[rescue] SBUS Efficient Networks Inc fiber network adapter on a Sparcstation 4

Wed Feb 28 15:27:37 EST 2024

On Wed, Feb 28, 2024 at 8:13 AM Patrick Giagnocavo wrote:

> How easy is it to put a stock SunOS on the ASX200?  Could keep an eye out
> for one ... will it take more than 16MB of RAM?
>
>
This was a long time ago... but as I recall, it wasn't any more difficult
than any other SunOS 4 installation.   There are still a few commented-out
remnants lingering on my network (bootparams, ethers, /tftpboot and so on)
and I think I had original floppies with the Fore software -- but might
have been able, at the time, to get updated versions.  I have a vague
recollection of successfully netbooting 4.1.4, but falling back to 4.1.3_u1
to get the ATM drivers and software to work?  Somewhere in the dark
recesses of my archive server I might have the notes, logs, manuals and
tarballs I collected, but this is all a bit fuzzy.

As for the RAM, the part numbers I've seen hint that the 3CE might accept
32MB (or even up to 64MB as it's essentially an SS2 equivalent) but the RAM
is soldered on -- no SIMM or DIMM slots.  Turns out there are a couple of
these on Ebay right now, for eyewatering prices (not affiliated with either
seller):

https://www.ebay.com/itm/261652902499
https://www.ebay.com/itm/352630920491

These look like the same board, though these have Teradyne part #s and were
probably pulled from some large board tester.  The pics (and my memory) are
a little fuzzy but I bet if you were brave and could track down the
compatible RAM chips there's already birdseed on the board and you'd just
need a little hot air rework to bump the memory to 32MB.

>
> On Wed, Feb 28, 2024 at 2:35 AM Skeezics Boondoggle via rescue <
> rescue at sunhelp.org> wrote:
>
>>
>> On Tue, 27 Feb 2024 17:58:02, Kenneth Seefried wrote:
>>
>> [...]
>>> ATM is one of the very few network technologies I *never* say "I should
>>> pull together the parts to build a network to play with".
>>>
>>>
>> This made me laugh, because I wholeheartedly agree... having kinda done
>> exactly that "back in the day."  Not really on purpose, though. :-)
>>
>> A couple of decades ago (ouch) a friend gave me a pile of old ATM gear
>> that was being decommissioned from a lab at the grad school where we
>> worked.  They'd done a bunch of research on streaming video (late
>> '90s/early '00s) and QoS atop IPv4 and ATM (probably LANE, can't recall the
>> details now).  I picked up a couple of Fore Systems switches and several
>> Fore Sbus and EISA cards.  (They'd been using HP9000/700 series with ATM
>> and cool Parallax XV700 video overlay cards for their testing -- naturally
>> I snagged a 735 and the 755 as well!)
>>
>> I was surprised to learn that the ForeRunner ASX200 is actually a small
>> rack-mountable 3-ish slot VME cage with a SPARCengine as the management
>> card! The internal disk drive (!!) in one of the ForeRunners was bad, so I
>> rebuilt it (sanely -- Fore's default installation was bonkers) and still
>> have some transcripts:
>>
>> [...]
>> ok banner
>> SPARC CPU-3CE, No Keyboard
>> ROM Rev. 2.10.1, 16 MB memory installed, Serial #764843.
>> Ethernet address 8:0:20:b:ab:ab, Host ID: 800babab.
>>
>> ok boot disk
>> Boot device: /iommu/sbus/espdma at 4,8400000/esp at 4,8800000/sd at 3,0   File
>> and args:
>> root on /iommu at 0,10000000/sbus at 0,10001000/espdma at 4,8400000/esp at 4
>> ,8800000/sd at 3,0:
>> a fstype 4.2
>> Boot: vmunix
>> Size: 1933312+470824+761352 bytes
>> PAC ENABLED
>> SunOS Release 4.1.3F (ASX_200) #740: Tue Jul 7 17:16:14 GMT-0400 1998
>> Copyright (c) 1983-1992, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
>> cpu = SPARC,CPU-3CE
>> mod0 = TI,TMS390S10 (mid = 0)
>> mem = 16004K (0xfa1000)
>> avail mem = 11436032
>> entering uniprocessor mode
>> Ethernet address = 8:0:20:b:ab:ab
>> espdma0 at SBus slot 4 0x8400000
>> esp0 at SBus slot 4 0x8800000 pri 4 (onboard)
>> sd0 at esp0 target 3 lun 0
>> sd0: <Quantum GoDrive GLS127S cyl 675 alt 2 hd 9 sec 41>
>> audio0 at obio 0x300000 pri 13 (sbus level 7)
>> SUNW,bpp0 at SBus slot 4 0xc800000 pri 3 (sbus level 2)
>> ledma0 at SBus slot 4 0x8400010
>> le0 at SBus slot 4 0x8c00000 pri 6 (onboard)
>> VME0 at SBus slot 0 0xfe00000 and obio 0x380000
>>   FORCE SPARC CPU-3CE (Rev. 0.3)
>>   FORCE Solaris 1.1F CPU-3CE VME Driver (nexus & memplus) Version 1.0
>>   Master Window: 0x10000000-0x1fffffff (a32map=0x1)
>>   Slave  Window: 0x0-0xfffff (slavemap=0x80)
>>   A16 Mail Box: 0x0 (mbox=0x0)
>>   VME Interrupt Level Enable: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,  (intenable=0xfe)
>> [...]
>> asx200 login: root
>> Last login: Fri Sep 10 01:22:10 on ttya
>> SunOS Release 4.1.3F (ASX_200) #740: Tue Jul 7 17:16:14 GMT-0400 1998
>> asx200# df
>> Filesystem            kbytes    used   avail capacity  Mounted on
>> /dev/sd0a              43958   15241   24322    39%    /
>> /dev/sd0g              43958   36291    3272    92%    /usr
>> /dev/sd0f              13783     104   12301     1%    /var
>> asx200# ifconfig -a
>> le0: flags=63<UP,BROADCAST,NOTRAILERS,RUNNING>
>>         inet 192.168.1.199 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
>>         ether 8:0:20:b:ab:ab
>> asx0: flags=862<BROADCAST,NOTRAILERS,RUNNING>
>>         inet 1.1.1.1 netmask ff000000 broadcast 1.255.255.255
>>         ether 0:0:0:0:0:0
>> qaa0: flags=60<NOTRAILERS,RUNNING>
>>         ether 0:0:0:0:0:0
>> [...]
>>
>> IIRC, it was basically a stock SunOS 4 install, plus the usual custom
>> kernel config to add Fore's drivers, startup scripts, and patches; the
>> utilities were in /atm/bin but there was a menu/shell thing for management
>> atop the Unix CLI.  I learned enough about it to be dangerous, with an SS20
>> and the two HPs eventually talking to the switch and making the lights
>> blink furiously as I pushed some big files around to see how it stacked up
>> against FDDI or FastEthernet.  Good times.
>>
>> So for a while in the early Noughties my home network comprised a small
>> FDDI ring for NFS traffic into my old Netapp F330s and Sun4 servers, the
>> three aforementioned ATM clients hanging off the ForeRunner, thick-, thin-
>> and twisted pair 10Mbit Ethernet hubs and switches connecting my older
>> 32-bit NeXT, Sun, Tek, SGI, DEC and PERQ workstations, FastEthernet
>> backbone tying all that to my Cisco switch cluster for the higher-end
>> Sparcs and desktop daily drivers, Gigabit Ethernet (fiber and TP) to my
>> F700 and F800 Netapps and the Ultras, 7Mbit ADSL line to the outside, a
>> 1Mbit Farallon "homeline" Ethernet to my upstairs tenant, and even a UUCP
>> feed over an old 33.6Kbaud fax modem for a small NNTP feed and to connect
>> my mom's NeXT to her Postscript service bureau.  I'm sure at one point or
>> another I employed smoke signals, avian carriers, sneaker net with
>> floppies, a station wagon full of magtapes, two cans with a string... and
>> of course, throw in an obligatory ISDN jab here too.
>>
>> It was the "standing up in a canoe" of home networking setups, to be sure.
>>
>> But if that ATM kit hadn't been free, I definitely would never have gone
>> out lookin' for it! :-)
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> rescue list - http://sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue_sunhelp.org
>>
>
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