Many thanks to the forty people whe responded to the following plea:
> I've got a jolly old 4/330 containing 8 X 1Mb SIMMs which occupy
> the 8 memory slots on the CPU board. I want to get 16Mb so that
> I can do a Solaris 2 installation.
>
> Easy enough, I thought. Several conversations with a 3rd party
> memory supplier and with Sun themselves have yielded a morass
> of misinformation.
>
> I've established a few facts:
>
> 1) The 4/330 can accept extra memory boards. This is a very
> expensive option.
> 2) The 4/330 can probably accept SPARCstation 2-style 4Mb SIMMS
> on the CPU board.
>
> Questions:
> 1) Has anyone tried putting 4Mb SPARC SIMMS on a 4/330 CPU board.
> Reports of experiences gratefully received.
> 2) Can a mixture of 1Mb and 4Mb SIMMs be installed on the 4/330?
> If so, what are the constraints on this?
Among the most comprehensive answers was the following from John Valdes
<valdes@geosun.uchicago.edu> who said:
> From valdes@geosun.uchicago.edu Tue Aug 17 21:02:24 1993
> Date: Tue, 17 Aug 93 14:59:31 CDT
> From: John Valdes <valdes@geosun.uchicago.edu>
> To: dean.ayres@aea.orgn.uk
> Subject: Re: Memory upgrades on a SPARC 4/330
> Content-Length: 2370
>
> >I've established a few facts:
> >
> >1) The 4/330 can accept extra memory boards. This is a very
> > expensive option.
>
> Correct. The 4/330 can accept two memory boards. Typically,
> these have 16 SIMM sockets each which can accept 1MB or 4MB SIMMs.
> SIMMs need to be installed in groups of eight, so these boards
> are either half or completely populated by SIMMs. None of the
> boards I'm familiar with allow mixing of 1MB and 4MB SIMMs on the
> same board (you can have one board with 1MB SIMMs and another
> with 4MB SIMMs though), so typical memory capacity per board
> is 8MB, 16MB, 32MB or 64MB.
>
> >2) The 4/330 can probably accept SPARCstation 2-style 4Mb SIMMS
> > on the CPU board.
>
> Correct. The 4/330 uses plain 30-pin 1Mx9 or 4Mx9 SIMMs (not 1Mx8 or
> 4Mx8; they need a parity bit). I've used SIMMs as slow as 100ns in a
> 4/330, but you might as well get the fastest SIMMs you can (so that you
> can use them in a faster machine should you ever what to take them out
> of your 4/330).
>
> >Questions:
> >1) Has anyone tried putting 4Mb SPARC SIMMS on a 4/330 CPU board.
> > Reports of experiences gratefully received.
>
> No problems here. Just take out the 1MB SIMMs on the CPU board
> and replace them with 4MB SIMMs. You'll need to short jumper J1900
> on the CPU board when using 4MB SIMMs on the CPU board. The jumper
> is located just to the left of the middle SIMM socket when looking
> down at the board with the VME connectors away from you.
>
> One thing you'll need to check before adding memory is the PROM
> level of your 4/330. It needs to be >= 3.0.3 in order to use
> 4MB SIMMs (or in order to use more than 32MB of memory; it was
> never clear to me which restriction is correct). The PROM level
> is displayed in the banner whenever the system boots. If the PROM
> level of your 4/330 is less than 3.0.3, you'll need to order a
> "Boot PROM kit" from Sun, part number 595-1961.
>
> >2) Can a mixture of 1Mb and 4Mb SIMMs be installed on the 4/330?
> > If so, what are the constraints on this?
>
> You can mix both on the 4/330, but not on the same board (ie, you
> can't mix them on the CPU board or on a memory board, but you can
> have one type on the CPU board and another on a memory board). Again,
> SIMMs need to be installed in groups of eight, so the CPU board can
> hold either 8MB or 32MB.
>
> I hope this helps disspell some of the misinformation.
>
> John Valdes
> valdes@geosun.uchicago.edu
>
Thanks John. Special thanks must also go to Anthony Worrall,
<Anthony.Worrall@Reading.ac.uk> for FAXing me some relevant
manual pages, and to Alan J. Rothstein, <uunet!merccap!alan> for
the offer of a memory expansion board.
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