17 Jul
1999
17 Jul
'99
1:41 p.m.
I picked up a Sun 3/260 and a 3/280 yesterday. After pulling all the VME
boards from the /280, I found one I didn't recognize....
Board marked:
Clearpoint Research
SNX2RAM/8 Rev A
Serial Num 639
Copyright 1988
Major chips: (lines seperated by /)
N8X401I/ABW7840
CSI 5134/NCR0380477/F830215 F8816
CSI 5133/NCR0380475/F828347 N8749
Anyone have a clue what this is? The guy I got it from said he was told
it was an FPU. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. It's also
got what appears to be 1mb of SRAM on it. The low serial number makes me
think its something a bit specialized, but I don't really have any idea
how many Sun3s were sold to compare that with.
thanks
mid
---
Adam Fritzler
{ mid(a)auk.cx, afritz(a)iname.com}
http://www.auk.cx/~mid/
"Behold the power of cheese." -- National Dairy Council
17 Jul
17 Jul
3:44 p.m.
Well, not being familiar with Sun 3's, but recognizing the Clearpoint name,
I'd guess it is a 3rd Party RAM board. Does the board have much of
anything that looks like something other than RAM chips?
As for the low serial number, I've no idea how many Sun 3's were made
either, but I wouldn't read anything into the Serial Number. A 1Mb RAM
board for a Workstation, at that time would have probably cost a small
fortune, and not been produced in very large numbers.
Zane
I picked up a Sun 3/260 and a 3/280 yesterday. After
pulling all the VME
boards from the /280, I found one I didn't recognize....
Board marked:
Clearpoint Research
SNX2RAM/8 Rev A
Serial Num 639
Copyright 1988
Major chips: (lines seperated by /)
N8X401I/ABW7840
CSI 5134/NCR0380477/F830215 F8816
CSI 5133/NCR0380475/F828347 N8749
Anyone have a clue what this is? The guy I got it from said he was told
it was an FPU. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. It's also
got what appears to be 1mb of SRAM on it. The low serial number makes me
think its something a bit specialized, but I don't really have any idea
how many Sun3s were sold to compare that with.
thanks
mid
---
Adam Fritzler
{ mid(a)auk.cx, afritz(a)iname.com}
http://www.auk.cx/~mid/
"Behold the power of cheese." -- National Dairy Council
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
4:33 p.m.
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18 Jul
18 Jul
10:47 a.m.
On Sat, 17 Jul 1999, Tony Duell wrote:
That was my first guess as well. Clearpoint were
well-known for 3rd party
RAM.
I don't suppose there's any part of Clearpoint left operating that I could
ask is there?
But the 8X401 (the only chip I recognise off that
list) is a high-speed
microcontroller from Philips/Signetics. 150ns cycle time, ECL internally
according to the data sheet. Not the sort of thing you find on a RAM board.
My guess is that it _is_ some kind of coprocessor.
Maybe a floating point
board. Maybe something else.
My current guess is currently leaning towards a video board of some sort.
I'm not sure if I mentioned it in the first mail, but it also has a female
9pin DIN connector, which is what Sun3s used for mono video. However, I
don't know why a video board would have a Norm/Diag switch, or a reset
button.
mid
---
Adam Fritzler
{ mid(a)auk.cx, afritz(a)iname.com}
http://www.auk.cx/~mid/
"Behold the power of cheese." -- National Dairy Council
11 a.m.
On Sat, 17 Jul 1999, Tony Duell wrote:
Now there is the kind of question I love! <evil grin>
http://www.clearpoint.com/ Looks like they still make Sun 3 boards, but
that isn't one of them.
That was my first guess as well. Clearpoint were
well-known for 3rd party
RAM.
I don't suppose there's any part of Clearpoint left operating that I could
ask is there? My current guess is currently leaning towards a video
board of some sort.
I'm not sure if I mentioned it in the first mail, but it also has a female
9pin DIN connector, which is what Sun3s used for mono video. However, I
don't know why a video board would have a Norm/Diag switch, or a reset
button.
Well, if it is some sort of FPU/Coprocessor maybe you are supposed to plug
a terminal in there? Don't think I'd recommend trying if you don't know.
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
12:29 p.m.
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