framebuffer card
> 
> Maybe that is the problem.  I don't think you can use two frame buffers in these
> cards at one time.  I tried the same thing using a LX.  Using the built-in frame
> buffer and an additional sbus version.  I could never get video out of the installed
> framebuffer when I had the additional one installed.  However, I don't claim to be
> an expert.  Maybe you could get that kind of setup working.  I never could.

  Nonono.  That's [also] what those sbus slots are for.  On a Sun with
sbus slots, you can fill _every one of them_ with framebuffers and
the ROM/OS/Xserver will Do The Right Thing.  It's designed to work
that way.  I've run every model of Sun that has sbus slots (except
Ultras, but they can do it too) multi-headed under either SunOS4 or
NetBSD/sparc.

  About your LX...what OS were you running?  If you still have that
other framebuffer handy, and assuming you still want to run multiple
heads, email me off-list and I'll help you get it working.


                   -Dave McGuire