[SunHELP] SS20 VSIMMs or alternative Framebuffers

[Brian Hechinger]

> Hello,

hi

> I have the chance of acquiring an old SS20 (Model 71) which has one drawback:
> No VSIMM installed.

hmmm, always a bummer, but the sparc20 is definitely a nice machine, i should
know, got two at home and one on my desk at work. :)

> I keep hearing those are difficult to come by and somewhat costly.
> Still, I figure it might be worthwhile trying.

you can find them on eBay.  not cheap, but not too expensive anyway.

> Does anyone know a place still carrying VSIMMs for the SS20 - preferrably in
> Europe/Germany - and/or how much an 8MB VSIMM is supposed to cost today?
> (If all else fails, even a 4MB would do, though obviously less desirable)

if you don't need higher than 1152x900x32bpp then a 4MB is fine.  memoryx.com
has them for "reasonable" prices, and i'm pretty sure they ship international
(a VSIMM is small and light so overseas shipping should be low)

> As an alternative I would like to try any option of SBUS 24bit Framebuffer,
> but again am lacking a source of acquisition.
>
> Any pointers would be welcome,

having just gone through this whole dance myself, here's what i've found.

if it's SBus and 24-bit there is a 97.99% chance it hasn't been supported
since Solaris 2.6, the SX is supported, the ZX isn't, etc...

honestly, i'd stick with the onboard SX since it is known to work with Solaris
and is pretty decent.

cheers,

-brian