[rescue] RS/6000 board ID

[Julius Sridhar]

On 13 Feb 2002 jwbirdsa at picarefy.com wrote:

> >Nice score!  That's not an older MCA machine, that's a newer (quite new)
> >MCA machine.
>
>    Really? I thought IBM ditched the POWER family and MCA in favor of the
> PPC and PCI years ago. I don't recall seeing a date later than about 1993
> anywhere in the box, although that doesn't prove anything.

MCA is gone now, but that machine was one of the last.  IBM never
abandoned POWER.  The only reason they use PowerPC chips is they are
cheaper.  The latest and greatest fast RS/6000's are POWER4-based.  POWER4
is ridiculously fast.

> >The XGA-2 has PC microcode, so it definitely will not work.  If you have a
> >GXT150, you should use that as your video card as it's a whole lot newer
> >and faster than the XGA.
>
>    Oh well. No head for this guy then, at least not for the foreseeable
> future. I'll hang onto the XGA in case I ever get a PS/2. What kind of sync
> does the GXT150 put out?

I believe it's sync-on-green 1280X1024.

> >AIX?  4.3.3 or 5L.  Get it from IBM, unless you feel like going illegal,
> >then I wouldn't be the one to ask.
>
>    IBM, it seems, doesn't really want you buying AIX. You can buy upgrades,
> but not the OS itself. And it wasn't that long ago that somebody posted
> here the tale of their quest to get AIX from IBM...
>    But where IBM lacks, Ebay shall provide. :)
>
>    Does anybody know a good place to get RS/6000 parts, such as an octopus
> for the async board and an L2 cache SIMM?

There are a couple of resellers I deal with, but your best bet is to
wander around scrapyards and keep your eyes open.

Peace...  Sridhar