Sun Sparc 5 Nostalgia

Again? by ArmageddonLord · 2004-01-21 04:22 · Score: 5, Insightful

What do you mean coming alive again? The ECE computer lab here at rutgers it still filled with them!

Re:Again? by the+Man+in+Black · 2004-01-21 04:24 · Score: 3, Interesting

Agreed. My most recent place of employment used one for primary DNS and DHCP. It ran Solaris 2.6, and in two years there I never had any problems with it.

Pizzaboxes may be ancient, but they get the job done. I wouldn't task one as a high-availability database server or anything like that, but if I have them, I'll use them. DNS, DHCP, firewall, log server, etc. etc.

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El riesgo vive siempre!
Re:Again? by Achoi77 · 2004-01-21 04:30 · Score: 2, Funny

Is that the computer lab under Hill? I don't remember, as I was in school before they created ARC. You aren't referring to those ancient slow computers with the opto/magnetic mouse things that needed that metal mousepad to get it to work, are you? Cause those were SLOW, nobody wanted to use them, unless you had a programming assignment deadline, then that lab would be full to the brim trying to get their assignment to compile. =)

You can purchase an Ultra 5... by tcopeland · 2004-01-21 04:23 · Score: 5, Informative

...right here. They also have Ultra 60s, 80s, etc.

Re:You can purchase an Ultra 5... by pyr0 · 2004-01-21 04:34 · Score: 2, Informative

RTFA? The author says that the Ultra 5's are UDMA 33.

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Project Steve
Re:You can purchase an Ultra 5... by AKnightCowboy · 2004-01-21 05:04 · Score: 3, Interesting

RTFA? The author says that the Ultra 5's are UDMA 33.
Go search for "sun ultra 5 udma" on Google Groups and read some of the usenet articles about pissed off users getting crappy performance if you don't believe me. I've got over a dozen Ultra 10's and one Ultra 5 (same thing as the Ultra 10 except it's a desktop case instead of a tower) and we've NEVER seen decent performance out of the disks. Just because Sun claims their controller chip is ultra-dma 33 doesn't mean their drivers actually take advantage of it.
The only udma 33 feature I've gotten out of them is supporting up to 112 gigs on a 120 gig ATA drive. This is all with Solaris obviously since you'd be insane to want to put Linux on these overpriced underperforming PC wannabes. The build quality on the cases reminds me of a cheap Taiwan import company. Remember though, this was their first take at the low-end cheap desktop computing market. We picked up our Ultra 10's for a very cheap $3600 each in 1999. They completely blew away the Ultra-2's we were previously buying for $16,000 each in terms of price/performance.

Monitors on Sparc5 by multipartmixed · 2004-01-21 04:24 · Score: 5, Informative

Note: The article says "just about any" standard monitor with an HD15 will work -- not so. At least on the earlier Ultra 5s, you had to be somewhat choosy with your monitor.

From personal experience;

Doesn't work:
MAG DJ530
IBM G70

Does work:
Panasonic SL70i
Panasonic E70i
Panasonic S70
Sun monitors (duh)
Sony 15", 17" (can't remember model numbers).

Symptom: No display with incompatible monitor, regardless of m64 settings.

Lesson: Try the monitor with the box before you buy it.

--

Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?

Re:Monitors on Sparc5 by OSSMKitty · 2004-01-21 04:35 · Score: 3, Informative

I seem to remember that Sun systems required monitors that could handle sync-on-green (much like NeXT workstations, and probably others). My multi-scan Dell monitor will work on a Sun, but my LCD won't.
Re:Monitors on Sparc5 by Octorian · 2004-01-21 06:02 · Score: 2, Informative

Another very important thing to note. "13W3" isn't really a very standardized form of plug (beyond the "3" mini-coax connectors). I've seen 13W3 used in workstations by Sun, SGI, and IBM, and the pin-outs of the 13 normal pins are all just a tad different. Keep this in mind when you need to buy an adaptor for a system.
Re:Monitors on Sparc5 by Octorian · 2004-01-21 06:04 · Score: 2, Interesting

That makes little sense, unless you didn't install a good framebuffer (graphics card) in the U10. The U5 only works with on-board or PCI framebuffers, while the U10 can take a UPA framebuffer (faster slot, think of it as "like" AGP for UltraSPARC). Of course the U5 and U10 technically use the same exact motherboard (with different PCI riser cards), but the U5's case isn't designed to let you install a UPA card.

Correction by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-21 04:24 · Score: 5, Informative

It's not a SPARC 5, it's an Ultra 5. The former implies 32-bit, the latter 64. Not that anyone here knows or cares.

Re:Correction by ShaggyZet · 2004-01-21 04:28 · Score: 2, Interesting

Sing it brother! As the proud owner of a sparc 2 (no, not an ultra 2) and a user of many sparc 5's and 20's I can say they are fine machines, even if they do run like molasses (ok, a faster 20 isn't *that* slow). The Ultra 5's and 10's are pieces of crap in comparison.
Re:Correction by sirket · 2004-01-21 04:29 · Score: 3, Insightful

I'm glad someone pointed this out. And as for nostalgic? WTF did an ultra 5 become nostalgic?

-sirket
Re:Correction by sysadmn · 2004-01-21 04:36 · Score: 3, Funny

If you keep spreading facts on Slashdot we'll have to throw you out.
Let's get back to the mindless bashing and opinions presented as Gospel.

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Envy my 5 digit Slashdot User ID!
Re:Correction by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-21 05:01 · Score: 3, Interesting

I don't see what the big deal about this article is.

I =work= for Sun as a developer and my machine is an Ultra 5. There are a few other software developers here running Ultra 10s and one or two with an Ultra 60, but the majority of us are using Ultra 5s and 10s.
Re:Correction by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-21 05:08 · Score: 2, Interesting

Yeah, I laughed my ass off when I read the article. Sparc5 != Ultra 5.
Re:Correction by morgue-ann · 2004-01-21 05:20 · Score: 2, Funny

Where's the item in the moderate listbox for "insightful flamebait"?
Re:Correction by funaho · 2004-01-21 07:22 · Score: 4, Interesting

I was wondering when someone would notice that.

A regular Sparc 5 definitely *is* nostalgic. I have several old Sun machines at the house including a Sparc 5, Sparc 20 and an IPX (talk about nostalgia...those IPCs and IPXs are so cute :) )

I have a few old Ultras here at work (Ultra 1s mostly) and I do have Debian on them. Worst install I've ever done...the Sparc installer for Debian is *horrible*. And yes, I know it's beta at best, but still.
Re:Correction by b1t+r0t · 2004-01-21 07:35 · Score: 2, Interesting

They used some sort of 5V DIMM memory. Ultra 5 memory is plug-compatible with the RAM used by old PowerMacs, but simply doesn't work in a PowerMac. I know because I bought some once, and ended up selling it for the same price to a hardcore Sun fan I knew.
Really, any 5V DIMM can be considered "proprietary memory", since the PC market didn't start using it until 3.3V RAM became the standard.

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--
"Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
"Open source is evil." - Microsoft

64 bits? by bennomatic · 2004-01-21 04:25 · Score: 2, Funny

Back in my day, we had eight bits, and we liked it!

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The CB App. What's your 20?

Not Sparc 5...Ultra 5! by Stonent1 · 2004-01-21 04:26 · Score: 3, Informative

When you say "Sparc 5" most people assume you mean "SparcStation 5"

Re:Not Sparc 5...Ultra 5! by sql*kitten · 2004-01-21 04:46 · Score: 4, Informative

When you say "Sparc 5" most people assume you mean "SparcStation 5"

To the average OSNews reader (and indeed to Eugenia herself) a late-90s Ultra 5 is an ancient computer. Such people would have absolutely no use for a SPARCStation, since (if you read any of her OS reviews) the only thing they're interested in is eye candy.

Me, I have a old NeXT Color Turbo, that's a 33 Mhz 68040, 32M RAM box running a BSD derivative, that is still as useful a machine as it ever was - the real business of programming, editing text files, hasn't changed much in 30-odd years. Only the kids who judge a box by what window manager or web browser it's running think any different.

The thing these kids don't understand is that back in the day, kit was built to last. Old SPARCStation 5's are dead reliable, and if you want a DNS, mail, a web server, a CVS server, whatever, they're perfect for the task. And you can get a lot done with a box like a 10 or a 20, they'll happily support 20 users running terminals, editors, compilers, etc etc. Only thing that's slow is their frame buffers. Buy a modern PC and it's useless in 3 years, it was never made to last.
Re:Not Sparc 5...Ultra 5! by j-turkey · 2004-01-21 05:10 · Score: 3, Insightful

The thing these kids don't understand is that back in the day, kit was built to last. Old SPARCStation 5's are dead reliable, and if you want a DNS, mail, a web server, a CVS server, whatever, they're perfect for the task. And you can get a lot done with a box like a 10 or a 20, they'll happily support 20 users running terminals, editors, compilers, etc etc. Only thing that's slow is their frame buffers. Buy a modern PC and it's useless in 3 years, it was never made to last.

Those old Sparc5's (or any other cool, old boxes)were cool and all, and I don't mean to be argumentative, but let's be realistic. If you want to run a small to midsized DNS, mail, web, or CVS server, a Sparc5 can handle it very well. Furthermore, the hardware in those boxes is built to a higher standard than most commodity PC hardware....and there will always be significant numbers of geeks out there running small-time Linux servers on old hardware, from commodity PC hardware to old servers. Sure a modern PC is useless for PC-ish stuff within three years (ie running the latest bleeding-edge desktop OS, etc), however, for those same tasks, outdated hardware can be just as well suited to the task.

My point is that anyone who "gets it" (in this sense), will just get it -- those who don't never will. They use their computers for completely different reasons than you and have completely different requirements than you and I. Much of the obselescence of the desktop PC within three years comes from software abstraction keeping pace with faster hardware. Servers don't necessarily have the same fate. It's hard to make a comparison in that sense...especially for people like you who probably know their shit well enough to consider the aforementioned abstraction more of a hinderance than a help. In the mean time, enjoy the pace at which hardware gets faster and cheaper :)

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-Turkey

Re:I have some of these in my garage! by multipartmixed · 2004-01-21 04:27 · Score: 2, Informative

Ultra 1s have the same motherboard as the Enterprise 150. IIRC, they are 170 MHz sun4u; SBUS, SCSI; hme on board, probably only one CPU slot.

Creator/Enterprise almost certainly indicates what video card shipped with it.

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Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?

Sparc 5 isn't an Ultra 5 by the+packrat · 2004-01-21 04:28 · Score: 5, Informative

For those people who aren't old enough to know there is a difference, the Sparc 5 was the baby brother of Sun's Sparc 20, and was a sun4m machine. The Ultra 5 discussed in the article was a much later beast, with a sun4u architecture, and crippled horribly with various PC-isms including IDE and sharp case edges.

As far as their being useless, I bought one just recently for one of my students to use as a workstation to work on visualising the results of the modelling work that will be done in the coming year. For next to no money you can pick up a decent workstation that runs Solaris, often with a fantastic monitor. Outdated, Ha!

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Nihil Illegitemi Carborvndvm

A Sparc 5 is not an Ultra 5 by maynard · 2004-01-21 04:29 · Score: 4, Informative

The article is about an Ultra 5 being resurrected, not a traditional sparc 5. Just so we're clear, the sparc 5 was among the Sun 4m CPU class while the Ultra 5 was a Sun 4u class CPU. The Sparc 5 is a 32 bit arch while the Ultra 5 is 64 bit. The Sparc 5 uses SBUS expansion cards, MBUS CPU expansion bay, has onboard 10mbit ethernet, standard SCSI II support, and usually shipped with a CG6 8 bit color card (not always). The Ultra 5 has a built in Sun IIi CPU, 100Mbit ethernet, PCI bus support, and IDE instead of SCSI disks. It also has an onboard 8bit ATI graphics adapter.

If given the choice I would take the Sparc 5 simply for it's greater I/O bandwidth alone. Actually, give me an Ultra 1 or 2, or a Sparc 20. Frankly, the Ultra 5 was a hunk of junk even on release. I wouldn't pay a dime for one of those. JMO. --M

Re:A Sparc 5 is not an Ultra 5 by sirket · 2004-01-21 04:35 · Score: 2, Informative

Since when did the SS5 have an mbus slot? The SS10 and SS20 both used mbus modules. The SS5 had a built in processor.

-sirket

I've got an Ultra 5 and a Sparc Station 5! by vrai · 2004-01-21 04:30 · Score: 3, Insightful

I still use my Ultra 5 (the 360Mhz model) as my second desktop machine. Runs Solaris 9, blackbox and an assortment of KDE apps (mostly KMail and Konqueror). It's a bit slow but does the job, plus there are few keyboards that beat the Type 5c. Sadly it will be retired from desktop duty this year but will live on as my home webserver.

My SparcStation 5 (with a mighty 110Mhz microSparc) holds my CVS repository and my MP3s (via NFS and Samba). In order to save money the larger of its two drives (a 36Gb IBM) is a 50pin one that I've duck taped in to the CD bay. Some what dodgy, but I haven't had any problems with it in three years of use. This one runs and old version of Debian (2.2.20) but is safely hidden behind my firewall.

Whilst I could obviously get more powerful machines they do the job, are rock solid (both in hardware and software terms), and cost a total of 140GBP for the two of them. Plus they look a damn site nicer than boring old wintel box.

Re:I've got an Ultra 5 and a Sparc Station 5! by The+Blue+Meanie · 2004-01-21 06:09 · Score: 2, Informative

I hear this complaint occassionally, and I usually try to ask - have you actually tried using the app in question under Solaris 8 and had it not function somehow? Sun has always been hard-core about making sure that apps for earlier versions of Solaris continue to work on the later versions. So much so in fact, that they guarantee compatibility in writing, as long as you follow their ABI guidelines. Any app that runs on 7 that won't run on 8 is rather badly written from the get-go.

As for the other questions, the CPUs pop up on eBay from time to time - try to get a 360/2 or a 440/2, they have a faster FSB. And the mozilla library dependencies ARE quite the nightmare. If you can move to Solaris 8, the dependencies at least go from being a nightmare to just a bad dream. :)

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"I feel that if a person can't communicate, the very least he can do is to shut up." -- Tom Lehrer

Err by multipartmixed · 2004-01-21 04:30 · Score: 2, Informative

s/Sparc5/Ultra5

Geez, I'm dopy today. Oh, look, so is the slashdot editor.

Sparc5 - aka Sparcstation 5 - is a really old, really crappy sun4m that is suitable for use as an X terminal and not much else.

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Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?

Ultra AXe is another decent choice by Stonent1 · 2004-01-21 04:31 · Score: 2, Interesting

Basically an Ultra 5 built into an ATX motherboard. It makes it easy to toss together a system cheaply. I picked up the board for around $50 on ebay and the memory (256mb) for around $30 on ebay. Everything else was what I had laying around. Drop in a generic PCI USB/Firewire combo card and you've got most of the capabilities of a Sun Blade 100.

Memories by wayward_son · 2004-01-21 04:32 · Score: 2, Insightful

I recieved much of my college education on Ultra 5's.

They were exciting and new back in 1999 when I started. The computer lab had a row of Ultra 5's, a few Ultra 1's, some SparcStation 4,5,10, & 20's and even a few SparcClassics (!). There were also some Solaris/Intel machines. The U-5's were definitely the machines you wanted.

Eventually the U-5's replaced all the older machines before being phased out themselves by the SunBlades. All in all, they were not bad machines, but the video seriously left something to be desired. And the 128MB of RAM in the older machines just didn't cut it by the end. Considering what a comparable Wintel Box would have cost at the time and how long they would have lasted, the U-5's were not a bad deal. There are probably many still around the department and in the labs today.

Sun NeXT by Phrack · 2004-01-21 04:32 · Score: 2, Interesting

Ah, the Sparc 5.. it ran NeXTSTEP real well. Better than Solaris, for that matter.

And no, I don't mean OpenSTEP.. google around, you'll find it.

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Dump the IRS - http://www.fairtax.org

Re:I have some of these in my garage! by larien · 2004-01-21 04:34 · Score: 3, Informative

Ultra 1s have one of 143, 167 or 200MHz CPUs. Older Ultra 1s (usually the 143MHz versions) have only le (10Mbit) ethernet and a 50 pin SCSI connecter. Newer versions have hme and 68 pin SCSI (not sure if the SCSI level is different). You can usually tell the version by the colour of the "1" on the front of the unit; if it's green, it's the older version with le/50pin SCSI, if it's red/orange, it's hme/68 pin. The latter usually comes with Creator graphics. There is also a 3rd version called "Ultra 1 Enterprise" which may not have a graphics board.

There isn't a CPU slot as such; the single CPU is hardwired to the motherboard.

Finally, the E150 is one of the worst bits of kit every shipped by Sun; the inside is mounted in foam blocks (!?!?!!) and if you shut it down (init 5) you can only switch it back on by either (a) opening the unit up or (b) attaching a Sun keyboard and using the 'power' button.

This is a great idea.... by sinergy · 2004-01-21 04:35 · Score: 2, Funny

Put some old things on Ebay, and create a completely unmerited ferver on /. to buy them.

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Re:Businessmodel? by armaghetto · 2004-01-21 04:37 · Score: 2, Insightful

I think owning a few sparc 5's, submitting an article to slashdot on the revival of the platform, then selling it on ebay works just fine.

My Ultra 5 story by bongoras · 2004-01-21 04:38 · Score: 4, Interesting

I bought an ultra 5 a few years ago used, and it sat running Solaris at my email server for my home domain. Then I got sick of Solaris, since it reminds me too much of my days working at Genuity. Talk about nightmares... everytime I sat down at the computer I felt my old PHB asking me for a status update and a team schedule and to update my bug reports.

So I wiped Solaris off it and starting fooling around with Debian Sparc. But it seemed... cheesy... just wrong. This is my personal box. Debian just seemed too easy. So I bit the bullet and put Gentoo for Sparc on it. Gentoo is PERFECT for reclaiming older hardware. A little reading of man gcc, some thought about my use flags... ( mine are: USE="apache2 imap maildir samba xml -arts -avi -encode -esd -gtk -gnome -imlib -kde -mad -mikmod -mpeg -oggvorbis -oss -opengl -qt -sdl -truetype -xv -xmms -motif")

And a FREAKING LONG TIME compiling everything... and I have the Unix box I've always wanted. Mine. No one else's. I mess with it, beat on it, do things do it I'd never do on a production system. It's totally fun, and Gentoo Linux on the Ultra 5 has given me a reborn enthusiasm for Linux and computers in general.

Sparc 5, feh! by alamut · 2004-01-21 04:39 · Score: 4, Interesting

i recently bought a sparc station 20 on ebay for $35 - including shipping!

it'll do just fine as a fileserver and entropy generator. and you cant beat the price.

nor can you beat the amusement of seeing what was left on the drives... mind boggling!

64 bit a marketing tool? by sirket · 2004-01-21 04:39 · Score: 4, Insightful

This line pissed me off:

Back then, 64-bits was more of a marketing tool, and in many respects, still is.

64 bit gave higher precision for use on CAD workstations. Anyone who every used a Sun workstation for it's intended purpose would know this.

-sirket

Re:64 bit a marketing tool? by sql*kitten · 2004-01-21 04:53 · Score: 5, Interesting

64 bit gave higher precision for use on CAD workstations. Anyone who every used a Sun workstation for it's intended purpose would know this.

Oh yes, 64-bit has been not a luxury by a necessity in many industries for a decade now, anything that involves heavy number crunching - CAD, CAE, CFD, other forms of simulation, Monte Carlo runs in finance, physics models...

A while ago OSNews reviewed, IIRC, a new Sun workstation. The conclusion? It's crap because it's too hard to change the resolution or the colour scheme. Not one test they did was even remotely related to what a workstation is used for, they didn't even try compiling anything, let alone doing some MATLAB or solid modelling.

You can pretty much ignore any OSNews review of anything, in fact I've no idea why a discussion site (i.e. /.) even links to another discussion site as a story!
Re:64 bit a marketing tool? by autocracy · 2004-01-21 05:31 · Score: 2, Funny

Maybe by linking to other sites that don't do as well, we don't look as bad? Then again, more people would have to RTFA for that to work...

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SIG: HUP

Re:It would have to run Solaris by OutlawDrake · 2004-01-21 04:40 · Score: 4, Informative

Unfortunately, you don't care enough to understand the situation. There's nothing to fix. 64-bit userland would only benefit a very very few apps (that needed more than 4GB of RAM), and would significantly slow down the rest of them. (I was actively subscribed to the debian-sparc mailing list for several years. Do some research, and talk to the sparc linux maintainers.)

I expect that this will come out in one of the promised followup articles on OSNews.

Erm, so? by grahamlee · 2004-01-21 04:41 · Score: 3, Insightful

The Ultra 5 is a 'modern' UltraSPARC-based system. Solaris still supports the platform; indeed even Solaris 10 will still support the U5 (and the Ultra 2, but not the Ultra 1. The UltraSPARCs used in the Ultra 1 had a comedy bug anyway, which meant that they shouldn't be used in 64 bit mode). Now, if they'd been talking about the SPARCstation 5, I would have been interested.

The SS5 had a HyperSPARC processor, just like the SPARCStation 2 over in the corner of this room (in a 'rack' consisting of a pair of Ultra 1s, the SS2 and some spacers made of plastic). This was a good old-fashioned rock-steady 32bit Sun machine, just like they used to make before they went all cheap (that's the build price, not the retail price!). The principle difference as far as I'm concerned between the SS5 and the SS2, and the reason I'd be interested to hear about the longevity of the SS5, is that the 5 can run NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP for SPARC platform whereas the 2 cannot.

An Ultra 5, on the other hand, is just Yet Another 64-bit Solaris Box like the two Ultra 1s behind me or the 4-way Enterprise server across the way.

Righto, my mistake. by maynard · 2004-01-21 04:41 · Score: 2, Informative

The SS5 had a built in processor.

Absolutely right; I knew that. I've got an SS5, SS10, and SS20 and simply made a mistake in my post. Whoops. --M

Re:It would have to run Solaris by fdragon · 2004-01-21 04:43 · Score: 4, Informative

UltraSparc has a 64bit userland if you care to compile it. Currently the only distribution that I know of that provides one is the Aurora Linux distribution that is based off of RedHat 7.3. More information about the project is Here at the Aurora Linux website .

Currently its 64bit userland is limited to the C library and a few support libraries. This allows you to compile applications in 64bit mode so that they can gain the benifits of 64bit mode.

Most cases using 64bit applications cause the machine to be slower due to the doubling in the length of the addressing pointers and other factors. Better explination is available in their FAQ entry on this 64bit vs 32bit issue .

--
The program isn't debugged until the last user is dead.

My SparcStation2 still kicking by kindbud · 2004-01-21 04:47 · Score: 4, Interesting

It runs RedHat 5.2... No, really! I still have the CD. I also have a CD for SunOS 4.1.4, which I might load on it again one day.

It ran Solaris2 like a pig, btw...

Two 50 Mb Quantum HDD, 64 Mb of 9-pin DRAM DIMMs in four banks of four... Ah, those were the days. (NOT!)

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Edith Keeler Must Die

Not particularly well informed in some areas by elmegil · 2004-01-21 04:48 · Score: 4, Informative

FTA: Unfortunately, you're stuck with Sun keyboards and mice, as the connector is Sun-specific, as well as certain specialty keys. There may be adapters, but I don't know how well they'll work with the specialized keys.

Not true. I've been using a Logitech TrackMan Pro for several years now, with the aid of a nifty box that converts PS/2 devices (has an input for a keyboard and for a mouse) into the Sun connector. It was a Sun part number, somewhat obscure, but definitely available and useful. It's called the "Sun Interface Converter" and the Sun part number is 595-3692. I'd recommend you go looking for one if you are having trouble coming up with Sun Keyboards & Mice or if you want to use your Sun system with a standard KVM switch (which is what I do at home).

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7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001

Ultra 5? by BenjyD · 2004-01-21 04:49 · Score: 2, Interesting

An Ultra 5 is retro? Worth getting nostalgic about? My main desktop at work was a SparcStation 5 until 18 months ago.

A friend uses a bunch of old sparcs to run his network - easier to use a load of small boxes than one big one. Pretty reliable too:
4:46pm up 454 day(s), 20:02, 1 user, load average: 0.11, 0.05, 0.03
4:48pm up 253 day(s), 47 min(s), 1 user, load average: 0.05, 0.03, 0.02
4:48pm up 454 days, 19:56, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

Boring, not /. worthy article by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-21 04:49 · Score: 5, Insightful

Any nostalga computing /. posts should only include
1. stuff from 1990 or earlier
2. square peg in a round hole
2.1. ethernet in a c64
2.2. web server on a TRS80
2.3. porting modern software to old obscure platforms
3. Univac 1

Re:Boring, not /. worthy article by tomhudson · 2004-01-21 06:02 · Score: 2, Interesting

quote from the story lead-in:
if you really want 64-bit computing, it's available cheaply on eBay.
quotoe from the story
... can find them on eBay for between $200.00 and $400.00

Or you can buy a new 64-bit motherboard and 64-bit cpu (athlon64) and for the same $400 bucks, and not have to worry about the lack of video cards (come on $400+ just for an 8-meg pci video card), special ram (doesn't take standard ram), other special hardware (non-standard keyboard, etc.).
These machines are being sold "cheaply" compared to their original cost, but they are no bargain. Give them to someone you don't like.
Re:Boring, not /. worthy article by TheRaven64 · 2004-01-21 07:58 · Score: 2, Insightful

The Sparcstation 2/4 era pizza boxes make superb X terminals. A minimal install of NetBSD (The Sparc32 version of Linux has some MMU issues, and is noticeably slower) and an X server set up to query a remote machine makes them very usable. We've got a couple of them lying around here running off a P3 box. They only do 256 colours, so they're not ideal for anything graphics intensive, but for web browsing, and basic office stuff they're fine (and a lot cheaper than a `real' computer. We were just given 4 SS4s when someone was clearing out a store room).

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I am TheRaven on Soylent News

Alive again? WTF, it never died! by bazik · 2004-01-21 04:52 · Score: 3, Insightful

My main desktop is a Sun Ultra5 w/ 440MHz, 512MB RAM and 2x 18gb U320 SCSI disks (attached to a Sym22801). Who said the Ultra5 ever died?

The only disadvantage of the Ultra5/10 is the slow IDE bus, but you can put a scsi controller in it.

The board (depending on the version) can take up to 1GB ram and a 440MHz Ultrasparc IIi w/ 2 MB CPU cache. So this is a really nice box and fast enough for most work.

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One by one the penguins steal my sanity...

"coming alive again"??? by jdreed1024 · 2004-01-21 05:16 · Score: 4, Informative

First of all, it's an Ultra 5, not a Sparc 5. And they're not _that_ old. It's an UltraSparc processor running anywhere from 266 to 400 MHz. I really don't think it's that impressive to find something to do with it. Now if it was a SparcStation 5 (ca 1995), which was a 32-bit, 85MHz machine, I'd be a little more impressed. But not that much, since I know several people running NetBSD on their Sparc 5s and using them as routers for their home networks.

Next week: Slashdot impressed when someone figures out how to use an ancient PIII/700. Yeesh.

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There is no sig, there is only Zuul.

Ode To The Esoteric Computers by theManInTheYellowHat · 2004-01-21 05:20 · Score: 2, Insightful

Ah the day of the Toaster and Pizza Box
Purple Desksides and giant blue towers
The BeBox, Next Cube,
Many colors only some beige

Each would be quite different
Inside and out
From companies that made hardware and software

Now we have only a different case
The guts are the same

Re:A couple of little caveats by mcroot · 2004-01-21 05:26 · Score: 2

That's not a bad deal. To put my initial comments in perspective though, I paid $100 Canadian to buy a complete running machine with 270Mhz/64M/4Gb HD.

So althought it's not *that* expensive. Buying $84US worth of RAM would just about double my investment.

On a positive note though, of all the Sun Hardware I have (3 machines) nothing has every failed. So they can definitely be a good long term investment.

Sparc5 vs. Ultra5 by BookRead · 2004-01-21 05:58 · Score: 2, Interesting

SparcStation5 -- built like tank. 32 bits. SBUS cards.

SparcUltra5 -- built like cheap PC. 64 bits. PCI cards.

Used both, Used both as servers. Getting cards into the Sparc5 could be a real pain. But once in there they'd never give you any trouble. The Ultra5 struck me as a bit cheap, construction-wise. Which was a total 180 from their traditional "drop it on a concrete floor and the connectors stay stuck togeher. While Dells and such had snap-in parts the Ultra5 has little screws and sharp edges. Felt kind of loose.

Linux on a good PC pretty much killed my desire for Solaris. Never liked CDE, never like premium prices for simple add-ons like memory. Maybe useful for a special workstations but the Ultra5 was an attempt to steal into the PC market. I'm nostalgic for Sparc5 but not the Ultra5.

Re:I have some of these in my garage! by RevDobbs · 2004-01-21 06:09 · Score: 2, Funny

``A lot of traffic'', you say? Care to put them up to a good slashdotting? C'mon, post a URL, you know you want to...

Re:I have some of these in my garage! by MROD · 2004-01-21 08:28 · Score: 3, Informative

Actually, the two types of Ultra 1 were:-

Ultra 1 - SBus graphics, le 10Mb/s ethernet and 8bit SCSI. (As the PROM didn't say UPA bus at POST I'm not even sure if it had the full memory switch architecture.)

Ultra 1e - UPA bus Creator graphics, HappyMeal 100Mb/s ethernet and wide SCSI. During POST this machine stated UPA bus.

The 1e was only available in 170MHz versions whereas the 1 was originally available as a 150MHz version and then later 170MHz.

--

Agrajag: "Oh no, not again!"

Re:It's not Sparc 5, it's Ultra 5! by grub · 2004-01-21 15:32 · Score: 2, Insightful

You're retarded.

Well maintained and engineered stuff lasts longer. Works for Sun, Mac, SGI, IBM etc. Put your "Taiwan-made MoBo and CPU" against it for years and see what lasts longer on average.

Now that I have your attention, Mr. Expert, please post non-AC with your real-life stories and I'll counter them.

--
Trolling is a art,

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