Part 2
FAQ
ROM Monitors
------------
Sun-2's sported a rather primitive monitor; with each succeeding
model line, it has become more powerful. In all models, the machine
enters the ROM monitor upon power up. The monitor tries to boot from a
default device, which may be determined by a simple priority-ordered
search for boot devices (Sun-2) or by EEPROM settings (Sun-3 and later).
If it cannot find a boot device or the boot device is offline, it enters
command-line mode. Command-line mode may be manually invoked at any
time, including while the OS is running, by holding down L1 and then
pressing A on a Sun console, or sending BREAK if you are using a
terminal as the console. On all models, the "c" (continue) command
resumes execution at the point where the monitor was entered, so you can
recover from accidentally halting the OS. Note that if you are using a
terminal as the console, turning it off or disconnecting it is usually
interpreted as BREAK and halts the machine.
Note that the ROM monitor in a machine may or may not know about any
particular color framebuffer, depending on the revision of the ROM and
the age of the framebuffer standard. If the ROM does not know how to
detect and display on the particular color framebuffer you have
installed, it will be unable to display the normal ROM boot messages.
This does not affect OS support for the framebuffer; if you are willing
to boot blind, SunOS should find the framebuffer and start displaying on
it normally. The alternative is to get a more recent ROM or a different
framebuffer.
SUN-1
No information. The 100U used a Sun-2 CPU (the same one used in early
2/120 units), so it had a Sun-2 ROM monitor.
SUN-2
The ROM monitor in at least the 2/120 and 2/170 (and probably all
other Sun-2 models) is capable of booting and performing some memory and
register operations, but not much more. There is no online help or
diagnostics.
The boot command is of the form "b dd(x,y,z) args" where "dd" is a
device string, "x" is the controller number, "y" is the unit number (?),
"z" is the partition number, and "args" are optional arguments to the
kernel. "dd" may be sd (SCSI disk), st (SCSI tape), xy (Xylogics SMD
controller), ie (Sun Ethernet board), or ec (3Com Ethernet board), and
probably others (mt?). For example, to boot from the first partition on
the first SCSI disk on the first SCSI controller (a common
configuration), the command would be "b sd(0,0,0)". To boot from the
first partition on the second SMD disk on the first SMD controller (a
configuration I have), the command would be "b xy(0,1,0)". To boot from
the fourth file on the first SCSI tape drive on the first SCSI
controller (booting from the n'th file may be required during OS
installation), the command would be "b st(0,0,3)".
Note that the ROM monitor makes certain assumptions about SCSI IDs --
the tape drive is actually at SCSI ID 4, but is referred to as tape unit
0. By default ("b"), the ROM monitor tries to boot from (0,0,0) on the
highest-priority bootable device that it can find in the machine's
slots; the priority order is xy, sd, and ie/ec (don't know which has
priority over the other). It never boots from tape by default. There may
be other bootable devices, but I have never seen them.
Also note that for at least some versions of SunOS, "args" is not
actually passed to the kernel. The "b" command reads a tiny bootstrap
from the indicated device. The bootstrap then automatically continues
the boot from the same device, ignoring "args". The only way I have
found to actually pass arguments such as the single-user flag (-s) to
the kernel is to use the bootstrap program on the OS tapes, which gives
a prompt rather than continuing automatically. At that prompt, entering
the device information followed by the arguments (e.g. "xy(0,1,0) -s")
will actually get the arguments passed to the kernel.
SUN-3
The Sun-3 ROM monitor is much more sophisticated. Entering "?" will
produce a list of commands with brief explanations and syntax. The ROM
contains diagnostics sufficient for a preliminary checkout of a machine
for which you do not have a boot device. Syntax of the boot command is
largely the same as for Sun-2's, with a few differences: the default
boot device is determined by the EEPROM settings rather than a hardware
search; on machines with a Lance Ethernet chip rather than Intel, the
Ethernet device is le rather than ie; and "args" is passed to the kernel
correctly.
SUN-386i
No information.
SUN-4
The Sun-4 ROM monitor is vastly more sophisticated than even the
Sun-3 version. It has two different command-line modes. The old mode, in
the style of earlier monitors, can do exactly three things: boot (using
the old-style syntax), continue execution, or switch to new command-line
mode.
New mode uses "ok" for a prompt. Help may be obtained by typing
"help". It has a built-in command-line editor. You can boot either using
the old-style syntax or by specifying a type of device ("boot disk",
"boot tape", etc.). EEPROM configuration is through "printenv" and
"setenv", which use names rather than addresses. Good help is available
for most commands, and there are a lot of commands, encompassing all the
functionality available in earlier monitors and adding helpful new
features, such as "probe-scsi", which searches the SCSI bus and prints
out the ID, LUN, device type, and identification string for anything it
finds.
Using a Terminal as Console
---------------------------
Every Sun model has the ability to use a serial terminal as a
console, instead of a Sun framebuffer and keyboard. In general, machines
which have a removeable framebuffer (on a separate board rather than
built into the CPU board/motherboard) require that the framebuffer be
removed; the ROM monitor notes the absence of a framebuffer and sends
output to the first serial port on the CPU board (usually labelled
ttya), and the OS does the same when booted. Machines which do not have
a removeable framebuffer may switch to terminal mode when the keyboard
is not connected, or may require that the console designator in the
EEPROM be changed.
The Sun 2/120 and 2/170 have an unusual configuration: the keyboard
and mouse connect to the framebuffer board rather than the CPU. If the
framebuffer board is removed, all input and output goes to ttya, as
might be expected. If a framebuffer is present but no keyboard is
connected, output goes to the framebuffer, but input comes from ttya.
Terminals should be set for 9600 bps, 8 data bits, one stop bit, and
no parity. The Sun 3/260 and 3/280 support the usual connection on ttya,
but can also support a console terminal at 1200 bps on the second serial
port on the CPU board, ttyb.
The equivalent of L1-A (halt machine, drop to ROM monitor) from a
terminal console is BREAK. Unfortunately, turning off the terminal or
disconnecting it is usually interpreted as a BREAK and halts the
machine. Thus, it is not easily possible to use one terminal with many
machines via a switchbox.
Memory Display On Startup
-------------------------
One of the points which causes much confusion is the startup display
of how much memory is installed versus how much is being tested.
As with most subjects, little is known about what the Sun-1's
displayed, except the 100U which used a Sun-2 CPU.
The Sun 2/120, 2/170, and probably all other Sun-2 models simply
display the amount of memory installed. If the ROM monitor sees the
memory, SunOS should see it as well, and if the ROM monitor does not see
it, SunOS is most unlikely to see it either. All memory is tested, but
there are no displays to that effect unless an error is found. (Note
that installing memory boards set to overlapping address ranges causes
errors.)
With the Sun-3's, the ability to set how much memory would be tested
on startup was added; it is stored in the EEPROM along with a variety of
other settings. The total amount of memory installed is displayed, on
one of the first lines printed (in the same area as ROM revision, serial
number, etc.), but the line stating how much memory is being tested is
much more conspicuous. The amount of memory tested is not automatically
increased when more memory is installed, which frequently leads to dismay
by the installer when the machine apparently does not recognize the
memory just installed. Sun-4's behave the same way.
SunOS does not care how much memory was tested. It will use however
much is installed. As with the Sun-2's, if the ROM monitor sees the
memory, SunOS should see it as well, and if the ROM monitor does not see
it, SunOS is most unlikely to see it either.
Miscellaneous Questions and Answers
-----------------------------------
1) I can't get anything out of the onboard SX video port on my
SPARCstation 20.
2) Why doesn't my old SBus card fit the slot in my newer machine, or
vice versa?
3) My IDPROM just died. What can I do?
4) Where can I get information about the IDPROM/NVRAM?
5) Why doesn't my new monochrome monitor work with older monochrome
framebuffers (especially the GX), or vice versa?
5a) My machine won't boot with the monochrome monitor connected. What?
6) There is a battery on my VME SCSI host adapter board. What's it for?
7) Can I run my old, slow SCSI drives on a SS1000?
8) Can I use a type-4 keyboard on a Sun-3 that normally takes a type-3
keyboard?
9) I have a VME-based CPU but not the matching chassis. Can I put it in
some other Sun VME chassis?
10) What's the situation with the 4/6xx and Solaris 1.x/2.x?
11) Can I use a non-Sun CD-ROM drive? Will I be able to boot from it?
12) Can I use a Sun CD-ROM drive on some other computer?
13) What's the maximum DVMA burst size for various SBus machines?
14) How do I put SIMMs into a 3/80? SPARCstation 1/1+/2? IPX? 4/110? SLC?
15) Can I put 4M SIMMs in my 3/80?
16) Can I put two 36MHz MBus modules in my SPARCstation 10/30?
16a)What are the limitations on mixing MBus modules in a single machine?
17) My Sun doesn't like 3-chip SIMMs.
18) How do I switch between the built-in thin Ethernet (BNC) transceiver
and the AUI port on a 4/110?
19) My SPARCstation 1+ says "The SCSI bus is hung. Perhaps an external
device is turned off." when I try to boot. What do I do?
20) My SPARCstation IPC chokes with "panic: mmp_getpmg" when booting.
What do I do?
21) I have some old SMD drives and controllers and/or a 9-track tape
drive. Can I still use them with newer machines and OS versions?
22) My Sun-3 won't boot from a SCSI disk, but when I hook the disk up
to another machine or boot from another disk, it works fine. What?
23) I'm getting "timeout" and "disk not responding to selection" errors
with a brand-new SCSI disk.
24) I have a SunOS CD-ROM with sun3 and/or sun3x versions of the OS on
it. Can I boot my Sun-3 from this CD-ROM?
25) Can I move a HOSTID ROM between machines?
26) I have a SunPC Accelerator card with an Intel 486DX on it. Can I use
one of the DX2/DX4 replacement chips?
27) Can I set the stock serial ports to rates higher than 38400?
28) Can I get an ergonomic keyboard for my Sun? A trackball?
29) What's this 80-pin SCSI connector?
1) I can't get anything out of the onboard SX video port on my
SPARCstation 20.
To use the onboard SX video, you need a VSIMM. This is an
extra-long SIMM that sits in one of the two dual-ported memory
slots. If you do not have a VSIMM, the onboard SX video will not
work. If you did not buy the machine in an SX configuration, it
did not come with a VSIMM. You can order one separately to
enable the onboard SX video.
2) Why doesn't my old SBus card fit the slot in my newer machine, or
vice versa?
From Chuck Narad:
In SBus rev A, the cards were designed to snap into place in the
SS1 enclosure. Later, before the spec went big time (before the
IEEE standard), we decided to make SBus fit into other
environments such as VME card spacing (as was done on the
600MP). For reasons of card pitch and RFI compliance the
backplate needed to be shorter, since the originators of the
spec hadn't thought about how to do this; for SS1/SS2
compatibility the snap-in 'ears' needed to be maintained. We
ended up with a 2-piece backplate where the 'ears' were a
removable part, and the screw-holes could be used to mount the
card in systems that did not use the ears.
This decision took over a year and cost thousands of lives :-)
This two-piece backplate was finalized quite a while ago, and
made it into SBus rev B.0. Unfortunately many third-party
vendors continued to make older, rev-A backplates for a couple
years after the change was announced and broadcast in such
places as the SBus spec, the SBus bulletin, newsgroups, etc.
Also unfortunately, there was a significant number of old-style
cards shipped by Sun by that time; the hope was that few
customers actually moved cards from one system to another, and
the volumes of new cards swamped the volumes of old cards
quickly. The theory was that all bus standards go through a
'shake-down cruise' in their first incarnations, and repairs to
early decisions sometimes leave incompatibilities with older
parts (examples include VME, SCSI, Multibus... you get the
picture). SBus ended up being used in a much wider range of
machines than it was originally intended for.
Later, the mechanical team on the SS10 decided to take advantage
of the removable ears for various reasons, so in that enclosure
also the older cards won't fit.
Now the good news; as long as you don't care about minor RFI
leakeage, you can just cut off the ears on the old card with a
pair of diagonal cutters, and the card will fit into the slot
fine, you just can't use screws to secure it.
3) My IDPROM just died. What can I do?
4) Where can I get information about the IDPROM/NVRAM?
Get eeprom-nvram.faq and nvram.faq from
ftp.netcom.com:/pub/henderso.
5) Why doesn't my new monochrome monitor work with older monochrome
framebuffers (especially the GX), or vice versa?
5a) My machine won't boot with the monochrome monitor connected. What?
Older monochrome framebuffers and monitors used a 66Hz vertical
refresh rate. Newer units use a 76Hz vertical refresh rate. The
GX framebuffers straddle the two: the dual-slot version does not
support 76Hz vertical refresh, but the single-slot version does
(except possibly for very early versions). The most common
problem is that the machine won't boot with the monitor
connected, but boots and displays properly if the monitor is
connected about sixty seconds after power-up.
6) There is a battery on my VME SCSI host adapter board. What's it for?
It powers a time-of-day clock chip which is not used by Suns.
7) Can I run my old, slow SCSI drives on a SS1000?
Yes. You may get a lot of SCSI errors. One individual, after a
lot of talking to Sun, solved the problem with patch 101378-09.
Related Sun bug ids are 1132229, 1173973, 1162452, and patch
102002-01.
8) Can I use a type-4 or type-5 keyboard on a Sun-3 that normally takes
a type-3 keyboard?
Yes. The 4-to-3 adapter is sold by Sun refurbisher Apex and
possibly others; Sun-3's manufactured toward the end came new
with type-4 keyboards and the appropriate adapter. It is also
reported that a type-5 can be connected to a machine expecting a
type-3 with an appropriate adapter (possibly the same one?).
9) I have a VME-based CPU but not the matching chassis. Can I put it in
some other Sun VME chassis?
In general, yes. CPU boards which have onboard memory can be put
in just about any chassis, including the 3/50 and 3/60 chassis,
which don't have a full set of VME connectors -- they only have
the power connector! CPU boards which require external memory
boards (such as the 3/2xx) obviously require a chassis with at
least two slots and a full set of VME connectors.
With some chassis, there may be problems with lacking voltages.
One individual reports that a 4/3xx CPU works in a 3/60 chassis,
except the lack of -12VDC means "we can't use a console on it."
It is also possible to make multiple CPUs share a VME chassis.
This is trickier. It requires isolating sections of the bus, and
being sure not to stomp on specialized slots used for memory or
SCSI boards.
10) What's the situation with the 4/6xx and Solaris 1.x/2.x?
From Greg Elkinbard:
SuperSPARC Rev 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 require patches:
Solaris 1.1 - 101508, 101509
Solaris 1.1.1_U1 - 101726, 101408
Solaris 2.3 - 101318, 101406
If you have Rev 3.5 or Rev 5.x then you should disable 101509,
101408, 101406
Rev 3.5 is compatible with Solaris 1.1, 1.1.1B, 2.3 do not use
it with 1.1.1A (4.1.3_U1)
Rev 5.x is compatible with Solaris 1.1, 1.1.1A, 1.1.1B, 2.3
Galaxy (4/6xx) compatible processors and rev:
SM41 - 501-2258, 501-2270, 501-2359 - Rev 2.x
SM51 - 501-2352, 501-2360, 501-2361, 501-2387 - rev 3.x
SM51 - 501-2607, 501-2562-01, 501-2562-02, - rev 3.5
SM51 - 501-2617, 501-2707 - rev 5.x
SM520 - 501-2444 - rev 3.x
SM521 - 501-2445 - rev 3.x
Field service manual states that minimum OS for SM520 and SM521
is 2.3, this leads me to believe that 1.x will not support
Viking MP reliably (i.e use it at your own risk)
Boot prom 2.8v2 or greater is required for SM41.
Boot prom 2.10 or greater is required for SM51.
11) Can I use a non-Sun CD-ROM drive? Will I be able to boot from it?
12) Can I use a Sun CD-ROM drive on some other computer?
The "CD-ROMs on Sun Hardware FAQ" is posted periodically to
comp.sys.sun.hardware and alt.cdrom by Kyle Downey
(96kfd@williams.edu). It may also be archived at rtfm.mit.edu.
In general, the answer is "maybe, and possibly only after
modifying the drive or the kernel."
13) What's the maximum DVMA burst size for various SBus machines?
This is a very complicated question. The SBus controller is
probably capable of handling any burst size; the limiting factor is
usually the slave interface to main memory. The SPARCstation 2
and microSPARC-based machines were supposedly limited to 16-byte
bursts (one individual reports that, using an SBus card with
programmable burst sizes, he was able to successfully use
64-byte bursts to main memory). MicroSPARC II-based machines and
MBus machines supposedly could do 32-byte bursts, and the
SPARCserver 1000 and SPARCcenter 2000 supposedly can do full
64-byte bursts. The SPARCstation 20 models with 64-bit SBuses
can do 128-byte bursts, although there are not many 64-bit SBus
cards to take advantage of it yet.
14) How do I put SIMMs into a 3/80? SPARCstation 1/1+/2? IPX? 4/110?
SPARCstation 1/1+:
Nearest disk connectors
_______ _______
| | | |
| 0 | | 1 |
| | | |
|_______| |_______|
_______ _______
| | | |
| 2 | | 3 |
| | | |
|_______| |_______|
Nearest SBus connectors
3/80, SPARCstation 2:
The sixteen SIMM slots are arranged in four groups of four.
Electrically, there are four "banks," each of which is composed
of one slot from each group:
Back of machine (nearest SBus connectors)
------------------ 0 0 --------------------
------------------ 1 1 --------------------
------------------ 2 2 --------------------
------------------ 3 3 --------------------
----------------- 0 0 --------------------
----------------- 1 1 --------------------
----------------- 2 2 --------------------
----------------- 3 3 --------------------
Front of machine (nearest disk connectors)
Banks must be filled in order (0 through 3), and SIMM sizes (1M
or 4M) must not be mixed with in a bank.
IPX:
------------------ 0
------------------ 1
------------------ 2
------------------ 3
Nearest SBus connectors
SLC:
The SIMM slots are labelled 1 through 4, and must be filled in
the order 1, 3, 2, 4.
4/110:
From the original pseudo-FAQ:
Nearest VME connectors
_______ _______
| | | |
| 3 | | 4 | Banks have eight SIMM slots
| | | | each.
|_______| |_______| J400
_______ _______ Note: when using mixed SIMMs
| | | | J1300 to get 20M, the 1M SIMMs must
| 1 | | 2 | go in banks 2 and 4 or the
| | | | J1400 machine won't boot.
|_______| |_______|
J101 1-2
J100 1-2
3-4
Total memory: 8M 16M 20M 32M
SIMM size: 256K 1M 256K/1M 1M
J100
1-2 JU UN JU UN
3-4 UN JU UN JU
J400
1-2 UN JU UN JU
3-4 JU UN UN JU
5-6 JU JU JU Un
J1300
same JU UN UN JU
different UN JU JU UN
256K JU UN JU UN
1M UN JU UN JU
2M UN UN UN UN
<32M JU JU JU UN
32M UN UN UN JU
unused UN UN UN UN
J1400
same JU UN UN JU
different UN JU JU UN
256K JU UN UN UN
1M UN JU JU JU
2M UN UN UN UN
<32M JU JU JU UN
32M UN UN UN JU
unused UN UN UN UN
15) Can I put 4M SIMMs in my 3/80?
If you have version 3.0.2 or better of the boot ROMs, yes. The
version is displayed in the startup messages immediately after
powering the machine on. You can install up to 40M of memory by
putting 4M 80ns SIMMs in banks 0 and 1 or 2 (sorry, not clear
which it should be), and filling the remaining two banks with 1M
80ns SIMMs.
Note that ROM version 3.0.2 has known problems with booting from
QIC-150 tape drives.
16) Can I put two 36MHz MBus modules in my SPARCstation 10/30?
16a)What are the limitations on mixing MBus modules in a single machine?
From John DiMarco:
There is no intrinsic technical reason why a 36MHz Mbus can't
support two modules. While it is true that you cannot normally
configure a system to support two M30 modules, the reason for
this is that early revisions of the SuperSPARC processor
contained bugs that prevented MP configurations from working
properly without the 1M external cache. Most if not all M20
(33MHz) and M30 (36MHz) modules, and many M40 (40MHz) modules
had this problem.
In general, if you want to mix and match modules (which is
unsupported but probably works for a number of configurations),
you'll need to make sure that the interface speeds of all
modules are matched.
The modules without SuperCACHE run at the MBus speed (or the
MBus runs at their speed?), so modules without SuperCACHE cannot
be mixed. Nor can they be mixed with modules with SuperCACHE.
Modules with SuperCACHE can be mixed, but may not be advisable.
The 41 and 51 modules both require a 40MHz MBus (SS10 or SS20
switched to slow board speed), but the 61 can use a 50MHz MBus
as well. Mixing a 61 with slower modules may slow down the 61 as
well.
Another consideration is that slower modules are usually older
SuperSPARC steppings that may require more drastic workarounds
and hence slow down newer, faster processors -- assuming it
works at all.
17) My Sun doesn't like 3-chip SIMMs.
From John O'Connor:
3-chip SIMMs have two 4Mbit chips (organised as 1M * 4bits) plus
one 1Mbit chip as opposed to the nine 1Mbit chips on the 9-chip
SIMMS. The difference arises from the fact that the 4Mbit chips
require more addresses to be read in the refresh cycles, so you
get unreliable operation of 3-chip SIMMs in systems that don't
provide enough refresh cycles.
18) How do I switch between the built-in thin Ethernet (BNC) transceiver
and the AUI port on a 4/110?
Jumper J1800 on the motherboard controls this. Jump it to use
the AUI port.
19) My SPARCstation 1+ says "The SCSI bus is hung. Perhaps an external
device is turned off." when I try to boot. What do I do?
Check the SCSI termination fuse, located on the motherboard near
the external SCSI connector. The fuse looks like a small
cylinder that is usually clear or totally black with a black top
and white writing. It is in a socket and is easy to remove.
It may also be necessary to change the settings on the disk
drive, to spin up on command only and not by default.
20) My SPARCstation IPC chokes with "panic: mmp_getpmg" when booting.
What do I do?
This may have to do with mixed 1M and 4M SIMMs. Make sure the 4M
SIMMs are in the first memory bank. This problem was supposed to
be solved after SunOS 4.1.1.
Alain Brossard reports that a few very old IPC's experience the
this failure when booting over the network, and the following
incantation at the ROM monitor prompt fixed the problem:
ok 7f fff0.0000 smap!
ok boot net
21) I have some old SMD drives and controllers and/or a 9-track tape
drive. Can I still use them with newer machines and OS versions?
I have never heard of an SBus SMD controller, so SMD support is
limited to VME-based machines, of which the 4/6xx is probably
the most recent. There are conflicting rumors about OS support;
some claim that SunOS 4.1.1 was the last version to include
stock support for the xy (451) and xd (7053) devices (and the xt
9-track tape controller), and that for later versions support is
available only through buying a special driver package, while
others claim that Solaris still supports all three of these
devices.
22) My Sun-3 won't boot from a SCSI disk, but when I hook the disk up
to another machine or boot from another disk, it works fine. What?
SunOS can use SCSI disks with SCSI parity turned on. The boot
ROMs can't boot from them, however -- SCSI parity must be turned
off to boot. Check the jumpers on the drive or the SCSI
converter card (Emulex MD-21, Adaptec ACB4000, etc.).
23) I'm getting "timeout" and "disk not responding to selection" errors
with a brand-new SCSI disk.
Check the temperature in the disk enclosure! Many newer SCSI
drives (especially Seagate, apparently) have the ability to spin
down and otherwise quiesce when the drive gets too hot. When the
drive it accessed, it will spin up again, but this takes some
time and the Sun usually complains before the disk can respond.
24) I have a SunOS CD-ROM with sun3 and/or sun3x versions of the OS on
it. Can I boot my Sun-3 from this CD-ROM?
Supposedly ROM versions 3.0.1 and above can boot from a CD-ROM.
Make sure that you're trying to boot from the correct partition
(these CD-ROMs usually have bootable partitions for a variety of
architectures). Try booting from "sd(0,30,x)" where 'x' is a
partition number.
25) Can I move a HOSTID ROM between machines?
Only if the machines are the same model, since part of the
hostid identifies the machine type. Also note that installing
one backwards will generally destroy it.
26) I have a SunPC Accelerator card with an Intel 486DX on it. Can I use
one of the DX2/DX4 replacement chips?
Only 5V chips can be used. The SBus provides sufficient power,
but cooling may be a problem. Adding a heat sink and microfan to
the new chip will probably solve that problem, but may interfere
with the next SBus slot.
27) Can I set the stock serial ports to rates higher than 38400?
Yes, but you have to hack the kernel in order to do it.
Furthermore, the standard ZS hardware is not capable of
supporting the normal bit rates (57600 and 115200) unless you
can supply an external clock and run them in synchronous mode.
The only higher internally-generated rates are 51200 (pretty
useless) and 76800, which a few modems can be set to handle.
Also, the 76800 rate will result in frequent overruns unless it
is being used for pure output, such as to a printer.
28) Can I get an ergonomic keyboard for my Sun? A trackball?
Ashok Desai (ashokd@Eng.Sun.COM) maintains an ergonomic keyboard
FAQ. Ren Tescher (ren@rap.ucar.EDU) maintains an unofficial
trackball FAQ. See also the "Alternatives" section under MICE in
this reference.
29) What's this 80-pin SCSI connector?
It is an SCA connector, as defined by the Small Form Factor
Committee, which provides a wide single-ended SCSI connection
and power (+12V, +5V). The standard number is SFF8015 23A.
Facts in Search of a Home
-------------------------
+ Sun 3/50's and 3/60's often used the Matsushita ETX-593C101M power
supply, capable of supplying 100W (15A @ 5V, 2A @ -5V, and 1.3A @
12V). The 3/75 had a 150W power supply. See pinouts below.
+ Sun 4/1xx CPU boards require 69.5W (13.8A @ 5V, and 0.1A @ -5V).
+ Mbus modules for the SPARCstation 10/514 (two 50MHz CPUs and
corresponding 1M caches) are physically so large that they each cover
two SBus slots. The SBus slots are not actually used, just
inaccessible.
+ The Adaptec 5500 card was "similar in function to the 4000", which was
a SCSI-MFM converter used for disks, mostly in Sun-2's. It had a
number of jumpers:
A-B hard reset
SCSI bus reset initiates hard reset of card when jumped.
C-D reserved
E-F hard-sectored drive on LUN0
G-H hard-sectored drive on LUN1
J-K reserved
DIAG diagnostics
Continuously repeat selftest when jumped.
Par SCSI parity
Enable SCSI bus parity checking when jumped. Parity is always
generated.
A4 SCSI ID MSB
A2 SCSI ID
A1 SCSI ID LSB
+ The internal SCSI hard drive in a SPARCstation IPC should NOT be
terminated.
+ The Sun HSI/S interface board (501-1725) has four high-speed
synchronous serial ports with an aggregate bandwidth of 4-5Mbits per
second. If only two ports are used, full T1 speeds can be used on
both. SunExpress says it supports X.25, SNA, Frame Relay, PPP, T1, and
CEPT.
+ The Adaptec ACB4000 MFM-SCSI adapter board and the Emulex MD21
ESDI-SCSI adapter board may not coexist well on the same SCSI bus. One
individual reports getting SCSI disconnect errors from the MD21 when
attempting to run both on the SCSI bus of a 3/60 running SunOS 3.5.
+ Shorting the J900 jumper on a 4/110 motherboard erases the EEPROM.
+ The last version of the boot ROM for the 3/60 was 3.0.1. It supports
cg6 color framebuffers, and is supposed to support cg8 color
framebuffers as well.
Miscellaneous Pinouts
---------------------
+ DB9 serial ports on 3/80, 4/3xx, others?
1 DCD 4 DTR 7 RTS
2 RxD 5 GND 8 CTS
3 TxD 6 DSR 9 unused
+ parallel port on 3/80
1 STBN 9 D7 17 SLCN
2 D0 (data 0) 10 ACK 18 GND
3 D1 11 BUSY 19 GND
4 D2 12 PAPE 20 GND
5 D3 13 SLCT 21 GND
6 D4 14 AFXN 22 GND
7 D5 15 ERRN 23 GND
8 D6 16 ININ 24 GND
25 GND
+ DIN-8 serial port on SPARCstation IPC, others?
-------
/ === \
/ \
/ 6 7 8 \
| |
| 3 4 5 |
\ /
\ 1 2 /
\_______/
1 DTR 4 GND 7 DCD
2 CTS 5 RxD 8 RxC (receive clock)
3 TxD 6 RTS
+ DB25 A/B serial ports on SPARCstation SLC, ELC, others?
1 unused 9 unused 17 A-RxC (receive clock)
2 A-TxD 10 unused 18 unused
3 A-RxD 11 unused 19 B-RTS
4 A-RTS 12 B-DCD 20 A-DTR
5 A-CTS 13 B-CTS 21 unused
6 A-DSR 14 B-TxD 22 unused
7 A&B-GND 15 A-TxC in (?) 23 unused
8 A-DCD 16 B-RxD 24 A-TxC out (transmit clock out)
25 unused
Note that only port A has full modem control.
+ DB25 A/B serial ports on SPARCstation LX, SPARCclassic, and
SPARCstation 10, others?
As for the SLC/ELC, but with additional signals for the B port:
11 B-DTR 18 B-TxC in 25 B-TxC out
+ 50-pin motherboard card-edge test connector on sun4c's
1 eject 18 direction 35 unused
2 unused 19 GND 36 VCC (+5V)
3 GND 20 step 37 ledout-
4 unused 21 GND 38 VCC (+5V)
5 GND 22 wrdata 39 unused
6 unused 23 GND 40 VCC (+5V)
7 GND 24 wrgate 41 por-
8 index 25 GND 42 VCC (+5V)
9 GND 26 trk00 43 VDD (+12V)
10 ds0 27 GND 44 VCC (+5V)
11 GND 28 wrprot 45 VBB (-12V)
12 unused 29 GND 46 VCC (+5V)
13 GND 30 rddata 47 unused
14 unused 31 GND 48 VCC (+5V)
15 GND 32 hdsel 49 VCC (+5V)
16 motor_on 33 GND 50 VCC (+5V)
17 GND 34 unused
Pins 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, and 48-50 (VCC, +5V) are the same as
pins 1, 2, 7, and 8 on the power connector.
Pin 37 (ledout-) is the same as pin 2 on the speaker connector.
Pin 41 (por-) is Power-On Reset, like the Power Good signal on PC
power supplies, and the same as pin 6 on the power connector.
Pin 43 (VDD, +12V) is the same as pins 5 and 11 on the power
connector.
Pin 45 (VBB, -12V) is the same as pin 12 on the power connector.
+ Power supply connector on (PS?) chassis for 3/50, 3/60, 3/75
1 -5V white 7 GND black
2 Pwr OK brown 8 GND black
3 +12V blue 9 +5V red
4 GND black 10 +5V red
5 GND black 11 +5V red
6 GND black 12 +5V red
SIMM Compatibility Chart
------------------------
+ SPARCstation 1, 1+, 2, and IPC
1M x 9 30-pin IBM-compatible SIMMs. The IPC can also take 4M SIMMs;
possibly the others as well.
+ SPARCstation IPX, ELC (and SLC?)
4M or 16M x 33 72-pin SIMMs. (The 4M SIMMs are probably compatible
with the SLC as well.)
+ SPARCclassic; SPARCstation LX, ZX
4M or 16M 60ns SIMMS, installed in pairs only.
+ SPARCstation 10, 20
SS10: 16M or 64M 70ns SIMMs. Can also use SIMMs of appropriate sizes
from SS20.
SS20: 16M, 32M, or 64M 60ns SIMMs. The 16M and 64M SIMMs can also be
used in SS10s, but not the 32M SIMMs.
+ SPARCstation 5
8M or 32M SIMMs.
+ SPARCserver 1000, SPARCcenter 2000
END OF PART II OF THE SUN HARDWARE REFERENCE