SPARC Workstation

Agent Buckshot Moose · 06-19-2011, 04:23 PM

So, I think I'm getting an old SPARC workstation soon for next to nothing. It's a Sun Blade 2000. Any idea what I should do with it? I already have a server with 1.5 TB of hard drive space serving media and a few other applications. I can't upgrade the space in this thing higher than 73 GB as far as I understand, although I haven't tested such yet.

Ideas I've had:
1. Set up a thin client network in my apartment (Why? Because I can.)
2. Use it as a secondary server for some of my other applications.
3. Programming SPARC applications. Not that it would be much different from programming x86 applications when it comes to my line of work...

**Dexter** · 06-20-2011, 12:01 AM

dang I'm jelly. Learn SPARC asm or port programs, SPARC programmers arent exactly dime a dozen (or in high demand heheh)

how about you sell it to me instead

Agent Buckshot Moose · 06-20-2011, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dexter

dang I'm jelly. Learn SPARC asm or port programs, SPARC programmers arent exactly dime a dozen (or in high demand heheh)

how about you sell it to me instead

Assembly has never really been a strong suit of mine, though I do want to play around with it. I may use it for that. Also perhaps as a playground for testing out new projects on different platforms. I generally stay as far away from C and friends as possible, but I'm considering writing something in C. But who knows...

**Dexter** · 06-21-2011, 03:06 AM

turn it into a serious workstation to program java on or something then. its a sparc, its not like you can do anything else with it :P

Agent Buckshot Moose · 06-21-2011, 03:26 AM

Oh I'll find something to do with it. Slightly more exotic ideas I've had:
1. Turn it into a tablet. This relies on cheap commercially available tablet enclosures (which don't exist). If they did exist, they probably wouldn't fit this hardware anyway.
2. Get a thin client tablet and use Sun Ray. They apparently exist, but are rather ... difficult to find.
3. Program a web app to access a remote desktop protocol and get a Chromebook once they are priced reasonably (assuming they don't die off) and pretend I have a thin client laptop.
4. Download a web app and do the second part of #3.

**Dexter** · 06-21-2011, 05:05 AM

5.) Sell to Dexter at cost ..

no seriously i want one since ages ago, know where I could get one for non eat-shit-on-the-internet prices?

Agent Buckshot Moose · 06-25-2011, 01:55 AM

Got it off e-bay for $26.00. A guy near where I live was basically giving it away. He put it up for 1 cent. E-bay is the place to go if you want to get a SPARC machine. You can find fairly reasonably priced stuff there if it's old. Still friggin expensive for older machines, but meh.

I've discovered, thanks to the help of some other people, that I can probably expand the hard drives. Solaris 11 should support a SATA controller and I can put some cheap SATA HDDs on there. Use it as a backup machine. Maybe I could make a samba cluster of two servers.

**Dexter** · 06-25-2011, 04:34 AM

hey good call, now that I live in civilization this isnt bad at all

Agent Buckshot Moose · 06-26-2011, 05:56 PM

Well I picked it up only to have it not be able to detect any of my three keyboards (well, I couldn't even plug one in). It's apparently sending output to the serial port A. But it might just be easier to get a Sun keyboard/mouse that it can pick up. Apparently Sun computers don't do too well without Sun's USB keyboards.

stray kitten · 06-29-2011, 03:04 PM

Yeah I used to have a whole room of sparc boxes, everyone had to basically have the sparc keyboard attached. Keyboards everwhere...

lol

I donated them all to Goodwill couple years ago. Didn't know people wanted them.

They make good boat anchors...

Agent Buckshot Moose · 06-29-2011, 05:44 PM

Apparently, they work with a few other non-Sun keyboards. But it's easier to just get a Sun keyboard. I ordered one off eBay and it should come either the end of this week or early next week. It doesn't really matter in either case because I probably won't be able to mess with it until next week anyway.

I considered going with a DB25 Serial to USB cable, but it was USD $34.95. That's what I paid for the keyboard after shipping and handling. A keyboard is more flexible anyway. What I will most likely do is get a KVM switch and hook up both the SPARC machine and my x86 server to it. Do I need to get a special KVM switch, or will the Sun Blade pick it up?

**Dexter** · 07-01-2011, 01:13 AM

I still havent found a blade on ebay for a non fuck-you price

good to know i should get a keyboard at the same time though

Agent Buckshot Moose · 07-06-2011, 02:25 PM

Finally up and running. The keyboard is a bit dirty, but it gets the job done (not like I'll use it in most situations anyway). Now I need a longer ethernet cable to get this thing into a place where it won't be in the way. I had a bit of an issue with it not being able to detect the hard drives, but that's because I had unplugged them.

The hello world code:

Code:

#include <stdio.h>

void main() {
        printf("hi world\n");
}

Hello world SPARC v9 assembly, as produced by the GCC in the solaris IPS repository:

Code:

        .file   "test.c"
        .section        ".rodata"
        .align 8
.LLC0:
        .asciz  "hi world\n"
        .section        ".text"
        .align 4
        .global main
        .type   main, #function
        .proc   020
main:
        !#PROLOGUE# 0
        save    %sp, -112, %sp
        !#PROLOGUE# 1
        sethi   %hi(.LLC0), %g1
        or      %g1, %lo(.LLC0), %o0
        call    printf, 0
         nop
        nop
        ret
        restore
        .size   main, .-main
        .ident  "GCC: (GNU) 3.4.3 (csl-sol210-3_4-20050802)"

Hello world SPARC v9 assembly, as produced by the GCC in the Blastwave repository:

Code:

        .file   "test.c"
        .section        ".rodata"
        .align 8
.LLC0:
        .asciz  "hi world"
        .section        ".text"
        .align 4
        .global main
        .type   main, #function
        .proc   020
main:
        save    %sp, -96, %sp
        sethi   %hi(.LLC0), %g1
        or      %g1, %lo(.LLC0), %o0
        call    puts, 0
         nop
        restore
        jmp     %o7+8
         nop
        .size   main, .-main
        .ident  "GCC: (Blastwave.org Inc. Mon Aug  9 07:10:45 GMT 2010) 4.5.1"

Interesting how one produces code using puts and one produces code using printf.

**Dexter** · 07-07-2011, 04:19 AM

its not terribly uncommon for compilers to replace printf with no formatted varargs that end in a newline with puts as puts should probably be used in that case anyway. but man, that instruction set is kinda goofy

**Dexter** · 07-07-2011, 04:21 AM

ALSO the only thing i can find on ebay under hundreds of dollars are sun blade 100s :/

Agent Buckshot Moose · 07-07-2011, 04:19 PM

100s or 1000s? I'm pretty sure I got lucky on this one. I looked up other Sun Blade 2000s and they were generally 400+.

WiFiDi · 07-07-2011, 08:52 PM

personally i could think of a few better ideas like buying other stuff. this just doesn't sound that fun to me maybe thats just me.

**Dexter** · 07-08-2011, 12:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agent Buckshot Moose

100s or 1000s? I'm pretty sure I got lucky on this one. I looked up other Sun Blade 2000s and they were generally 400+.

literally 100s. i give up for now

Agent Buckshot Moose · 07-08-2011, 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dexter

literally 100s. i give up for now

I just typed "sparc" into eBay's search and got a relatively modern-looking rack servers for < $200.00. What exactly is your price range?

Also, just out of curiosity, why do you desire a SPARC machine?

06-19-2011, 04:23 PM	#1
Agent Buckshot Moose Wiki Standards Team Wiki Team Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Geokill's closet Class/Position: Sniper/Demoman Gametype: CTF Affiliations: :e0: Co-leader Posts Rated Helpful 6 Times	SPARC Workstation So, I think I'm getting an old SPARC workstation soon for next to nothing. It's a Sun Blade 2000. Any idea what I should do with it? I already have a server with 1.5 TB of hard drive space serving media and a few other applications. I can't upgrade the space in this thing higher than 73 GB as far as I understand, although I haven't tested such yet. Ideas I've had: 1. Set up a thin client network in my apartment (Why? Because I can.) 2. Use it as a secondary server for some of my other applications. 3. Programming SPARC applications. Not that it would be much different from programming x86 applications when it comes to my line of work...

06-25-2011, 01:55 AM	#7
Agent Buckshot Moose Wiki Standards Team Wiki Team Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Geokill's closet Class/Position: Sniper/Demoman Gametype: CTF Affiliations: :e0: Co-leader Posts Rated Helpful 6 Times	Got it off e-bay for $26.00. A guy near where I live was basically giving it away. He put it up for 1 cent. E-bay is the place to go if you want to get a SPARC machine. You can find fairly reasonably priced stuff there if it's old. Still friggin expensive for older machines, but meh. I've discovered, thanks to the help of some other people, that I can probably expand the hard drives. Solaris 11 should support a SATA controller and I can put some cheap SATA HDDs on there. Use it as a backup machine. Maybe I could make a samba cluster of two servers. Last edited by Agent Buckshot Moose; 06-25-2011 at 01:56 AM.

06-29-2011, 03:04 PM	#10
stray kitten mjau D&A Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Class/Position: kittens are sneaky, spy Gametype: Capture the mouse Posts Rated Helpful 2 Times	Yeah I used to have a whole room of sparc boxes, everyone had to basically have the sparc keyboard attached. Keyboards everwhere... lol I donated them all to Goodwill couple years ago. Didn't know people wanted them. They make good boat anchors... __________________ 6 of the 10 richest counties in America now surround Washington D.C. Our "capitol" edged out Silicon Valley as the nation's richest metro area. Reality Distortion Field = 1. Stream the distractions: One percent, hoodies, and kony oh my.

07-01-2011, 01:13 AM	#12
Dexter internet user Fortress Forever Staff Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts Rated Helpful 42 Times	I still havent found a blade on ebay for a non fuck-you price good to know i should get a keyboard at the same time though __________________ 9:17 PM - DEXTER: can you teach me how to play o 9:17 PM - squeek.: you jump a lot 9:18 PM - squeek.: and do sweet moves 8:55 PM - FDA: fart in you fridge and blame it on wild animals

07-06-2011, 02:25 PM	#13
Agent Buckshot Moose Wiki Standards Team Wiki Team Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Geokill's closet Class/Position: Sniper/Demoman Gametype: CTF Affiliations: :e0: Co-leader Posts Rated Helpful 6 Times	Finally up and running. The keyboard is a bit dirty, but it gets the job done (not like I'll use it in most situations anyway). Now I need a longer ethernet cable to get this thing into a place where it won't be in the way. I had a bit of an issue with it not being able to detect the hard drives, but that's because I had unplugged them. The hello world code: Code: #include <stdio.h> void main() { printf("hi world\n"); } Hello world SPARC v9 assembly, as produced by the GCC in the solaris IPS repository: Code: .file "test.c" .section ".rodata" .align 8 .LLC0: .asciz "hi world\n" .section ".text" .align 4 .global main .type main, #function .proc 020 main: !#PROLOGUE# 0 save %sp, -112, %sp !#PROLOGUE# 1 sethi %hi(.LLC0), %g1 or %g1, %lo(.LLC0), %o0 call printf, 0 nop nop ret restore .size main, .-main .ident "GCC: (GNU) 3.4.3 (csl-sol210-3_4-20050802)" Hello world SPARC v9 assembly, as produced by the GCC in the Blastwave repository: Code: .file "test.c" .section ".rodata" .align 8 .LLC0: .asciz "hi world" .section ".text" .align 4 .global main .type main, #function .proc 020 main: save %sp, -96, %sp sethi %hi(.LLC0), %g1 or %g1, %lo(.LLC0), %o0 call puts, 0 nop restore jmp %o7+8 nop .size main, .-main .ident "GCC: (Blastwave.org Inc. Mon Aug 9 07:10:45 GMT 2010) 4.5.1" Interesting how one produces code using puts and one produces code using printf. Last edited by Agent Buckshot Moose; 07-06-2011 at 02:27 PM.

06-20-2011, 12:01 AM	#2
Dexter internet user Fortress Forever Staff Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts Rated Helpful 42 Times	dang I'm jelly. Learn SPARC asm or port programs, SPARC programmers arent exactly dime a dozen (or in high demand heheh) how about you sell it to me instead

06-21-2011, 03:06 AM	#4
Dexter internet user Fortress Forever Staff Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts Rated Helpful 42 Times	turn it into a serious workstation to program java on or something then. its a sparc, its not like you can do anything else with it :P

06-21-2011, 03:26 AM	#5
Agent Buckshot Moose Wiki Standards Team Wiki Team Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Geokill's closet Class/Position: Sniper/Demoman Gametype: CTF Affiliations: :e0: Co-leader Posts Rated Helpful 6 Times	Oh I'll find something to do with it. Slightly more exotic ideas I've had: 1. Turn it into a tablet. This relies on cheap commercially available tablet enclosures (which don't exist). If they did exist, they probably wouldn't fit this hardware anyway. 2. Get a thin client tablet and use Sun Ray. They apparently exist, but are rather ... difficult to find. 3. Program a web app to access a remote desktop protocol and get a Chromebook once they are priced reasonably (assuming they don't die off) and pretend I have a thin client laptop. 4. Download a web app and do the second part of #3.

06-21-2011, 05:05 AM	#6
Dexter internet user Fortress Forever Staff Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts Rated Helpful 42 Times	5.) Sell to Dexter at cost .. no seriously i want one since ages ago, know where I could get one for non eat-shit-on-the-internet prices?

06-25-2011, 04:34 AM	#8
Dexter internet user Fortress Forever Staff Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts Rated Helpful 42 Times	hey good call, now that I live in civilization this isnt bad at all

06-26-2011, 05:56 PM	#9
Agent Buckshot Moose Wiki Standards Team Wiki Team Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Geokill's closet Class/Position: Sniper/Demoman Gametype: CTF Affiliations: :e0: Co-leader Posts Rated Helpful 6 Times	Well I picked it up only to have it not be able to detect any of my three keyboards (well, I couldn't even plug one in). It's apparently sending output to the serial port A. But it might just be easier to get a Sun keyboard/mouse that it can pick up. Apparently Sun computers don't do too well without Sun's USB keyboards.

06-29-2011, 05:44 PM	#11
Agent Buckshot Moose Wiki Standards Team Wiki Team Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Geokill's closet Class/Position: Sniper/Demoman Gametype: CTF Affiliations: :e0: Co-leader Posts Rated Helpful 6 Times	Apparently, they work with a few other non-Sun keyboards. But it's easier to just get a Sun keyboard. I ordered one off eBay and it should come either the end of this week or early next week. It doesn't really matter in either case because I probably won't be able to mess with it until next week anyway. I considered going with a DB25 Serial to USB cable, but it was USD $34.95. That's what I paid for the keyboard after shipping and handling. A keyboard is more flexible anyway. What I will most likely do is get a KVM switch and hook up both the SPARC machine and my x86 server to it. Do I need to get a special KVM switch, or will the Sun Blade pick it up?

07-07-2011, 04:19 AM	#14
Dexter internet user Fortress Forever Staff Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts Rated Helpful 42 Times	its not terribly uncommon for compilers to replace printf with no formatted varargs that end in a newline with puts as puts should probably be used in that case anyway. but man, that instruction set is kinda goofy __________________ 9:17 PM - DEXTER: can you teach me how to play o 9:17 PM - squeek.: you jump a lot 9:18 PM - squeek.: and do sweet moves 8:55 PM - FDA: fart in you fridge and blame it on wild animals

07-07-2011, 04:21 AM	#15
Dexter internet user Fortress Forever Staff Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts Rated Helpful 42 Times	ALSO the only thing i can find on ebay under hundreds of dollars are sun blade 100s :/ __________________ 9:17 PM - DEXTER: can you teach me how to play o 9:17 PM - squeek.: you jump a lot 9:18 PM - squeek.: and do sweet moves 8:55 PM - FDA: fart in you fridge and blame it on wild animals

07-07-2011, 04:19 PM	#16
Agent Buckshot Moose Wiki Standards Team Wiki Team Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Geokill's closet Class/Position: Sniper/Demoman Gametype: CTF Affiliations: :e0: Co-leader Posts Rated Helpful 6 Times	100s or 1000s? I'm pretty sure I got lucky on this one. I looked up other Sun Blade 2000s and they were generally 400+.

07-07-2011, 08:52 PM	#17
WiFiDi Beta Tester Join Date: May 2010 Class/Position: Soldier Gametype: Capture the Flag is there any other Posts Rated Helpful 26 Times	personally i could think of a few better ideas like buying other stuff. this just doesn't sound that fun to me maybe thats just me. __________________ WiFi's Stream Support FF: Failure is always an option. It's a happy massacre?! (yes, yes it is!) To make most awesome thing in universe combine Bears and Nicholas Cage! and remember kids, we didn't start the flame-war! Last edited by WiFiDi; 07-07-2011 at 08:57 PM.

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