[OpenIndiana-discuss] Offtopic question to old SPARC users

[Hans J. Albertsson]

On 2013-11-24 18:34, Hans J. Albertsson wrote:
> If I read that web site correctly, these NVRAMs are a little over 8 
> years old.
> This begs the question; has the shelf life of the included battery 
> expired or not??
>
> Internal leakage of these NVRAMs is minute in the disconnected state, 
> but, depending on the version, remaining battery shelf life can be 
> very short anyway.

The battery will last for 10 yrs if the oscillator STOP bit is unset, i 
e the oscillator is running. If the oscillator is stopped, battery life 
is its shelf life, and can be expected to be significantly longer. (This 
is what I mean by the "disconnected state".) I hope the NVRAMs available 
there are in the STOPped state, and the text on the page seems to 
suggest that.
>
> I suggest buying a few, at least.

Buying a few extra to cover for duds seems a good idea. And buying 2 for 
each machine you think you must keep running seems a good way to stay safe.
>
> I can't remember any more, but there might be a way to measure the 
> actual in-circuit battery voltage on external pins.

There isn't, generally. There was an earlier NVRAM that actually had a 
method of estimating the battery voltage, by looking at the drain 
current from Vcc and increasing Vcc.
>
>
>
> On 2013-11-24 02:30, Ray Butler wrote:
>> You can get replacement NVRAMs from here
>> http://www.memoryxsun.com/5251673.html.
>> I have hundreds of still in production Netra AX1105's and this is the 
>> only
>> source I've found for Sun NVRAM.
>> They come pre-programmed with MAC/Host ID so if you need the existing
>> config you'll have to program it yourself
>> http://www.squirrel.com/squirrel/sun-nvram-hostid.faq
>>
>> Ray
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Nov 23, 2013 at 8:06 PM, Lou Picciano 
>> <loupicciano at comcast.net>wrote:
>>
>>> Hello Jim,
>>>
>>> We've got a few of these old beasts around; the last of 'em still
>>> anxiously awaiting its, uhhh... 'Retirement Party'.
>>>
>>> Seems to me we had to replace a battery on at least one of these at 
>>> some
>>> point, but don't think it was the CR2032 'button' type, as I recall. 
>>> Happy
>>> to send you some parts as needed(?), though distances probably an 
>>> issue!(?)
>>> Happy, too, to disassemble one to find battery?
>>>
>>> I do remember the project of flashing the EPROM when we got these
>>> things...  Jumpers to be set, etc,; great fun!
>>>
>>> Lou Picciano
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Jim Klimov" <jimklimov at cos.ru>
>>> To: "Discussion list for OpenIndiana" 
>>> <openindiana-discuss at openindiana.org
>>> Sent: Friday, November 22, 2013 5:45:19 PM
>>> Subject: [OpenIndiana-discuss] Offtopic question to old SPARC users
>>>
>>> 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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>>> OpenIndiana-discuss at openindiana.org
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>>>
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>>
>>
>
>
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