From owner-freebsd-sparc Fri Jan 22 07:46:25 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id HAA01290 for freebsd-sparc-outgoing; Fri, 22 Jan 1999 07:46:25 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-sparc@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from obie.softweyr.com ([204.68.178.33]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id HAA01283; Fri, 22 Jan 1999 07:46:15 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from wes@softweyr.com) Received: from softweyr.com (zaphod.softweyr.com [204.68.178.35]) by obie.softweyr.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id IAA15433; Fri, 22 Jan 1999 08:46:03 -0700 (MST) (envelope-from wes@softweyr.com) Message-ID: <36A89D3B.97A1EE00@softweyr.com> Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1999 08:46:03 -0700 From: Wes Peters Organization: Softweyr llc X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (X11; U; FreeBSD 3.0-RELEASE i386) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Gary Palmer , Paolo Di Francesco , freebsd-sparc@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: For who is interested References: <643.916912856@gjp.erols.com> <36A75F76.C0643A12@softweyr.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-sparc@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Wes Peters wrote: > > Gary Palmer wrote: > > > > > I don't know if y'all caught the notice, but Sun just dropped the > > > price of the entry-level Ultra 5 to $2,495 and added 24-bit graphics > > > to sweeten the deal. > > > > Its more than that that has changed. I believe that there are also options to > > have CPUs with larger L2 caches, and the hard drive has been upgraded from the > > crappy slow one in the older U5's to at least a 5400 RPM drive, if not a > > 7200RPM drive. I forget all the details, I'm not really in the market much for > > U5's at work :) > > I'm supposed to get the next one that comes out of company HQ! Yay! In the meantime, I have a shiny new (well, not so shiny and new to me) SPARCstation IPX at home, running NetBSD 1.3.3 on a 1.2 GB drive. I bought this specifically to play with the FreeBSD SPARC port as it progresses, and to help out where I can. Here's what it cost me: From GSTek, www.gstek.com: Barebones SPARCstation IPX: $35 Sun/Conner 200MB SCSI drive: 5 From a friend at work: 1.2G SCSI drive: $50 From Computer Renassiance: 72 pin 16MB FPM parity SIMM: $57 From DataComm Warehouse, www.warehouse.com: Transition AUI->10baseT xcvr: $20 --- $167 Anyone who wants to jump into the SPARC port but thought they couldn't afford a Sun machine, your number is up. You might want to talk to GSTek about RAM, those FPM parity SIMMs are getting hard to find. You'll also need a serial cable, see if your local cable supplier has a Mac to IBM "laplink" or "file transfer" cable; the serial ports on the IPX are 8-pin mini-DIN connectors wired just like the early Macintosh. Now, where do I get the compiler suite from? Has anybody made a binary package yet? ;^) -- "Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?" Wes Peters Softweyr LLC http://www.softweyr.com/~softweyr wes@softweyr.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-sparc" in the body of the message