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

Wed Feb 28 16:30:57 EST 2024

With a Texas Instruments TMS390S10 microSPARC CPU, architecturally (sun4m)  it's more like a SPARCstation-LX or SPARCclassic than an SS2 (sun4c).

- Mike

On 28 February 2024 20:27:37 GMT, Skeezics Boondoggle via rescue <rescue at sunhelp.org> wrote:
>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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