[rescue] Wanted: SparcClassic SIMMS (2x 16MB)

Sheldon T. Hall shel at artell.net
Wed Nov 19 08:07:10 CST 2008


Kurt Nowak writes ...
> Curtis H. Wilbar Jr. wrote:
> > Sheldon T. Hall wrote:
> >> Ahem ...
> >> I wrote ...
> >>> Quoth Kurt Nowak ...
> >>>
> >>>> Does anyone have a matching pair of 16MB simms for my trusty
> >>>> SparcClassic/OpenBSD firewall/router... I got an NMI panic
> >>> last night
> >>>> and discovered I fried one of them.... The Sun P/N is 501-2059-01
> >>> I don't have any here, but I can tell you that the
> Classic will use
> >>> ordinary
> >>> PC SIMMs; 72-pin, 70 ns, FPM, real-parity (39 bit)
> >>
> >> 39? Thirty-nine? Nay, forsooth, a tyop! I meant 36. Thirty-six.
> >
> > Didn't the Classic and LX use 33 bit SIMMs ? I'm sure a 36
> > bit one will work... but the ones from Sun were 33 bit, weren't
> > they ?

I don't honestly know about the original Sun SIMMs, but I've been using PC
SIMMs (72-pin, 70 ns, FPM, 36-BIT real-parity) in Classics and LXes for some
years.

> Not according to my SSClassic/LX manual, which reads:
>
> "The maximum memory configuration is 96 megabytes using six
> 16-megabyte DSIMMs.

Yeah, the manual says that, but it's wrong.  If you put 32-meggers in the
first bank, and 16-meggers in the other two banks, you get 128 megs.  I had
a Classic running like that for 4 or 5 years, 24/7, using PC SIMMs, and it
never complained.  I didn't invent this, it was a fairly well-known hack
back in the day.

> You can combine different types of DSIMMs in the same system;
> however,
> you must add DSIMMs in identical pairs. That is, you can add
> a pair of 4-megabyte
> DSIMMs or a pair of 16-megabyte DSIMMs, but you cant add a
> single DSIMM or add one of each type."

As far as I know, that part's correct, but I haven't tried anything like
that.  I will tell you that you have to fill from bank 0 forward, though, or
you get some really scarey error messages that are completely unindicative
of the real problem.

-Shel



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