[rescue] The onyx godness

[James Lockwood]

On Fri, 10 Jan 2003, Jeffrey J.Nonken wrote:

> I can't speak for anybody else, but I've got a bunch of PC stuff and two
> SS20s. It would be nice to add the two Sun boxen to the stack without having
> to try to fit two more keyboards and mice into my work area, but all I've got
> is a Belkin PS/2 KVM and a limited budget. (And I can't really run the SPARCs
> anywhere else, unless I go remote, because I have exactly one monitor in the
> house that will support them.)

Serial consoles.  X over ethernet if you need graphics.  Total cost: maybe
$5 for two cables if you don't have them already.

What's the point of a graphics head?  The video output you get out of the
SS20s will probably be inferior in resolution/bpp/speed to what you have
on a semi-modern PC, you'd probably actually see a speed improvement by
sending X over the network to a fast X server system for any activity
other than pure bitblitting.

I've built some cute little adapters that use the extra 2 pairs in 4 pair
UTP for a serial link, this lets you run both network and console over a
single cable to your host.  Great for simplifying cable snarls and when
you want to physically mount a machine a distance away.  I think at least
one vendor is offering something like this commercially with a combo
terminal server and 100baseT switch.

-James