[rescue] Sparcstation 20 - Dude, we're getting the band back together!

[Nadine Miller]

On Aug 26, 2009, at 9:33 AM, Sanford Barton wrote:

> Guys, I've been having a blast (sorta), refurbishing an old  
> Sparcstation 20.

Nice, old school system.
> 1.)  I'm taxing the SuperSparcs in such a way with the newer software
> that they will never be stable in this system.
> 2.)  I have a batch of bad processor modules.
> 3.)  The CG14 bits are being pushed beyond their limits with the
> SuperSparcs, especially now that it's not using much acceleration for
> 2D (speculation).  If so, why not the same behavior with the ROSS
> processors?  Perhaps they are not able to feed/stress the
> memory/graphics controller they way the SuperSparcs are?
> 4.)  Not a heat or component stress issue at all, but some sort of
> multitasking, OS, or cache/memory controller bug.
>
>
> Any ideas, experiences, hope, discouragement, anything??

I'd suggest testing headless.  E.g. Use a remote X session running  
your browser and try your lock-up trick.  This will at least narrow it  
down to OS bugs vs graphics sub-system.

If it is stable w/out the graphics, I'd grab Sun VTS (if possible--it  
requires a contract to download) and see what is in there for stress- 
testing the graphic subsystem.  Maybe you have something marginal in  
there?  Maybe try to track down a later HW rev of your graphics card?

Good luck--
=Nadine=