Sorry this is so late in comming. I did get answers ranging
from get more memory or faster memory to this is inappropriate for
sun-man(Sorry Tim!).
The suggestion we took, or will take (haven't done it yet), is
to change the board to a SS2 with a 80Mhz Power up chip. I forget the
price (I'm summarizing form home, not the office).
Thanks to everyone who responded. Thier responses appear below
along with my original question.
From: Jonathan Loh <jloh@futon.SFSU.EDU>
Subject: Speed up?
To: sun-managers@eecs.nwu.edu (sun-managers)
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 94 11:10:14 PDT
Is it possible to speed up a SS1+? other than chucking it and
getting a new system. I'm thinking of maybe changing a CPU chip or
something like that.
-- Jonathan jloh@futon.sfsu.edu **** Please quote from this message when responding --- Thanks!From: bidwell@andrews.edu (Daniel R. Bidwell)
Yes, Apogee Systems, 1-800-367-1488, has a CPU board upgrade.
From: "Richard Wong" <rnw@math.Princeton.EDU>
I remember seeing a cpu upgrade kit in SunExpert mag.
sorry, I dont have any more info than that.
From: Steve Young <syoung@cedar.buffalo.edu>
Weitek is working on a upgrade package from a 1/1+ to a ~10/30 processor upgrade. I spoke with a sales rep about a week ago and they say it should be out mid summer. Weitek currently offers a Sparc 2 and IPX processor upgrade to a ~10/30 processor, for about $1500 list.
You can reach Weitek at:
voice: (800) 758-7000 e-mail: cpu_upgrade@weitek.COM
From: brobbins@mako.Newbridge.COM (Bert Robbins)
I would upgrade, Sun has some nice upgrade paths for equipment they used to sell.
From: Craig.Warner@Ceram.COM (Craig Warner)
Jonathan -
In a few weeks a clock tripler will be available. I do not yet have exact pricing - but will notify when I do.
It will be posted in suncpu@ceram.com quote list as soon as I have details.
From: "Henry Katz" <hkatz@lehman.com>
Jon,
yea - replace motherboard with third party upgrade - integrix/axil/etc.. or something with weitek chip. all depends on your wallet.
Henry
From: ljm@halsp.hitachi.com (Larry J. Miller)
Weitec has a replace for the SPARCstation 2 CPU chip to speed things up, and I heard they are planning to come out with one for the SPARCstation 1 too.
I bought mine for $1,300+tax from:
CERAM Incorporated 2260 Executive Circle Colorado Springs, CO 80906
From: poole@cs.widener.edu (Phil Poole)
You could try replacing the SIMMS with ones having a faster access time.--
From: ljm@halsp.hitachi.com (Larry J. Miller)
Weitec has a replace for the SPARCstation 2 CPU chip to speed things up, and I heard they are planning to come out with one for the SPARCstation 1 too.
I bought mine for $1,300+tax from:
From: dan@bellcore.com (Daniel Strick)
You would have to replace the main processor card. It might not cost much more to replace the entire base.
From: Dave Fetrow <fetrow@biostat.washington.edu>
I BELIEVE Wietek might do something along those lines if the chip is socketed.
From: dave@goose.ca.pdc.com (Dave Haut)
Jon,
How much memory does your SS1+ have. If it has only 16 Meg or less, then adding memory will probably improve performance.
Hope this helps ...
David Haut Systems Engineer, PDC Services Inc. 510-449-3113 (VOICE) 510-449-3332 (FAX)
From: john@oncology.uthscsa.edu (John Justin Hough)
Jonathan,
I was told by Weitek that they would have a non-board replacement CPU only upgrade fort the SS1 (thereby the SS1+ I suppose) sometime during the summer. You could all Weitek itself about the possibility of PowerUP for the 1+. I believe that the 1+ and the IPC have the same chip, and in the case of the IPC you'd have to upgrade to an IPX before you could upgrade the CPU. Don't know about the 1+ though. The reason given for the lack of a direct CPU upgrade of an IPC is that the CPU is soldered in. I have no idea if the 1+'s CPU is soldered in. Perhaps just the Classic, LX and IPC have soldered in CPU.
From: dave@goose.ca.pdc.com (Dave Haut)
Jon,
It depends. Do you hear a lot of disk activity when you are using the SS1+ ??
If so then the SS1+ is probably doing alot of page outs ( writing to swap ) which is due to a shortage of memory and you would probably benefit by adding more memory. Exactly how much you would benefit depends on what you are running on your system. You also might want to run vmstat and iostat to see exactly what the problem is. Refer to the vmstat and iostat man pages ...
Hope This Helps ...
David Haut Systems Engineer, PDC Services Inc. 510-449-3113 (VOICE) 510-449-3332 (FAX)
From: martin@stavanger.sgp.slb.com (Martin Oksnevad )
Call Pinnacle at 614.487.1150 (Columbus, Ohio).
Pinnacle can sell you a TurboSPARC upgrade (SS2 CPU board with the 80MHz Weitek Power uP CPU) for SS1/SS1+ for $3195. The Weitek Power uP CPU alone has a list price of $1500.
You can use old memory and SBus cards with the new TurboSPARC CPU card. The TurboSPARC will give you SS10 model 30 performance.
Your SS1+ has a 25MHz CPU and a SS2 a 40MHz CPU.
A SS2 CPU board will fit fine in a SS1+, if you can get one cheap.
From: Rich Neitzel <thor@ymir.atd.ucar.edu>
In message <9404261810.AA29506@futon.sfsu.edu> you wrote:
You bet it is! We just did this & I'm am very pleased with the result. We got a motherboard upgrade for our SS1+ & it is now faster then our SS2s. This upgrade has the new Weitek CPU. The only potential problem is that you must have memory fast enough for the new board. 80ns simms or better will work fine. Try contacting:
Marathon 800-783-7354 From: mattias@txc.com (Mattias Zhabinskiy 203-929-8810x251)
Hi Jonathan,
You can upgrade your CPU with Weitek 80 MHz SPARC Power Up chip. I did it with my SS2. I know for sure that it can be done with 1+ too, but it can require some additional motherboard changes. You have to check it. Below is a phone of Power Up chips resellers:
Applied Digital Systems Inc. - 716 377-7000 /Nancy Middleton/
From: Larry Nelson <nelson@zorro.cecer.army.mil>
Weitek has upgrade chips for SS2's and IPX's. For SS1 and SS1+, you must first upgrade the motherboard with SS2 or compatible motherboard, then you can upgrade the CPU chip with a Weitek SPARC Power uP (or so their advertising says...). This will suposedly give you 1.4 to 1.9 speedup over a stock SS2/IPX cpu chip. This is cpu speedup only, altho the Weitek chip does have 2 onboard caches which may improve I/O.
From: poffen@San-Jose.ate.slb.com (Russ Poffenberger)
Only SS-2's and IPX's have CPU's that are replaceable with faster versions.
You might look into a motherboard swap. Several companies offer them, with as much as SS-10 type performance.
Russ Poffenberger DOMAIN: poffen@San-Jose.ate.slb.com
From: gcook@netcom.com (Gary W. Cook)
Sun Express just announced some very competative prices on SS2 CPU boards. I think it was around $1600. The SS2 can then be upgraded to near SS10-40 speed by adding a Weitek PowerUP chip.
Gary Cook gcook@netcom.com / gary@mce.com
-- Jonathan jloh@futon.sfsu.edu **** Please quote from this message when responding --- Thanks!
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