[Bradford] Sun hardware in need of a good home

[Bob Ham]

All,

The Ultra 5 has gone but the SPARCclassic, SPARCstation 4, monitors and
keyboard are still available should anyone be interested..

Bob

On Tue, 2016-03-08 at 19:57 +0000, Bob Ham wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Let me tell you a little story.  Many moons ago, while I was living away
> from Bristol, a man appeared at a meeting of the Bristol and Bath Linux
> User Group offering abundant gifts to all and sundry.  Inside the boot
> of his car lay a treasure trove of Sun computers, as I understand,
> originating from the University of Bath.  A number of these were taken
> by a LUG regular, a hacker of great skill named John Honniball, who took
> them in order to offer the gems to any who sought to learn the ways of
> the SPARC and the arcane magic of Engineering Workstations The Right
> Way.  When I returned to Bristol I was honoured to be offered, and
> accept, a SPARCclassic from John.
> 
> Some years later, after I had left Bristol and returned again, another
> LUG regular, a Unix wizard from the University of Bristol's department
> of physics named Winnie Lacesso, notified us that there were a number of
> Sun workstations being disposed of by her department.  (The same
> department providing part of the computing grid for the LHC no less.)  I
> took the opportunity to visit the department and acquire a SPARCstation
> 4, along with two Sun monitors, from the learned folks.
> 
> Now, I live in Liverpool.  I have tinkered and explored and learned.  I
> have gained a great deal from these gifts.  However, I have moved on and
> I feel it is right that instead of gathering dust, these gems should
> again be offered to any who seek.  So, in need of a good home are:
> 
> 
> 
> * Sun SPARCclassic workstation, 64MB memory, 9GB SCSI disk
> 
> http://www.obsolyte.com/sun_lx/
> http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/6751/Sun-SPARCclassic/
> 
> The battery in the NVRAM has gone.  If you're not familiar with NVRAM
> issues on SPARC, see:
> 
> http://www.lib.ru/TXT/faqsunnvram.txt
> 
> and for an adventure to whose excitement I can personally attest:
> 
> https://gigawa.lt/gigawa.lt/Sun_NVRAM.html
> 
> 
> 
> * Sun SPARCstation 4 workstation, 64MB memory, 9GB SCSI disk
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARCstation_4
> http://www.obsolyte.com/sun_ss5/
> 
> 
> 
> * Sun GDM-17E20 monitor
> 
> http://www.shrubbery.net/~heas/sun-feh-2_1/Devices/Monitor/MONITOR_Color_17_Premium_CRT.html#365-1338
> 
> 
> 
> * Sun GDM-17E10 monitor
> 
> http://www.shrubbery.net/~heas/sun-feh-2_1/Devices/Monitor/MONITOR_Color_17_Premium_CRT.html#365-1316
> 
> From what I recall (and the scribblings on the top of it), this monitor
> is unstable sometimes.  Having just plugged it in, it displays the
> console fine but I haven't tried X with higher resolutions, or for an
> extended period.
> 
> 
> 
> * I also have an Ultra 5 which has a brand new NVRAM :-) but this is
> available only in return for pieces of silver as it was purchased rather
> than a donation.  It will be on eBay shortly.
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_5/10
> 
> It has a 64-bit UltraSPARC IIi, 256 MB memory and an 80 GB IDE disk.
> 
> 
> * I also have a type 6 keyboard and mouse.  This was bought for £20 on
> eBay so that I could press two keys, Stop+N, in order to reset the NVRAM
> on the SPARCclassic and get the serial port back.  A good lesson there:
> don't fiddle with the flow control settings of a serial port if said
> serial port is the only way to access a machine :-)  As I paid for it,
> again, I'd like to have some token offering in return.
> 
> 
> * In Bristol, I have a monster 21" Sun monitor which needs two people to
> carry it safely (this is not a joke).  It'll be coming up from Bristol
> at some point regardless so if anyone is interested, let me know.
> 
> 
> 
> Note that a monitor and keyboard isn't necessary to install or operate
> the workstations as they default to serial port access in the absence of
> a keyboard and monitor.  They make excellent servers, in fact.
> 
> If you wish to receive any of these gifts, email me back and we'll sort
> it out.  First come, first served.
> 
> 
> Happy hacking,
> 
> Bob
> 
> 
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