[OpenIndiana-discuss] Offtopic question to old SPARC users

[Michael Stapleton]

My understanding is that the time is read from the NVRAM chip only once
when booting, then the time is updated by the kernel clock() function by
interrupt 10 while running.
High interrupt rates could cause the clock interrupt to be missed,
slowing time. A lot of serial activity could cause it.

I also do not see how low power could slow down the timer assuming it
uses a crystal oscillator.

All that to say that I bet it is not related to the NVRAM chip.


Mike



On Fri, 2013-11-22 at 23:45 +0100, Jim Klimov wrote:

> Hello all,
> 
>    My attention was requested to an old UltraSPARC E450 machine with
> Solaris 8, whose clock was going slower and worse for the past few
> days, maybe weeks. Since about today it has practically stopped -
> or more precisely, loops over the same 2-3 second interval over and
> over, even with NTP client enabled.
> 
>    My hunch would be a dead battery on CMOS, or whatever the analog
> of one would be. Any ideas where it might be located, and what model
> it is (like CR2032 on Intel-compatibles)? Any more ideas?
> 
>    So far they are doing backups and the machine will go into a diag
> reboot; normal reboot did not clear the errors at least.
> 
>    The beast is old, but serves as an appliance of an old database
> which nobody knows how to manage or migrate nowadays, even if into
> a Solaris8 branded zone on a newer SPARC, and the production payload
> is needed and important. Nobody knows how it works, but they know
> too well what for. Bummer...
> 
> Thanks for any hints, hunches, anecdotes...
> //Jim Klimov
> 
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