[rescue] Crashing the Used UltraSPARC Market

[Steve Hatle]

Jonathan,

I'll put my hand up if machines are available after you (rightfully) fulfill
any to the maintainers of the *BSD's or other good causes.

An SS20 or U1 is not of much interest, but a U2 or better or CycleQuad would
be awesome. No disk is not a problem.

I'd be happy to pay for shipping, though I think I might have a tab open
from the VAX 4000. I don't recall seeing a Paypal come in to cover the $35
or so that the shipping there cost. :-) Seriously, I'd pay to cover
shipping.

So- consider better homes first, but if things are left over after that, let
me know.

Thanks,

Steve




On 9/6/05 1:27 PM, "Jonathan C. Patschke" <jp at celestrion.net> wrote:

> My employer is getting ready to get rid of (ie: give away, recycle,
> dump, whatever) a large amount of Sun equipment.  The systems range from
> the pedestrian Ultra 1E, Ultra 2, and SPARCstation 20 to the
> industrial-looking and nearly indestructable Tatung clones thereof to
> the exotic Cyclequad and Cycle-UP 520.  My employer has put me in charge
> of getting rid of the extras, and I really don't want to see any of
> these machines go to the dump.
> 
> We're moving in late November, and don't want to take anything we're not
> using.  This is just a heads-up so that you folks can spread the word to
> anyone whom you think might be interested.  I'll have a full inventory
> soon.
> 
> In my mind, I'd most like to see these systems go to any BSD or Linux
> (or other free OS or free software) maintainer who would benefit from
> SMP-capable UltraSPARC hardware[0], or possibly to a school or other
> nonprofit that would benefit from them.  However, my understanding is
> that these machines are fully depreciated, so, really, $WORK would be
> happy that they went to anyone.
> 
> A cursory check shows these systems to mostly be fully-equipped with at
> least two processors per (where applicable), healthy amounts of memory,
> and smallish disks[1].  These machines were EDA and CAD workstations, so
> most of them have Creator3D graphics, as well.
> 
> In my rough estimation (again, I'll have a better idea once I get a full
> inventory of everything), there are about 40 machines that will need to
> find homes.  So, don't be shy.
> 
> If you want one (or more), you'll need to either pick your systems up
> from my house in Elgin, or I'll deliver anywhere in Austin[2], or you'll
> need to pay me[3] shipping and packaging.  I will consider shipping
> systems for free to bona fide maintainers of free operating system
> projects, but I obviously cannot afford to foot the bill for everyone.
> 
> 
> 
> [0] I'd LOVE to have SMP support on OpenBSD and NetBSD, for example, so
>      I will make an attempt to contact those maintainers personally.  I
>      have no idea whose tree to shake for Linux on UltraSPARC.  If you
>      know someone working on Linux or a similar project on UltraSPARC,
>      please forward this message to him or her.
> [1] Disks I cannot promise.  I'm going to attempt to get the okay to
>      hand out machines with disks that I've wiped and certified, but I do
>      work for a semiconductor design firm, so there may be well-justified
>      paranoia about disks in machines that were used in the design
>      process.
> [2] Or possible elsewhere in Texas, for a small bribe.  If you're within
>      an hour or so of Austin, it's more of a PITA for me to ship than
>      deliver.
> [3] In advance.  I've gotten jerked around on shipping charges far too
>      often on freebies.