The collected works of jpanchal

Finally registered - have been reading this forum/site for quite some time - figured I'd register and say hello to everyone. Feels more like being part of the community instead of just a casual reader/lurker!

Here's some of the Sun hardware I have gathered over the years:

Sparcstation IPC
Sparcstation 20 - quad Ross 100Mhz

Ultra 2 Enterprise - dual US1 200Mhz
Ultra 60 - dual US2 450Mhz
Netra t1 105 - US2i 440Mhz
Blade 1600 Chassis with B100s blades - US2e+ 650Mhz
Blade 1000 - dual US3 750Mhz

So, have to ask here - I've been contemplating selling off my Sun collection after the Oracle purchase - anyone else here feel the same? Have been a SPARC zealot most of my career - but things just don't feel right anymore... I actually started out on SGI hardware for schoolwork, but collected and used Sun gear along the way.

Thoughts? I've been meaning to get rid of the Ultra 2, Ultra 60, and Blade 1k - all the workstation machines (should be posting in the for sale forum later - will be in/around Chicago). I have a rack, so want to make all of my Sun collection be 'server' rackmount stuff - keeps the clutter factor low. Was looking to replace these with equivalent if not better server gear (i.e. a v480 and maybe a e4500...).

But have been thinking that maybe I should just sell of the whole set and wallow in x86-land...

I was leaning towards keeping the 32-bit machines - those are just plain fun. For the 64-bit boxes, just wanted to get all the clutter off the floor. You are right on keeping the Ultra 2 - a shelf is just what I need.

The 'I should get rid of all of these!' moment came a few days ago when I went to try and get the latest version of the OBP for the Netra, which was my latest acquisition, and found out that Oracle had locked away everything behind a contract/registration firewall. Can't just go to Sun's website and pull down the latest OBP for a machine - and reading posts about how hobbyists have to jump through hoops to get access - only a money-earning support contract lets you access firmware updates! It was one of those last-straw type of things I guess.

The Blade chassis is awesome - for anyone wanting to consolidate a bunch of computing it is great. Can run sparc, intel, and amd blades, fits in a 3u space, and doesn't have huge power consumption (<1kW with all 16 blades!). Sometimes you can grab one for cheap on Ebay.

Hola everyone,

I've gotten through devious means, a j6750 box. Any idea on the peformance/use of one of these things?! It seems to have dual 875MHz processors, about 4G RAM, and a single HD. Seems to run Debian well based on website reports. I have never played with HP-UX before, so can't comment there.

Any thoughts on this machine? Worth keeping, or should it go on the selling block? I'm more of a Sun/SPARC guy (my first post here was in the Sun forum yesterday - yay!), so a PA-RISC machine is shrouded in mystery to me...

You've hit the nail on the head for the reason I've been dithering on whether or not to stop collecting Sun gear - prices are dropping quite low, and machines I thought I could never get my hands on are becoming frightfully (in the sense that I might have to explain to the wife what I am exactly going to do with some monster machine I show up at home with one day) affordable.

I am not going to go the 240 VAC route - so Ultrasparc IV stuff is out - but have been eyeing a possible Sun Fire 3800 as something to aim for!

So I guess I am staying in the game - just need to find out where I can get my hands on OBP updates - anyone know where there might be an archive somewhere or such?

Hrmm...

Conundrum - whether to spend time hunting for HP-UX media and going through the adventure of picking up another unix - or selling the machine to get more sparc hardware...

Might have to flip a coin after a few drinks...

Anyone ever encounter or own a powerpc thinkpad? Have been learning the power architecture, and thought these were a nifty gadget! They are officially the 800 series, with the main models being the 820 and 850.

I have always been a thinkpad junkie (701c, 240, [current] x40] - and this series with a powerpc processor seems to be one of those rare birds that are impossible to find but fascinating in terms of concept...

I remember seeing a YouTube video of NT booting up on one - hrmm... Will have to dig up the link - around here somewhere...

Howdy, not mine but I noticed it whilst poking abouts on CL:

http://houston.craigslist.org/sys/1800596367.html

Lots of goodies there - not sure if it is a member...

Any further info on what type of computational work you're aiming for? If your problem domain can be distributed across multiple machines (MPI), your best bet might be to get more V210/V240 machines for your budget.

SPARC is best for moving lots of I/O across the motherboard, computation has not been its shining spot - if you are not tied to SPARC, but just like Sun gear, the Opteron hardware they make is awesome. A X2200 M2 with dual quads (OpenMP) + a Radeon card (OpenCL) is a number crunching monster.

A V440 or V480 would be the next step up - here I would suggest a V440 over a V480. The US IIIi is more raw computing power. If you think a V480 fits, might as well go for broke and get the V880, power bill be damned.

Prices for T1 machines (specifically the T1000) are coming down (sometimes <$1k), but the T1 has only 1 FPU per core - the T2 is where they fixed that flaw, but that hardware is still in the 5-figure range. If you can get your hands on a T1 for $500 though, I'd do it for the 'fun' factor.

Another possibility - although it is hard to find - is a V490, which gives you 8 cores with the US IV(+)...

I hadn't known about the V440 power supply issue - learn something new on this forum ever day!

The boards for the V480 and V880 are the same, and they show up on US ebay for dirt cheap regularly. If you are patient, you should be able to snag the 1.2ghz boards at some point and have them shipped over the pond - that should max out the V480 for you. Also, keep an eye out for FC-AL drives for the beast - they tend to sometimes go for a bargain when there is no one looking, and if you are lucky, you might be able to get your hands on a StorEdge FC array to get some fast storage onto the beast.

How is the noise/sound level on the t1000? I've been seeing these in ebay US for ~$200 now - have been tempted. Are they noisier than a v210? Is it possible to run inside the house in any sane way? Being 1u I am assuming the fans are quite high rpm... Is the t2000 any quieter?

I have a bunch of older sparc gear - would be nice to consolidate down to a single server - 32 threads is quite nice!