[OpenIndiana-discuss] OpenSolaris on SPARC

[Daniel Kjar]

I just picked up 2  x7310a chips for 100$ so I am anxiously awaiting OI 
for my SB1000!


On 07/30/12 06:51 PM, Martin Bochnig wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 6:33 PM, Daniel Kjar <dkjar at elmira.edu> wrote:
>> Fantastic!  I can't wait to fire up my sb1000 again!
>
> The SB1000/2000 is my favorite workstation, too ... as I have always said:
> http://mail.opensolaris.org/pipermail/xwin-discuss/2008-August/002281.html
> http://unix.derkeiler.com/Newsgroups/comp.sys.sun.hardware/2005-05/0232.html
>
> These days you get the x7310a (1.2GHz III Cu) module for pennies.
> And they do outperform a Dualcore SB2500 Red 1,28GHz.
> Some people now think, that the Blade 1000/2000 is an electricity
> waster (which is true to some degree, just make your own tests and
> decide). But ironically the only other Sun SPARC Workstations that
> manage to outperform the maxed out SB1000/2000 are Dual core 1.6GHz
> SB2500 Silver and Ultra 45, which consume the same amount, if I can
> believe these results:
>
> http://chrysalis.rutgers.edu/hardware/powerbrief.php
>
> And I read various reviews that confirm, that CAD users were
> disappointed by the IIIi based machines, that did not deliver any
> significant "feelable" performance boost over the SB1000/2000, despite
> their higher clock, on-die (though much smaller) cache and faster
> memory.
>
> A look to spec confirms this:
>
> CFP2000 Results:
> SB1000/2000 IIIcu @ 1.2 GHz:
> http://www.spec.org/cpu2000/results/res2003q2/cpu2000-20030326-02001.html
> SB2500Red   IIIi @ 1.28 GHz
> http://www.spec.org/cpu2000/results/res2003q4/cpu2000-20030821-02436.html
> SB2500Silver IIIi @ 1.6 GHz
> http://www.spec.org/cpu2000/results/res2005q1/cpu2000-20050107-03681.html
>
>
>
>> I have an xvr1200 but I have pretty much determined I will never be able to
>> use that card again....
>
> Why? The XVR-1200 is similar to a XVR-600.
> I know, under Xorg it would be never supported. Maybe the best one
> could expect would be unaccelerated fb mode.
> However, as we now have an opensrc Xsun and redistributable binary
> drivers, including redistributable /dev/fb drivers for initializing
> and mapping the card, plus my changes to make the stumbled / cut-down
> opened version of Xsun function again, nothing should prevent you from
> using your XVR-1200. And in contrast to previous versions of modified
> Xorg, if now doesn't matter anymore, into which system with what kind
> of pci bridge you intend to plug your card. It should function,
> period.
>
> I know, this sounds like a dream.
> And that's why we cannot ever thank Alan Coopersmith enough, that he
> pushed through the opensrc release of Xsun, after it had been EOL'ed
> in 2010, yet just moments before Oracle closed the tap :)
>
>
>
>> Do you know what card would work best?  I have an ati radeon (xvr 100?)
>> card and a couple of those monstrous creator3ds.
>
>
> Any of these cards will work.
> The Creator/Creator3D/Elite3D even function with Xorg's ported
> Linux/BSD drivers under Xorg, that are still available on martux.org:
> http://martux.org/RELEASES/FOX1.0/SPARC/
> http://martux.org/RELEASES/SPARC_distro_incl_Xorg7.2/
>
> But under Xsun every of these just functions, does so reliably and quickly.
> So it rather depends on your 2D vs. 3D needs, free PCI slots vs. UPA
> slots, power consumption and so on.
> I in my beloved SB2000 use an Elite 3D UPA card.
> Maybe the XVR-1000 (UPA) or 1200 (3D Labs Wildcat PCI) would be even faster.
> But for normal office needs, any of these should be more than sufficient.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> rgds.
>     %mab
>
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-- 
Dr. Daniel Kjar
Assistant Professor of Biology
Division of Mathematics and Natural Sciences
Elmira College
1 Park Place
Elmira, NY 14901
607-735-1826
http://faculty.elmira.edu/dkjar

"...humans send their young men to war; ants send their old ladies"
	-E. O. Wilson