[Sunhelp] Newbie Tips

[Michael Radtke]

Just a quick clarification on the framebuffer issue.  Can I install a
different card that WILL drive the monitor I have, or are there
compatability issues with the MB?

Again, thank you

At 01:27 AM 7/3/99 -0700, you wrote:
>On Fri, 2 Jul 1999, Michael Radtke wrote:
>
>> 	The machine, which is a square pizza box chassis is labeled on the front
>> as a Sparc station 1.  The label on the bottom says it is model 147,
>> service code 4/60, part number 600-2461-02.  The date is listed as Jan,
>
>The first in the pizzabox SparcStation series, originally coming out in
>1989 and listing at $9k at the low end (I still have the promo poster up
>on my wall).  It's a 20MHz SPARC sun4c machine, still supported by the
>latest Solaris revs, but on the slow side.
>
>> 5th, 1990.  I opened up the box, and found 2 hard drives, a floppy, a
>> processor, and a Weitez chip.   The floppy has a number on it:
>> 0005180-8908029520 and another number on it 3701207-01.
>> 	The HD's don't concern me much at this point (I don't have anything to put
>> on them yet!), but the floppy does.  How can I tell if it's a 720k or 1.44
>> MB drive?  Also, all the memory slots are empty.  Is there supposed to be
>
>That's a 720k floppy, I believe (the 1.44 were 3701420).
>
>> some memory installed, or is there memory onboard elsewhere?  The MB has
>> the number 5011382061137 on it, if that helps. 
>
>There is no memory on the motherboard.  Memory is added in 4 sets of 4
>SIMMs (1mb or 4mb), 30-pin, parity, with 100ns or faster access time.  You
>can have a maximum of 64mb.
>
>> 	As far as the monitor is concerned, it is an HP, model A0288A.  I realize
>> that this may not be the ideal listserv to find out about the monitor, but
>> I guess it matters for the video card.
>
>No idea on this one.
>
>> 	So, given the above, I need to find:
>> 		1)  A CHEAP graphics card
>
>Expansion is done via sbus slots (the three long black connectors on the
>motherboard).  You can find cheap framebuffers these days (especially
>the old cg3 series) but none of them are set to drive a sync on green
>monitor if that is indeed what you have.
>
>> 		2)  Info on the type of floppy drive, mostly so I know how to install the
>> OS, (it will probably be NetBSD)
>
>If it is indeed a 720k floppy, you can use any normal 1.44mb PC floppy
>drive (but you will lose autoeject, of course).
>
>> 		3)  What to do about memory
>
>Grab some 1mb SIMMs if you can, they should be either free or very close
>to it by this point.  Most PC memory from the 386 and early 486 days will
>work.
>
>-James
>
>
>
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Michael Radtke
mradtke at nwu.edu