From owner-freebsd-hackers Wed Dec 10 12:29:08 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id MAA15747 for hackers-outgoing; Wed, 10 Dec 1997 12:29:08 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers) Received: from paladio.canonware.com (canonware.com [206.184.206.112]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id MAA15717 for ; Wed, 10 Dec 1997 12:28:50 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from jasone@canonware.com) Received: from localhost (jasone@localhost) by paladio.canonware.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id MAA18590; Wed, 10 Dec 1997 12:28:49 -0800 Date: Wed, 10 Dec 1997 12:28:48 -0800 (PST) From: Jason Evans X-Sender: jasone@paladio To: Chuck Robey cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Beginning SPARC port In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Wed, 10 Dec 1997, Chuck Robey wrote: > I would also be a little curious about the availability of sparc hardware > for hobbyist folk. Few of us can afford $10K servers, but what other kind > of more modest setups might be available? I know you probably aren't a > walking database of such things, but if you come up with occaisonal > pointers to folks selling motherboards that might fit into pc cases, and > maybe use PCI, and the location of sparc docs on the web, it'd be nice to > post such things. I'd read them, and probably lots of others would too. > It's likely (working where you do) that you'd be more likely to fall into > that kind of info than I would. The machine I have available for development is probably the immediate precursor to the machine that will make UltraSPARCs available to to the general public. This machine is a bit expensive, but the next version will be substantially cheaper. As of 2 weeks ago this machine cost $2887.50 for the MB+CPU (UltraAX, 167MHz Ultra), $90/8MB SIMM (add in sets of 4), and $105 for the case. It has a built-in IDE controller and ethernet port. The forthcoming board will have SCSI instead of IDE on the board. Both boards have a PCI bus. At some point in the future, once FreeBSD runs on these, and I have some money, I plan to use one at home. (The money part could take a while. =) ) I bought (for Sun) machines from Bell Micro (http://www.bellmicro.com). Their web site is a bit sparse, but they do sell the parts. As for supporting older hardware, I'll do my best to make it possible, but I can only test on so many machines before it becomes impractical. Pre-Ultra machines are becoming more and more scarce at work. I'll have to try to hold onto my SPARC-10... Jason Jason Evans Email: [jasone@canonware.com] Home phone: [(650) 856-8204] Quote: ["Invention is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration" - Thomas Edison]