Can you use SMD disks on a Sun 330?
Jeff Weber
ginosko!cg-atla!weber at uunet.uu.net
Mon Sep 25 23:18:42 AEST 1989
In article <1539 at brazos.Rice.edu> you write:
>X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 8, Issue 125, message 10 of 19
>
>The Sun sparcstation 330 has 5 VME slots (3x9U 2x6U). The VME slots can
>presumably be used for any reasonable VME board, (like a third party
>VME/SMD disk controller) but Sun does not offer the 330 in any
>configuration with SMD disks.
>
>Why? Is it that their SMD-4 controller is 9U and won't fit? (why not? the
>cpu takes only one 9U slot?)
How about: Sun wants you to buy a bigger machine so they can make more
money?
Look closely; the framebuffer mounting on the CPU board extends into the
next 9u slot preventing you from using it, it seems. This results in
having 1-9u and 2-6u slots to grow in.
Try a Xylogic 753 SMD controller. It seems pretty well assumed around the
net that they are the same as Sun's SMD-4 and it is in a 6u form factor.
>Is there anything that would stop me from using someone else's disk
>subsystem? Do you know of any that definitely work on the 330? (I know of
>lots of SMD systems, but they might not work).
Well let's see..... The install tapes are the same between 330 and 370's
w/SMD. The CPU is the same. They both are VME bus. I do this type of
cross building quite often. Usually you can get away with it.
>We are trying to get a SPARC system which for political reasons has to be
><= $30,000 ,but we want to expand it next year into a reasonable server.
>SMD disks are preferred for swapping and paging large cpu-intensive jobs.
You may try IPI. SMD is dying.
>Any comments are appreciated. Please mail me, as I am (our site is)
>way behind in News, so I won't see anything there for a while.
>Thanks. If I find out anything useful, I'll summarize.
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