[SunHELP] SPARC Server 20...

[Michael Vang]

Throwing logic and sanity to the wind, I went ahead and bought it...

It only has 64MB of memory, but fortunately U1/2-type memory has dropped
to a fairly reasonable price...

I just got done putting Solaris 8 on it and it is pretty zippy
considering how old it is... The DOM is 08/11/97...

As soon as I put another 64MB into it we'll see how well Solaris 9 runs
on it...

I swear this thing has to weigh close to 200 pounds... I never imagined
that a computer could be built so well... This thing makes both my U5
and X1 look like toys... My favorite part are the sleds for the hard
drives... I've never seen something like that in person before... I must
have removed and replaced them at least a dozen times...

The first thing I did when I got it home was to take it completely
apart... Thankfully, docs.sun.com still has a service manual for it...

I'm going to put this one online to replace the Netra X1 that formerly
acted as the "Free Unix Shell Server"... If you want to take advantage
of this, visit here:

http://www.teamprimerib.com/freeshell.html

At the bottom of that page is a link to a forum thread all about the
service:

http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=tpc&s=50009562&f=9650913
3&m=3100907092&r=8090943192

>Okay, so you know...  The existing processors in that 20 will probably
>run rings around the dual 100Mhz Ross boards.  The SuperSparc II
>processors are worth about twice (Mhz wise) what the Ross HyperSparc
>modules are.  So, quad processors may have more geek points, but you'd
>be better off with the Processors (which are SM71s).

I've been looking all over the Internet today trying to figure this
out... The only guess I can hazard is maybe the difference in cache
makes 2x75MHZ faster than 4x100MHZ... Can someone point me to some
documentation for this?

I'm also curious what the original price for this box might have been...
The part number is 600-4136-02...

Finally, it had pre-installed software called "Jumpstart 2.3" installed
on it... How exactly is this software supposed to work? I overwrote
whatever was there when I installed Solaris 8, but I'm still curious...

Thanks!