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

der Mouse mouse at Rodents-Montreal.ORG
Sat Sep 5 21:04:26 CDT 2009


>> Sparcstation 20.

> Maybe try to track down a later HW rev of your graphics card?

The message said cg14, so this isn't really very possible.  There is no
graphics card as such; much of the cg14 is on the motherboard - and
what isn't is physically conflated with the VSIMM and I would guess
doesn't have all that many revs.  (Of course, I could well be wrong,
especially about the "I would guess...".)

My guess would be 2 (bad processors) or 4 (software issues, eg with
cache).  I've had cache issues with the SS20 myself; I have pseudo-disk
drivers for NetBSD that simply don't work on the 20 unless I add code
to "manually" force everything out of the cache at critical points.
Yes, this indicates bugs somewhere - but the same code "works fine" on
other sparc32s, so it indicates that the SS20 is relatively demanding
in regard of caches and such.  And as for the Ross difference, I've
seen it said that the Ross processors have tiny caches but more muscle;
if true, perhaps the same underlying problem exists but everything is
being pushed out of the cache before the trouble has a chance to
manifest?

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