[SunRescue] OPUS Systems SPARC-like PC-thingy

[Pullig, Bruce A.]

Have you got any pictures?  I'd like to see it.

Bruce Pullig
UNIX/NetWare Support
CSC Midland, Texas 
(915) 686-5517
ETN: 644-5517
bruce.a.pullig at usa.conoco.com
bpullig at csc.com

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Matthew Haas [SMTP:wedge at onlineimage.com]
> Sent:	Wednesday, June 21, 2000 10:14 AM
> To:	SunRescue List
> Subject:	[SunRescue] OPUS Systems SPARC-like PC-thingy
> 
> Good morning,
> 
>  I've come across a rather unique item in my PC encounters... because of
> my love and appreciation for Sun and the SPARC platform, I recognized this
> and saved it from inevitable doom (being used for scrap metal). The more I
> look at it and muse about what it could be, the more I get ideas on what
> I'd like to do with it... but a few big questions remain in my way, and
> I'm hoping that someone on this list has at least come in contact with
> such a thing, or knows where I could find out more about it.
> 
>  The device is actually an assemblage of 3 cards... stacked double (as far
> as PC terms go)-- one plugs this thing in a PC motherboard... the top-most
> card has a 16-bit ISA connector, bottommost has an 8-bit ISA connector.
> The third card is dangling off the back of the bottommost card, connected
> by a series of SBUS connectors, which form the connection between the
> whole thing.
> 
>  The top-most card (with 16-bit ISA) is hosting a lot of the motherboard
> features of a SPARC:
> 
>  QuickLogic pASIC QL12x16-OPL84C   (integrated circuit)
>  STP2001QFP NCR 89C105          (integrated circuit with a Sun logo on it)
>  NVRAM with a label of:
> 
>       132037
>       Hostid 800203c5
>       Ether 00:80:f1:02:03:c5
> 
>  PROM with a label of:
>  
>       LX-II 2.15a
>       (c)1994 Sun Micro
> 
>  An SBUS connector suitable for an add-on SBUS card.
> 
>  On the outside edge of this card (facing out the back of the PC) are a
> UTP connector, SCSI-2, and minidin-8
> 
>  The card has header pins for an AUI (in addition to the UTP), as well as
> the usual Parallel, internal SCSI, and floppy connectors.
> 
>  What I thought was a little cool was the designation for the minidin
> port... there are 5 groups of headers on this board, labelled:
> 
>   TTYB   AUDIO   MINI-DIN   KB/MS   TTYA
> 
>  There is a header cable, connecting from MINI-DIN to KB/MS, indicating
> that in whatever configuration this device was last used, a Sun-compatible
> keyboard was used on the Mini-Din-8 port.
> 
>  There is also a 3-pin jumper labelled "PC" and "SA"... it was set to
> "PC"... which I'd gather to mean PC, and "SA" perhaps SPARC
> Architecture... but that's just a guess.
> 
>  There are some red indicator LEDs at the top of the board.. one perhaps
> indicating power (as in the external of a SPARC case) and then 4
> indicating diagnostic LEDs. (labelled AT, SLOT, SCSI, and ENET).
> 
>  There's a selectable dip switch labelled I/O Addr.
> 
>  Company markings include:
> 
>  OPUS I70
>  COPYRIGHT (c) OPUS 1994
>  SBI PART 02000163
> 
>  That is by far the busiest card... the bottom-most card has the video,
> containing an IC with "Bt" on it, like the one's I've seen on CGSixes and
> the like. There are two VGA plugs.. one labelled "VGA IN" and "OUT"
> 
>  Company markings include:
> 
>  303-0037-001 REV A
>  OPUS SYSTEMS 1992
> 
>  The other card contains the CPU and memory modules... 8 72-pin SIMM
> slots, segmented off in pairs, and I got it with pairs of SIMMs in the
> first and third banks.
> 
>  It has what appears to be a SPARC CPU with a mounted circular heatsink
> (similar to the SPARC 10 type?) as well as a fan next to it, which also
> seems Sun-issue to me.
> 
>  Company markings include:
> 
>  303-00043-003 REV A
>  REV A (checked with an X) SN "PA-132039" (hand-written)
> 
>  And what I believe to be the OPUS logo (circle with 8 pie shaped wedges)
> appear in various places on all the boards.
> 
>  This came out of a Pentium (or PPro)-based DELL or NEC desktop server. I
> do not know anything else about it. 
> 
>  What I'd like to do, is take my trusty ol' 486 and run 2 PCs in one :)
> (PC running Linux/i386, and the SPARC-card running something else...
> perhaps NetBSD or OpenBSD, if the hardware is similar enough, otherwise
> the SunOS or Solaris it was designed for). But that's just what I'd like
> to do with it, I don't know if it can actually be done.
> 
>  So, if anyone has any idea of what this thing is, how to set it up and
> use it, I'd greatly appreciate it. I've tried it in a PC... when I set it
> for "SA" I seem to get the most activity, on "PC" it seems not to do
> anything... I didn't have a decent monitor to get any confirmed results,
> though.
> 
>  Thanks, and sorry for being so long...
> 
>   ----|||-------------------------------------------------------------   
>  -    |||       Atari 8-bit!  Star Wars * SPARCbook 3GX * SUMMER!!    -
> -     |||      400/800/XL/XE  Battlestar: Galactica * SPARC * Linux    -
> - |  | | |  | 2600/5200/7800  StarRaiders * StarTrek * Galaga * SCSI   -
>  - ||  |  ||     Lynx/Jaguar  NetBSD 1.4.2 * Descent * Voltron * UNIX -
>   --------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
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