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  • Sun Blade woes?

    From Nemo@21:1/5 to All on Mon Mar 30 10:41:27 2020
    The following was posted to a NetBSD mailing list with the subject line
    of "Advisory to Sun Blade era SPARC64 system owners". Is it true?

    N.

    Hi,

    This is not NetBSD specific but I want to get the word out:

    If you have one of those systems I advise you to immediately take out
    your mainboard and check/carefully clean the back side with technical
    grade isopropyl alcohol. The back side may have mounting studs made of
    what appears to be a corrosive rubber compound that is slowly degrading
    over time, eating your board! It very nearly broke my Sun Blade 1500
    but I think I have managed to salvage it.

    Kind regards,

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Buzz McCool@21:1/5 to Nemo on Tue Mar 31 16:03:19 2020
    On 3/30/20 7:41 AM, Nemo wrote:
    The following was posted to a NetBSD mailing list with the subject
    line of "Advisory to Sun Blade era SPARC64 system owners".  Is it true?

    SPARC64 is Fujitsu. I'm not aware of any SunBlade SPARC64 or SPARC64
    blade type products that shipped though there were some engineering
    discussions about SPARC64 on a blade. Sun/Oracle assembled the SPARC64
    M8000 & M9000 using many (but not all) Fujitsu provided parts, and
    resold the Fujitsu M3000 with a Sun/Oracle then Oracle logo. I believe
    Oracle also resold the Fujitsu M10.

    Fujitsu made high quality computers. Note that some third world
    countries have highly corrosive diesel sulfur air pollution which can
    cause problems over time. That said, I'm not aware of any sulfur
    pollution that directly affected Fujitsu made boards shipped by Sun/Oracle.

    Hi,

    This is not NetBSD specific but I want to get the word out:

    If you have one of those systems I advise you to immediately take out
    your mainboard and check/carefully clean the back side with technical
    grade isopropyl alcohol. The back side may have mounting studs made of
    what appears to be a corrosive rubber compound that is slowly degrading
    over time, eating your board! It very nearly broke my Sun Blade 1500
    but I think I have managed to salvage it.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From DoN. Nichols@21:1/5 to Nemo on Mon Apr 6 02:26:14 2020
    On 2020-03-30, Nemo <nemo@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    The following was posted to a NetBSD mailing list with the subject line
    of "Advisory to Sun Blade era SPARC64 system owners". Is it true?

    N.

    Hi,

    This is not NetBSD specific but I want to get the word out:

    If you have one of those systems I advise you to immediately take out
    your mainboard and check/carefully clean the back side with technical
    grade isopropyl alcohol. The back side may have mounting studs made of
    what appears to be a corrosive rubber compound that is slowly degrading
    over time, eating your board! It very nearly broke my Sun Blade 1500
    but I think I have managed to salvage it.

    Kind regards,

    The Sun Blade 1000 and 2000 don't have this problem. The
    mainboard is secured to a zinc-plated steel frame with stainless steel
    screws, and no problems in the ones which I have worked with. I'm
    typing this on a SB-2000, FWIW.

    CPU is a sun4u, which is 64-bit, but I don't know whether they
    called it a SPARC64 or not.

    Enjoy,
    DoN.

    --
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    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Casper H.S. Dik@21:1/5 to DoN. Nichols on Thu Apr 9 12:39:08 2020
    "DoN. Nichols" <BPdnicholsBP@d-and-d.com> writes:

    CPU is a sun4u, which is 64-bit, but I don't know whether they
    called it a SPARC64 or not.


    Nope. SPARC64 us a trademark of Fujitsu, originally HAL.

    The 64 bit SPARC architecture is called "SPARCv9".

    Casper

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From John-Paul Stewart@21:1/5 to Casper H.S. Dik on Thu Apr 9 14:39:48 2020
    On 2020-04-09 8:39 a.m., Casper H.S. Dik wrote:
    "DoN. Nichols" <BPdnicholsBP@d-and-d.com> writes:

    CPU is a sun4u, which is 64-bit, but I don't know whether they
    called it a SPARC64 or not.


    Nope. SPARC64 us a trademark of Fujitsu, originally HAL.

    The 64 bit SPARC architecture is called "SPARCv9".

    But beware that the original post mentioned NetBSD. There (and in some
    Linux distributions such as Debian), "sparc64" is used as shorthand for
    "64-bit binaries on a SPARC CPU". In other words, to some open source
    projects "sparc64" is just a name for their port. It doesn't
    necessarily mean what Sun and Fujitsu would call SPARC64.

    In fact, the NetBSD/sparc64 page specifically says the Fujitsu SPARC64
    systems are unsupported and a work in progress.

    http://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/sparc64/

    So what the original post means by the term is unclear.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Nemo@21:1/5 to John-Paul Stewart on Sat Apr 11 09:20:52 2020
    On 09/04/2020 14:39, John-Paul Stewart wrote:
    On 2020-04-09 8:39 a.m., Casper H.S. Dik wrote:
    "DoN. Nichols"<BPdnicholsBP@d-and-d.com> writes:

    CPU is a sun4u, which is 64-bit, but I don't know whether they
    called it a SPARC64 or not.


    Nope. SPARC64 us a trademark of Fujitsu, originally HAL.

    The 64 bit SPARC architecture is called "SPARCv9".

    But beware that the original post mentioned NetBSD. There (and in some
    Linux distributions such as Debian), "sparc64" is used as shorthand for "64-bit binaries on a SPARC CPU". In other words, to some open source projects "sparc64" is just a name for their port. It doesn't
    necessarily mean what Sun and Fujitsu would call SPARC64.

    In fact, the NetBSD/sparc64 page specifically says the Fujitsu SPARC64 systems are unsupported and a work in progress.

    http://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/sparc64/

    So what the original post means by the term is unclear.

    Indeed but from previous replies, I need not worry over this.
    Thank you all.

    N.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From John D Groenveld@21:1/5 to nemo@invalid.invalid on Sat Apr 11 14:35:28 2020
    In article <VujkG.824656$aD6.262732@fx38.iad>,
    Nemo <nemo@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    Indeed but from previous replies, I need not worry over this.

    Are your Sun Blade 1500 mainboard mounts corroding?

    John
    groenveld@acm.org

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  • From Nemo@21:1/5 to John D Groenveld on Sun Apr 12 13:47:27 2020
    On 11/04/2020 10:35, John D Groenveld wrote:
    In article<VujkG.824656$aD6.262732@fx38.iad>,
    Nemo<nemo@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    Indeed but from previous replies, I need not worry over this.

    Are your Sun Blade 1500 mainboard mounts corroding?

    My SB2000 seems fine. I am currently using my SB2500 and will check at
    next shutdown.

    But I would have thought this more widely known if true.

    N.


    John
    groenveld@acm.org

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  • From DoN. Nichols@21:1/5 to Dik on Sun Apr 19 02:03:49 2020
    On 2020-04-09, Casper H.S Dik <Casper.Dik@OrSPaMcle.COM> wrote:
    "DoN. Nichols" <BPdnicholsBP@d-and-d.com> writes:

    CPU is a sun4u, which is 64-bit, but I don't know whether they
    called it a SPARC64 or not.


    Nope. SPARC64 us a trademark of Fujitsu, originally HAL.

    The 64 bit SPARC architecture is called "SPARCv9".

    Casper

    Thanks for the correction.

    DoN.

    --
    Remove oil spill source from e-mail
    Email: <BPdnicholsBP@d-and-d.com> | (KV4PH) Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
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