[SunRescue] Sun 2 Question

[Michael Thompson]

>From: jwbirdsa at picarefy.picarefy.com
>To: rescue at sunhelp.org
>Subject: Re: [SunRescue] Sun 2 Question
>Reply-To: rescue at sunhelp.org
>
>   The 2/50 and 2/120 are the most common units. The 2/170 (large rackmount
>Multibus) was rare to begin with, and the larger VME units (2/130, 2/160)
>were virtually all upgraded to Sun-3's. Of course, you can always create
>your own by getting a 2/50 and sticking it in a larger VME cage.
>
>   Advantages of Multibus units (i.e. the 2/120): um...
>
>   Advantages of VME units (i.e. the 2/50): if your doesn't have SCSI, you
>can probably find a Sun-2 VME SCSI card to use with it one way or another.
>There are other VME cards that will work with it too, such as the cgtwo
>and the xy451.
>
>   Disadvantages of the Multibus units: whatever parts you have are
>probably the only ones you'll ever see at this point.
>
>   Disadvantages of the VME units: um...
>
>   As much as I like my 2/120's and want to get them back online, for
>somebody new to Sun-2's the VME units have an overwhelming advantage in
>that you can still find people with piles of potentially useful VME boards
>who are willing to part with them.
>
>   --James B.

The XY-450 and XY-451 SMD boards that are used in the VME systems are
actually Multibus boards in a VME adapter. I just took a XY-450 out of a
VME system and put it in my 2/120. The second Ethernet boards for VME
systems are also Multibus boards and will work in the 2/120.

The 2/50 and 2/100 CPUs are identical, except for the metal front panel.

Parts are a little difficult to find. I bought a Sun-2 color frame buffer
and an Ethernet board through E-bay about a year ago. I haven't seen
anything since.

The original Sun-2 machines used TTL monochrome monitors if you had a frame
buffer. Sun-3 systems use ECL monitors and will not work very well on a TTL
frame buffer. The newer Sun-2 systems had monochrome frame buffers that
were selectable between TTL and ECL. I have a broken TTL/ECL frame buffer
that hopefully I can fix.

My 2/120 has two 80 MB ESDI disks on a ESDI/SCSI adapter, a 130 MB 10"
Fujitsu SMD disk on a XY-450 controler, a monochrome frame buffer, 5 MB
RAM, and a non functional 20 MB Archive 1/4" tape drive. I have a 2/50
running as a diskless client.

I managed to install SunOS and the upgrade by net-booting the 2/120 from my
3/470 and using the QIC tape drive on the 3/470. This procedure was not
supported by Sun. I can write up the procedure if anyone is interested.


Michael Thompson
m_thompson at ids.net