<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">Hi Plamen<div><br></div><div>Any pointers to a VSB cable? Sun part number etc?</div><div><br></div><div>No it wasn’t seen over the VME bus…despite my wishing and misunderstanding of the documentation 🤪</div><div><br></div><div>Richard <br><br><div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPhone</div><div dir="ltr"><br><blockquote type="cite">On 24 May 2022, at 15:03, Plamen Mihaylov <plamenspam@afterpeople.com> wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr">It is a VSB cable. It is mandatory to be used in Sparcengine 1e memory as well as sun3e.<div><br></div><div>I am little bit surprised that 1e has detected the sun3e memory board over vmebus only.</div><div><br></div><div><br>On Tuesday, May 24, 2022, Richard <<a href="mailto:ejb@trick-1.net">ejb@trick-1.net</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word;line-break:after-white-space">So thank you for the pointer and in a classic RTFM moment…:-) <div><br></div><div>In the !E CPU Card Users Manual Section 17, page 137, (its a matter of reading a few pages I guess)</div><div><br></div><div><snip></div><div>The SPARCengine 1E P2 Bus is unique to the SPARCengine 1E. It is not compatible with the P2 Bus on any other Sun Microsystems card products. Use of the Sun Microsystems P2 bus for development is discouraged by Sun Microsystems, who reserves the right to re-configure the P2 Bus of each product related. The p2 Bus Is not documented for public use.</div><div></snip></div><div><br></div><div>Well thats handy! And then the killer</div><div><br></div><div><snip></div><div>While the SPARCengine 1E card family will work in a Sun-3E compatible back-plane, Sun-3E parity memory cards are NOT supported in a SPARCengine 1E system</div><div><snip></div><div><br></div><div>It says "not supported” but does that mean it might work, just don’t call Sun if it fails…kind of not supported or literally absolutely will never work kind of not supported…..hmmm</div><div><br></div><div>So even if I had a 1E memory card (I had one on order that was refunded as they couldn’t find it) I still probably wouldn’t be able to use it as I have a Schroff I/O board for my P2 connector and not a Sun one…</div><div><br></div><div>Off to go play with my SS1000 and do the memory upgrade I have been putting off for over a year.</div><div><br></div><div>In the mean time….anyone found a SunOS 4.0.3e or 4.1e OS tape kicking around?</div><div><br></div><div>Cheers</div><div><br></div><div>Richard</div><div><br><div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>On 24 May 2022, at 11:05 am, Richard <<a href="mailto:ejb@trick-1.net" target="_blank">ejb@trick-1.net</a>> wrote:</div><br><div><div style="word-wrap:break-word;line-break:after-white-space">Hi Ethan<div><br></div><div>Super interesting. Do you have any reference material for that?</div><div><br></div><div>The only reference I have is <a href="http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/sun/sparc/800-8137-02_The_SPARCengine_1E_CPU_Card_Users_Manual_Apr90.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.bitsavers.org/<wbr>pdf/sun/sparc/800-8137-02_The_<wbr>SPARCengine_1E_CPU_Card_Users_<wbr>Manual_Apr90.pdf</a> and from what I can determine it doesn’t mention or elude to any of the below…then there are the FE manuals but they don’t talk much about this either. </div><div><br></div><div>I have to say this is one of the more challenging bring backs I have done for a while.</div><div><br></div><div>Richard<br><div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>On 24 May 2022, at 10:53 am, Ethan Hawke <<a href="mailto:ehawk@ember.systems" target="_blank">ehawk@ember.systems</a>> wrote:</div><br><div>
  
    
  
  <div><p>The 1E uses the SBus as it's main system bus, and uses the S4-VME
      chip to interface with the VME bus as an IO controller not as
      memory.</p><p>In regards to the connector, the P2 connector is the second
      (lower) connector on the VME backplane, the unused outer row of
      pins on the P2 connector is used as the memory interface on the
      1E. So the cable would be installed behind the backplane (like you
      would a paddleboard), while the pinout on the 1E's P2 is provided
      on the 1E manual, I don't have a copy of the 1E memory manual to
      find the pinout of the P2 connector on that (or the registers for
      the memory controller on board the memory expansion card). So to
      expand the 1E you will need a 1E memory card, and the correct
      backplane cable to connect them.</p><p>As for mapping generic memory cards, that will be quite tricky,
      while you can use the /dev/vmea32d32 interface to talk to it, to
      use it as memory would require modifying the OS and OpenBoot to
      add the correct ranges to the 'available' attribute. However it
      won't be cacheable and will hurt performance.</p><p>If any one has a copy of the 1E Memory board user manual that
      would be helpful.</p><p>So if you want to expand the memory on a 1E, you will have to
      find a memory board and create the special cable, I can only
      assume that it's a straight through cable, but besides from that I
      don't know the details.</p><p>Cheers,<br>
      Ethan<br>
    </p>
    <div>On 5/24/22 07:43, Richard wrote:<br>
    </div>
    <blockquote type="cite">
      
      <span style="font-family:-webkit-standard;font-size:inherit">Hi Ethan</span>
      <div><br>
      </div>
      <div>Thanks for
        that…..</div>
      <div><br>
      </div>
      <div>The sun 3e
        boards don’t have a special cable <a href="https://shrubbery.net/~heas/sun-feh-2_1/Systems/Sun3/FEH3.enter.html" target="_blank">https://shrubbery.net/~<wbr>heas/sun-feh-2_1/Systems/Sun3/<wbr>FEH3.enter.html</a> I
        have the <span dir="ltr">501-8031</span> . The Sun 4e memory
        boards don’t have any special cable either <span dir="ltr">501-8042/501-8036</span>/501-<wbr>8060 <a href="https://oldcomputers-ddns.org/public/pub/rechner/other_hardware/sun/sparc_4-330/sun-4x.pdf" target="_blank">https://oldcomputers-<wbr>ddns.org/public/pub/rechner/<wbr>other_hardware/sun/sparc_4-<wbr>330/sun-4x.pdf</a> .
        They look very much the same :-/</div>
      <div><br>
      </div>
      <div>How would I
        map them manually? Any pointers/howto?</div>
      <div><br>
      </div>
      <div>FWIW in my
        SPARCStation 1 I have the SBUS memory expansion with a special
        jumper cable. That won’t fit on this board.</div>
      <div><br>
      </div>
      <div>Cheers</div>
      <div><br>
      </div>
      <div><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Richard</span><br>
      </div>
      <br>
      <br>
      <div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPhone</div>
      <div dir="ltr"><br>
        <blockquote type="cite">On 23 May 2022, at 20:25, Ethan Hawke
          <a href="mailto:ehawk@ember.systems" target="_blank"><ehawk@ember.systems></a> wrote:<br>
          <br>
        </blockquote>
      </div>
      <blockquote type="cite">
        <div dir="ltr">
          <p>Hey Richard,</p><p>Unfortunately that is not how the 1E works. Only one of the
            special memory boards with the custom P2 cable will work.</p><p>Do the sun 3e boards use a special cable or just the
            standard VME bus? If standard VME you can map them in
            manually but they will exist in IO (aka obio or "type 1")
            space and won't be cacheable.</p><p>The custom P2 cable carries the remaining signals to detect
            memory space accesses similar to the 'SBus Expansion
            Connector" on SS1/SS2 to use the special SBus memory boards.</p><p>Sorry to disappoint,<br>
            Ethan<br>
          </p>
          <div>On 5/23/22 17:29, Richard wrote:<br>
          </div>
          <blockquote type="cite">
            
            Sadly they are all I have…I was working on the theory that
            owners of the 3/E would have upgraded to the 4/E without
            issue. 
            <div><br>
            </div>
            <div>Much like the 3/260 to 4/260 upgrade I did back in the
              day. Remove old cpu board insert new COU board, install
              fresh OS and keep using all the memory boards etc.<br>
              <br>
              <div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPhone</div>
              <div dir="ltr"><br>
                <blockquote type="cite">On 23 May 2022, at 17:11, Plamen
                  Mihaylov <a href="mailto:plamenspam@afterpeople.com" target="_blank"><plamenspam@afterpeople.com></a>
                  wrote:<br>
                  <br>
                </blockquote>
              </div>
              <blockquote type="cite">
                <div dir="ltr">
                  <div dir="ltr">Hi Richard,
                    <div><br>
                      Maybe there is incompatibility between 3E and 1E
                      mem boards when they are stacked. Do you have
                      4E60-16 or/and 501-8060 to test ?</div>
                    <div><br>
                    </div>
                    <div>Best regards,<br>
                      Plamen</div>
                    <div><br>
                    </div>
                  </div>
                  <br>
                  <div class="gmail_quote">
                    <div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, May 23,
                      2022 at 9:46 AM Richard <<a href="mailto:ejb@trick-1.net" target="_blank">ejb@trick-1.net</a>>
                      wrote:<br>
                    </div>
                    <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
                      <div>Hi Plamen
                        <div><br>
                        </div>
                        <div>Manual indicates that multiple are
                          supported</div>
                        <div><br>
                        </div>
                        <div><a href="http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/sun/sparc/800-8137-02_The_SPARCengine_1E_CPU_Card_Users_Manual_Apr90.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/<wbr>sun/sparc/800-8137-02_The_<wbr>SPARCengine_1E_CPU_Card_Users_<wbr>Manual_Apr90.pdf</a></div>
                        <div><br>
                        </div>
                        <div>See pages 36 and 37…..</div>
                        <div><br>
                        </div>
                        <div>Richard<br>
                          <div><br>
                            <blockquote type="cite">
                              <div>On 23 May 2022, at 3:45 pm, Plamen
                                Mihaylov <<a href="mailto:plamenspam@afterpeople.com" target="_blank">plamenspam@afterpeople.com</a>>
                                wrote:</div>
                              <br>
                              <div>Hi Richard,
                                <div><br>
                                </div>
                                <div>I don’t sparcengine 1E is designed
                                  to handle 2 memory boards.</div>
                                <div><br>
                                </div>
                                <div><br>
                                </div>
                                <div>Best regards,</div>
                                <div>Plamen</div>
                                <div><br>
                                  On Monday, May 23, 2022, Richard <<a href="mailto:ejb@trick-1.net" target="_blank">ejb@trick-1.net</a>>
                                  wrote:<br>
                                  <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">Hi
                                    folks<br>
                                    <br>
                                    Looking for some
                                    suggestions/guidance or help.<br>
                                    <br>
                                    I am Looking to add 2x 4Mb Sun 3/E
                                    memory boards to the SPARCEngine 1E.<br>
                                    <br>
                                    I do note that these are memory
                                    boards from the Sun3/E but am of the
                                    understanding that they will work.<br>
                                    <br>
                                    Reading through the SPARCEngine
                                    manual I have added the jumpers to
                                    my schroff Backplane to bridge slot
                                    2 as this is empty - the sbus video
                                    card occupies the slot.<br>
                                    <br>
                                    Configuration is<br>
                                    Slot1: SPARCEngine<br>
                                    Slot2: jumpered and empty<br>
                                    Slot3: 4Mb memory bord jumpered for
                                    4-8MB<br>
                                    Slot4: 4Mb memory bord jumpered for
                                    8-12Mb.<br>
                                    <br>
                                    Now on post I don’t see the extra
                                    8mb.<br>
                                    <br>
                                    Anyone got any ideas ? I read
                                    something about telling the nvram
                                    about the VME cards but not familiar
                                    with that process or how to do so.<br>
                                    <br>
                                    Thanks in advance <br>
                                    <br>
                                    Richard <br>
                                    <br>
                                    Sent from my iPhone<br>
                                    <br>
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