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Sun Microsystems IPX to the Max.

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First post, by Intel486dx33

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This was my first UNIX computer back in 1994
I purchased it from a Sun Microsystems computer reseller in Silicon Valley.
It was a bare bones system.

It’s a Sun Microsystems IPX that they called a “lunch box” because of it’s size similar to the size of an American student school tin lunch box.

I ended up adding two famebuffers ( graphic cards ) for dual monitor support.
I think 64mb of ram.
External hard drive
1gb internal SCSI drive
External Sun 2x CDROM drive.

Two 20-inch Sun Monitors that had Sony CRT’s.

It was NOT a speed burner in CDE but for command line it was fine.

Solaris 2.5.1
Not sure if this computer could play DOOM but we were able to play DOOM on other Sun computers running Solaris 2.6
I am pretty sure this computer would be fast enough to play DOOM.

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Reply 1 of 19, by megatron-uk

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Not sure the IPX with it's 40MHz processor ever had the grunt to play Doom!

CDE was an absolute dog on anything but a high end Sparcstation or Ultrasparc, IMO - these boxes returned much better performance using a basic interface like olwm (OpenLook Window Manager).

My first full time job in the late 90's was working for a defence contractor who kept their desktop and internet connectivity on two different network segments; if you wanted to browse the internet then you had to have a second machine.... fortunately we had dozens of IPX and IPC machines around and we ended up cannibalising half of them to stuff the better IPX's with as much RAM as we could find. Even then they were fairly awful machines. If you managed to find a spare Sparcstation 5 for your desk you were much, much luckier.

My collection database and technical wiki:
https://www.target-earth.net

Reply 3 of 19, by matze79

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To the Max means RAM Expansion SBus Card !
And don’t forget Weitek CPU Upgrade 😉 this Baby should go almost 80/100Mhz

I love Sparc Hardware.

There is Russian 32 Core Sparc CPU now with x86 binary translation called ELBRUS
Edit: Elbrus is no longer Sparc cpu.

https://www.retrokits.de - blog, retro projects, hdd clicker, diy soundcards etc
https://www.retroianer.de - german retro computer board

Reply 4 of 19, by Caluser2000

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Umm didn't SunOS and Solaris primarily use the tcp/ip network protocols for communicating? So what is up with the thread heading?

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 5 of 19, by matze79

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He ?

The Machine Name is Sparcstation IPX this is not related to network protocols

https://www.retrokits.de - blog, retro projects, hdd clicker, diy soundcards etc
https://www.retroianer.de - german retro computer board

Reply 6 of 19, by Intel486dx33

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matze79 wrote on 2021-07-14, 01:01:

He ?

The Machine Name is Sparcstation IPX this is not related to network protocols

Do you happen to know why this computer was given that name and what is IPX short for ?

Reply 7 of 19, by Caluser2000

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Intel486dx33 wrote on 2021-07-14, 01:18:
matze79 wrote on 2021-07-14, 01:01:

He ?

The Machine Name is Sparcstation IPX this is not related to network protocols

Do you happen to know why this computer was given that name and what is IPX short for ?

Incredibly Poor eXperiance?

System requirements for Solaris 10 where:

Hardware Requirements Memory 128MB or greater Disk Space: 12GB Processor: Sparc 200MHz minimum -x86 120 MHz minimum with hardware floating point. DVD Drive (recommended)

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 8 of 19, by matze79

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Solaris 10 does not run on this Architecture…

Do you run Windows XP on a 386 ? This Machine is from 1994

https://www.retrokits.de - blog, retro projects, hdd clicker, diy soundcards etc
https://www.retroianer.de - german retro computer board

Reply 9 of 19, by Caluser2000

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matze79 wrote on 2021-07-14, 05:46:

Solaris 10 does not run on this Architecture…

Do you run Windows XP on a 386 ? This Machine is from 1994

My my my you don't say? I was giving an example how Sun fucked up hardware wise.

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 11 of 19, by Caluser2000

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Anders- wrote on 2021-07-14, 06:46:
Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-07-14, 06:06:
matze79 wrote on 2021-07-14, 05:46:

Solaris 10 does not run on this Architecture…

Do you run Windows XP on a 386 ? This Machine is from 1994

My my my you don't say? I was giving an example how Sun fucked up hardware wise.

Sounds more like you have no idea about the gear from Sun Microsystems 😀

Edit: that said, the ipx was no speed demon at launch either 😁

Lol. Good one.

Nice to see vogons members with a sense of humor...😉

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 12 of 19, by buckeye

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Yeah back in 1994 where I used to work doing CAD drafting we used Sparc stations on a network. They were slick even back then
and very fast compared to what we used previously (some unisys machines - don't recall). Wish I could find one in decent shape
to tinker with.

Love those CRT's, seems like everyone except me is able to snag one in great shape. Can't find any in Bama, still the search must go on.

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Reply 13 of 19, by Intel486dx33

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Yes, I had a choice between a Sparc station IPC or IPX and I choose the IPX.
It was all I could afford at the time as a Student.

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Reply 14 of 19, by matze79

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Well, it should be as good as a 486DX2 66Mhz.. so its not that bad for 1994.
i had Sparcstation 1+ and it was much slower with 25Mhz.
But Screen Resolution was great...

Also putting Solaris 8 on it would be heavy for this small Machines.
As far as i remember they came with SunOS BSD instead of Solaris SysV Unix

https://www.retrokits.de - blog, retro projects, hdd clicker, diy soundcards etc
https://www.retroianer.de - german retro computer board

Reply 16 of 19, by Caluser2000

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matze79 wrote on 2021-07-23, 14:56:
Well, it should be as good as a 486DX2 66Mhz.. so its not that bad for 1994. i had Sparcstation 1+ and it was much slower with […]
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Well, it should be as good as a 486DX2 66Mhz.. so its not that bad for 1994.
i had Sparcstation 1+ and it was much slower with 25Mhz.
But Screen Resolution was great...

Also putting Solaris 8 on it would be heavy for this small Machines.
As far as i remember they came with SunOS BSD instead of Solaris SysV Unix

I doubt there would be any difference performance wise(or lack thereof) between SysV Unix or any BSD.

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 19 of 19, by Intel486dx33

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I pickup this used Sun Microsystems CDROM drive and put it in a SCSI enclosure.

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