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| Author |
Message |
danr
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Searching for a Sun
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Nov 13 13:04 UTC 1991 |
I was reading misc.forsale.computers the other day, and it looked like
there was a lot of Sun stuff for sale at reasonable prices. This got
me thinking that it might be fun to pick one up to play around with.
It also sounds like a better way to have a computer running UNIX than
to buy a more powerful PC and spend $800 - 1000 for a 80x86 UNIX.
So, any suggestions for what I should look for? What model numbers?
How much disk should I shoot for? What kind of monitor? Any
suggestions would be appreciated.
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| 78 responses total. |
mistik
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response 1 of 78:
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Nov 13 16:25 UTC 1991 |
I heard from a friend that someone he knew was selling a sun3/50 for 1500.
I think that one is gone.
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mju
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response 2 of 78:
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Nov 13 22:39 UTC 1991 |
Most of the Sun workstations you see on the net will probably be
"diskless", which means just what its name implies -- the machine
does not have a hard disk. (Or, it might have a 40MB hard drive
for swap, but this is close enough to diskless to not matter.)
Diskless workstations are fine if you are going to be running it in
a university computer lab, with lots of other Suns and a master server
that it can boot from. However, it will not work well for a home
machine.
You will probably want at least 150MB of disk, which will probably
cost you significantly (i.e., $500 or so) more than a diskless
workstation.
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jep
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response 3 of 78:
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Nov 14 06:09 UTC 1991 |
Would someone be willing to give a brief overview of what the
different Sun machines are like, say, compared to Grex? I'd like to know
a little about their capabilities, new and used prices, and the
distinctions between them.
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mistik
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response 4 of 78:
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Nov 14 15:41 UTC 1991 |
That's a good idea, I am kind of looking for a new machine too, but haven't
decided on what kind of hardware platform, user interface platform, and
operating system.
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mdw
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response 5 of 78:
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Nov 15 08:26 UTC 1991 |
Here are some of the older Sun's (You won't see many of these for sale
anymore):
Sun-1 family. DOES NOT RUN BSD UNIX. 68000 based. Runs Unisoft
Unix.
Sun-1/100 The original "desktop" Unix workstation. Does not
run BSD.
Sun-1/150 A rack-mount "fileserver" for the above. Does not
run BSD.
Sun-2 family. 68010 based. Two major variants:
Multibus:
sun-2/120 A "tower" system. Limited slots
Sun-2/170 A rackmount "fileserver".
You may also occasionally see:
Sun-2/100U A sun-1/100 that's been upgraded. Really limited
slots
Sun-2/150U Essentially, a /170. May still have sun-1
style keyboard and display.
VME:
Sun-2/50 Actually, more or less an SBD design.
Sun-2/160 (???) VME bus machine.
Here's where my recollection gets a bit scarce:
(But these are all 68020 based machines.)
Sun-3/50 This is a more or less
SBD design. Does support SCSI, ethernet
sun-3/110 desktop workstation w/ color display
Sun-3/160 tower system
sun-3/180 rackmount system
sun-3/280 faster rackmount system
I don't know if anything came out called a "sun-4" per se. However
this would be the sparc chipset -- such as the "sparcstation I"
and sucessors.
Past this, I haven't kept track. It may not make much difference
from the used equipment market yet though.
You should also keep in mind operating systems:
SunOS 1.1 through 1.4 You won't see many of these.
SunOS 2.x You won't see these either.
SunOS 3.2, 3.4, 3.5 (and a rumoured 3.6). These were pretty stable,
and gained a sort of extension on life when
sunOS 4 proved a bit flakey. If you get
a sun-2, this is probably what you will want
to run (ie, 3.5 is probalby the best you can do)
SunOS 4.0 ambitious. Perhaps a bit overly so
SunOS 4.0.1 not quite as flakey
SunOS 4.1(.?) starting to get there.
You should try for documentation as well. Ideally for the version
you are able to get tapes for. The tapes to install an operation
system may be the hardest item to come by.
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erk
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response 6 of 78:
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Nov 15 13:47 UTC 1991 |
what about prices? i'm looking at getting a 33mhz 486
from gateway and putting sco unix on it...the pc will
run about $3000 before multiport board and tape backup.
how do suns compare (new prices).
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jep
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response 7 of 78:
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Nov 16 00:15 UTC 1991 |
You mean you have all of those machines, Marcus? Are they running?
(-:
Thanks for the info!
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mdw
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response 8 of 78:
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Nov 16 03:04 UTC 1991 |
My recollection would be a lot less scarce if I actually had them.
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bad
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response 9 of 78:
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Nov 16 04:00 UTC 1991 |
But who knows what could be in the back corner of that basement? :)
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jep
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response 10 of 78:
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Nov 16 04:50 UTC 1991 |
Oh, your REcollection. I missed part of a word there.
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mcnally
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response 11 of 78:
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Nov 16 05:21 UTC 1991 |
a few additions:
in addition to the 3/50 there were 3/60s, too, which were essentially
3/50s with double (?) the clock speed.
there also is a Sun 4 series, and they may not all be SPARC machines.
There're definitely 4/110s and 4/280s, and the Sparcstation 1 and
Sparcstation 1+ are the 4/60 and 4/65 respectively.. Don't know what
that makes the Sparcstation SLC..
SunOS was up to 4.1.1 last time I looked, but that's a few months ago..
Also, I believe I've heard of a SunOS 4 version for the Sun 2s, though
that may be myth. Given the resources it would need, I can't imagine
wanting to run it anyways..
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mju
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response 12 of 78:
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Nov 17 07:24 UTC 1991 |
I believe the Sun 4 series are all SPARCs.
I also believe SunOS 4 only runs on Sun-3's and better.
Sun also sold the 386i, known to its followers as the "Roadrunner" (for
reasons I cannot fathom). There were several different models of
386i -- maybe 386i/50 and 386i/60? /120, too? At any rate Sun did
not make revs of SunOS higher than 3.5 for the 386i line, although
386i's did include DOS Merge (for running DOS applications under Unix)
as well as OpenWindows and, of course, SunOS. The 386i is, of course,
an Intel i386DX-based machine, whereas the Sun-[123] all have Motorala
chips, and the Sun-4s have Sun's own SPARC chips. You may be able to
find a 386i cheaply, though, since Sun no longer supports it.
SunOS is now called Solaris (I believe SunOS 4.1.1 = Solaris 1.0), and
is sold by a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sun Microsystems, called SunSoft.
Sun has announced that SunOS 5.0 (Solaris 2.0, really) will be available
for the Intel i386-based machines as well as the SPARC line. SunOS 5.0
will supposedly be based on SysVr4, not 4.3BSD, and the i386 port will
be done by Interactive, whom Sun recently purchased from Kodak.
(Continuing a bit further on this thread, 4.4BSD will supposedly be
available for the i386 when it comes out, and BSD, Inc. (not affiliated
with the University of California at Berkeley) will be coming out with
a 4.3BSD port to the i386 soon. 4.3BSD/386 will supposedly sell for
$999, full source included. (BSDI has rewritten the portions of 4.3BSD
that were not publically-available; mostly parts of the kernel.
I do not know whether the BSDI-authored portions of their 4.3BSD port
will be covered by the same distribution limitations (or lack thereof)
that the Berkeley-authored portions are.) Mt. Xinu also has Mach port
for the 386, although device support is somewhat slim at this time.
I think 1992 will be a very interesting year for the i386-Unix market.)
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mistik
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response 13 of 78:
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Nov 17 18:41 UTC 1991 |
I hear a lot about Mach, what is it and what machines does it run on.
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mju
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response 14 of 78:
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Nov 17 18:48 UTC 1991 |
Mach is an OS kernel developed at Carnegie-Mellon University, whose
notable features are modularity and "threads" (or "lightwight
processes"). I don't know which machines it runs on, but I believe
versions are available for VAXen and the i386.
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mcnally
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response 15 of 78:
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Nov 17 22:16 UTC 1991 |
And the Next, apparently..
SunOS 4.x includes many Mach-like features (particularly lwp's..)
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tcc
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response 16 of 78:
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Nov 18 08:42 UTC 1991 |
re 12: Is that the same SunSoft that wrote those really really cool
videogames for the Nintendo? I've been SO addicted to Blaster Master ...
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mju
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response 17 of 78:
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Nov 19 04:57 UTC 1991 |
I doubt it.
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choke
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response 18 of 78:
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Nov 19 18:16 UTC 1991 |
Re: SunOs 4.0 and the Sun 2 :
Incorrect. Sun 2 machines may run sunos 4.1.1 (The last version of
sunos that supports the Sun/2) only if they have the newer (revision 1.0) or
later Roms (256k instead of 128k.)
It is discouraged however, and it requires 4 meg of ram just to get the
eggbeater in the air. On a machine with a 7 meg limit, this is a pretty
serious drawback.
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choke
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response 19 of 78:
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Nov 19 18:27 UTC 1991 |
I'll sell you a Sun/2 just like Grex's but with st506 drives and a qic-02
tape.
How much do you want to pay?
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mcnally
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response 20 of 78:
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Nov 19 18:46 UTC 1991 |
I might be interested in buying the tape drive, if the price was right..
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choke
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response 21 of 78:
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Nov 21 18:35 UTC 1991 |
What is a 'right' price?
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choke
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response 22 of 78:
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Nov 21 18:45 UTC 1991 |
Items in two conferences.
SHeesh.
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mcnally
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response 23 of 78:
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Nov 21 20:57 UTC 1991 |
I don't know, especially now that I learn my car needs $450
in transmission repairs (actually, a re-build..)
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steve
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response 24 of 78:
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Mar 7 20:35 UTC 1992 |
I talked to a friend in CA a couple of days ago, about equipment for
Grex. It seems that the price on Sun 3/50's has fallen to the $600
and below class. Sun 3's are now dead, dead, dead in the "real world"
thanks to Sun's rather bizarre policy of absolutely pushing their
customers into Sparc stuff. Bad news for customers, but probably
very good for us folk...
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