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Sun Sparc Ultra 1

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Druid6900

Veteran Member
Joined
May 7, 2006
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3,809
Location
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Someone dropped one of these off to me today along with a honking huge Sun monitor (weighs about as much as a sub-compact), Sun keyboard, Sun mouse, Sun external SCSI hard drive and Sun external SCSI tape drive (no cables or terminator, of course, that would have been too easy)

It's supposed to be working, but, I haven't had a chance to toss it up on a workbench yet.

Should I be excited?
 
Depends on what kind of excited. At work, we throw these away. They can't run Solaris 10, they're slow, they can't hold that much RAM. If you need a small utility server, such as DNS or something, they're fine... but modern machines are so fast that DNS on the same server is a bit of an afterthought.

If you mean "excited from a collecting standpoint", then yes, you can be moderately excited. The Ultra 1 was Sun's first 64-bit machine, circa 1996 or therebouts, so it has some historical significance. They're moderately common though.
 
If you want to learn Solaris/Unix it's a nice system (one of the better ones you'll end up with for cheap). It runs Solaris 8 fine, it can run 32-bit or 64-bit version of 9 which is cool (it just needs a bit of RAM), 10 I've never tried but I know it's not supported and possibly has a RAM requirement beyond what the Ultra1 can handle but I wouldn't worry about that.

Either way, they're nice systems despite the monitor being a bit of a burden. If you get a serial Y cable (it turns the db25 serial on the back into ComA and ComB (it's a proprietary connector despite looking like a standard 25 pin serial)) for the unit you can hook it up to a terminal/console on your main system and get into it like that instead of the monitor/keyboard method. Then of course once you have it networked you just ssh in unless you really need console access.
 
barythrin said:
If you get a serial Y cable (it turns the db25 serial on the back into ComA and ComB (it's a proprietary connector despite looking like a standard 25 pin serial)) for the unit you can hook it up to a terminal/console on your main system
Click to expand...

The only time you need the Y adapter is if you need to use both serial ports.
I use a straight serial cable and conserver to be able to access the console of my Ultra 1 remotely from my main server.
I'm running Solaris 8 on the Ultra 1 and OpenBSD on my server.
 
In 1997, we would've drooled at the computer club if we obtained an Ultra-1. When we finally got some for free in 2002-03, nobody bothered to even power them up.
 
I've heard legends about those monitors. The only time I hurt my back moving something was a Proliant disk array. Lift with your knees and not your back. If I had only remembered that...

How come you always get something really cool/nice and are always missing a needed component? Whats up with that?
 
Vlad said:
I've heard legends about those monitors. The only time I hurt my back moving something was a Proliant disk array. Lift with your knees and not your back. If I had only remembered that...

How come you always get something really cool/nice and are always missing a needed component? Whats up with that?
Click to expand...

Yeah, well, I did lift with my knees, it's the going up the 17 stairs that was the bitch LOL

Actually, the only thing it's missing is the SCSI cables between the unit and the external hard drive and the HD and the tape unit and, of course, a terminator.

Looks like a SCSI-2 connector (someone can correct me if I'm wrong) and I'll just have to buy some.

All the SCSI cables I have are either SCSI-1 25 pin to 25 pin for scanners and such or the 25 pin to Centronics type the Mac uses for external SCSI devices.

Anyone got a couple of 3 footers and a terminator they want to sell? :)
 
Look on ebay for MC Pricesbusters, or search the web. They always have all kinds of strange SCSI stuff.

I just tossed out a BUNCH of SCSI cables about 1-2 months ago - SCSI2 to DB50, SCSI2-to-SCSI-2, db25-to-db50...all kinds of junk. Kept a few for the future, though.

What kinda' terminator you need? SCSI2? Active or passive?


T
 
How the hell do I know? Whatever works to terminate a bunch of Sun Micro external devices LOL.

I'll have to look up the diagrams and match it with the connector on the Sparc. I think it's a 68, but I'll have to count them and I need to find my magnifying glass :)
 
You carried the Sun w/ monitor to the 17th floor, in a house without elevators? Gosh. I would demand payment to do that.

While the Sun monitors weren't light-weight, nothing compares to one older type of IBM 20-21" RGB monitor. I can't recall the model number, but it was the only one we had with a warning sticker on the back that it weigh more than 35 kg. I'd rather carry two Sun 20" (one at a time) than one of those IBM's.
 
carlsson said:
You carried the Sun w/ monitor to the 17th floor, in a house without elevators? Gosh. I would demand payment to do that.
Click to expand...

Stairs, 17 steps up the stairs to the newest workshop. When you have 10 foot ceilings, they put a lot of steps between floors LOL.

I have a 21 inch monitor from Philips (strange beast, seems to have a DB-9, a DB-15 and 5 RGBs on it) and, when I lug IT upstairs, I'll weigh the two of them and see which one hurts more :). Stay tuned.
 
68-pin passive terminator should do the trick.

BTW, the monitors are quite nice if yours is in good condition (ie. no burn-in, etc.). They're Sony Trinitron tubes, very clear.
 
Thanks for all the info.

The monitor is in excellent condition (as is the whole outfit) and there is no burn-in at all.

In fact, unless the cleaning staff washed down the system every night, I'd say this was a backup unit that was never used. There isn't even any evidence of normal day-to-day wear you would find on something that old.

The guy I got it from said that he had only received it a few weeks earlier and it wasn't right for the Ham Radio application he was looking to use it for.

The keyboard and mouse aren't even dirty.

I'll have to winch it up on the workbench, plug it in and see what I get.

I don't imagine there is a VGA adapter for the monitor, eh? :)
 
Lol, here we go again eh? There are 13W3 to VGA adapters, not hard to find really but I don't know where you'd get one off hand.
 
I'm not much help here but all the adapters my friends and I have found didn't work on the monitors we had so I'm not sure if there is some odd requirement (I'm guessing you need a multisync compatable monitor) or what. We also tried the reverse using the monitor on a PC which I do think we got to work after a while but that was an SGI not a Sun.

But yeah, google for it or hunt around some older computer shops and you should be able to find one of the 13w3 converters. I used to find them all the time at our local "goodwill computers" store although since they raised their prices during a store relocation and stopped carrying more of the vintage stuff (the only reason I went) they're much less likely to have anything cool nowadays.

- John
 
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