Sparcstation IPC
From Grahams Wiki
The SPARCstation IPC, or Sun 4/40, is a SPARC-based computer workstation sold by Sun Microsystems as part of the SPARCstation series. It was sold starting in 1989, and the end of Sun's support for it was originally 1996, but support was extended to 31 May 1999. A workstation. The computer is basically a slightly cut down SPARCstation 1+ in a smaller box. Expansion is more limited than the SPARCstation 1+ however.
The computer was based around a LSI Logic L64801 or Fujitsu MB86901A RISC CPU running at 25 MHz, with a Weitek 3172 FPU coprocessor. It is another of the sun4c architecture.
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[edit] Ports
- 2x SBUS slots (Internal)
- 1x AUI ethernet connection.
- 1x SUN custom audio connection for the 8kHz audio and microphone.
- 1x SUN keyboard connection.
- 1x 13W3 video connection for the internal bwtwo video.
- 2x SUN RS232 connections.
- 1x fast-narrow HD SCSI connector.
[edit] Memory
The SPARCstation 1+ takes 30 pin SIMMs in groups of four. It can take either 1 MB or 4 MB SIMMs as long as the size is consistent within a bank. There are a total of four memory banks, which can give a total of 64 MB of memory. The memory bank nearest the floppy disk drive should be filled first. If not, the OpenBoot firmware will hang while memory checking.
[edit] Disk drives
The SPARCstation 1 has space for one hard drive and one floppy drive internally. The machine will take any 50 pin SCSI-2 hard drive, but the OpenBoot BIOS will not boot from any partition which starts or ends after 1024 MB. The floppy drive, like the Macintosh's, is unusual in that it has an electromechanical eject mechanism rather than the conventional eject button, and therefore must be ejected by the operating system or OpenBoot. The machine can connect to any SCSI CD drive, via either the SCSI connector on the back or by connecting it to any spare internal SCSI connector via a 50 pin cable.
[edit] My ones
I have two, Both have 48Mb of ram (The maximum). The first one a 1Gb hard drive, a floppy drive. It has Debian linux installed on it. I have hacked the CMOS ram chip to replace the battery. The second one has NetBSD on it.
[edit] NVRAM
The SPARCstation IPC uses a M48T02 Battery backed up RTC with RAM chip, which handles the real time clock and the Openboot BIOS parameter storage. The only problem with this chip is that the battery is internal, which means you have to replace the whole chip when the battery runs out. As Sparcstation 1's are now older than the battery lives of the chip, a substantial number of these boxes will now refuse to boot. hacking the CMOS ram chip
[edit] Operating systems
The SPARCstation 1, 1+, IPC and SLC can run the following operating systems:
SunOS 4.0.3c through 5.7 (Solaris 7)
Linux (Modern versions may have trouble with the limited amount of memory in these machines)
NetBSD 1.0 onwards
OpenBSD - All versions.
[edit] Related computers i have
The SPARCstation 1 (Sun 4/60) Was the previous model.
The SPARCstation 1+ (Sun 4/65) is a version of the SPARCstation IPC in a pizza box case and onboard video.
The SPARCstation 2 (Sun 4/75) is the machine's successor and was released in 1990.
