Upgrading 3/280S - Summary (5 answers)

[Stephan Wasserroth]

Some time ago I asked the following two questions:
>1. Does SUN offer an upgrade 3/280S ---> 3/480S (that would be a
>   CPU-upgrade)?
>2. SUN now has 32MB-memory-boards. A 3/480S seem to support both 8MB and
>   32MB boards (up to a total of 128MB). Is it possible to put the 32MB
>   boards into a 3/280S? If not, why doesn't it work? Is it possible
>   to put more than 32MB into a 3/280S?
>
>The "official" answer (our friendly sales rep...) is:
>1. CPU-upgrades only 3/280S ---> 4/200 (but we need 3/... no SPARC!)
>2. No 32MB boards into a 3/280S. Reason unknown.

I received the following answers:

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From:  Greg Christy
Date: Wed, 17 May 89 13:52:37 PDT

Stephan, 

When we ordered a 3/260C in April our Sun salesperson told us of a
special deal that Sun was offering to keep people from canceling their
3/2xx orders when the new 3/4xx machines were announced.  They offered to
upgrade our CPU board to the new 3/4xx board (when they become
available) for 5000 US dollars.  He stated that this was half of the
normal upgrade price.  I have no idea if this offer is available in
the BRD, but at least you can inform your salesperson that the CPU
upgrade can be done here in the US.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Greg Christy                    dumb email: greg%irad_sun1 at wlv.imsd.contel.com
Contel Federal Systems          smart email: greg at irad_sun1.imsd.contel.com
31717 La Tienda Drive           phone: (818) 706-4307
Westlake Village, CA    91359
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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I don't know if Sun is different in Germany for some reason, but in the
USA my sales Rep (who generally has his act together, unlike many Sun
Reps) says Yes to both of these.  #1 costs about $17,000 but may not be
in current sales lists.  You'll need SunOS 4.0.3 to handle the Pegasus
board.  For #2, you can put 4 32MB boards in a 3/280, but you need the
latest ROMS (I'm not sure how recent; if your Sales Rep can't find out
I can try to find out for you.) and SunOS 4.0.  You have to dig to find
out any of this; Sun's Sales is almost as lame as their support (except
for my Rep, who walks on water).

	--Carl Rigney
	cdr at amdcad.AMD.COM
	{ames decwrl gatech pyramid sun uunet}!amdcad!cdr
	MS 167; AMD; 901 Thompson Place; Box 3453; Sunnyvale, CA  94088
	+1 408 749 2453

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From:  Randy Smith
Date: Thu, 18 May 89 12:54:04 CDT

While I couldn't find such an upgrade in the normal price list, some
Sun e-mail given to me by our local rep. shows the following

3/280 to 3/480 Product number UG3/200-PROMO	List Price $5000
	Category "A" discountable

This info came under the category "Q4 Promotionan Upgrade Programs"
This seems like a really good deal to me...  Unfortunately we already
spent our equipment budget for the year.

Randy Smith
University of Minnesota          Minnesota Supercomputer Institute
wsmith at s1.msi.umn.edu             ...!rutgers!umn-cs!wsmith

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From:  Jamie Sonsini
Date: Thu, 18 May 89 13:00:56 PDT

I've inquired into the same upgrade and was told my our local Sun sales
rep that this was "simply a CPU board swap".  I'm still waiting for price
information (it's been a few weeks now).  So, maybe Sun's sales folks
don't all have the same instructions or information?  Our sales rep
is Seymour Stein (Los Angeles, CA, phone: (818) 905-0200).  Good luck.

                                        Jamie Sonsini
                                        UC Santa Barbara
                                        9531sons at ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu

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For at least some 3/280's, the answer to both is yes, but not all of
any model are the same - sort of like VAXen, they keep changing things
here and there (cf "dimple-top" vs. "flat-top" 3/50's, same model,
slightly different design.

You can upgrade very recent 3/280's, maybe all of them, maybe only
those produced with some recent tweak of the design - like maybe those
produced after Sun itself knew what the 3/400's would be like.

We have a brand new 3/280 that we stuck a 32M board in.  The spec says
you can't do that, but it finds and uses all 48M.

Dick St.Peters
GE Corporate R&D, Schenectady, NY
stpeters at dawn.crd.ge.com
uunet!steinmetz!dawn!stpeters

GE would charge for opinions if it could find any.  These are mine.

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Thanks to everyone!

DFN-EAN:       <wasserroth at fokus.berlin.gmd.dbp.de>
ARPA:          <wasserroth%fokus.berlin.gmd.dbp.de at relay.cs.net>

                                          /   GMD-FOKUS
Stephan Wasserroth   \_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _/    Hardenbergplatz 2
System Manager for   /                   \    D-1000 Berlin 12
VAXes and Sun-WS                          \   Fed. Rep. of Germany