SUMMARY: upgrading a Sparc IPX

From: Rich Casto (rc@surreal.org)
Date: Thu Feb 13 1997 - 11:37:44 CST


Sorry for the delay in summarizing. :-)

ORIGINAL QUESTION:

> Can a Sparc IPX be upgraded with a newer Sparc chip? If so, to what?
> How much does it cost? Is it worth it?

NOTE:

The list of responders is at the end of the summary. Also, if you want
to see all the original responses, send me email with the Subject of
your message like this: "get upgrade digest" and my procmail will mail
you a digest of the messages I received.

SUMMARY:

The options presented to me were either replacing the chip or the
motherboard. (The other option, which I didn't really ask about, was to
upgrade the entire computer, either with a newer Sun Sparc or a clone.)

A good source of this info is on SunWorld Online:
   http://www.sun.com/sunworldonline/sunwhere.html

REPLACING THE CPU:

Weitek (www.weitek.com) has a "clock-doubled" CPU chip called the
POWER uP. This is sold by Rave (www.rave.com) for only $550.

Ross (www.ross.com) was also mentioned, but I couldn't determine
from the webpage whether I could upgrade an IPX with a ROSS chip or
not.

REPLACING THE MOTHERBOARD:

Acropolis Systems (www.acropsys.com) and Rave both sell (Sparc 5
performance: 70-170Mhz) motherboards from Cycle Computer
(www.cyclecc.com), which range in price from US $1,895 to $2,850.

In Europe, Transtec sells these (www.transtec.co.uk, www.transec.de).

Rave also sells an Axilerate (www.axil.com) 100Mhz board for $1,650,
but it doesn't look like it works for an IPX.

Thanks to the following "sun-managers":

reynolds@acetsw.amat.com (John Reynolds)
emarch@pinole1.com (Ellen March)
poffen@San-Jose.ate.slb.com (Russ Poffenberger)
Dan Pritts <danno@aa.fv.com>
rweeks@math.usu.edu (Russell A Weeks)
"Matthew Stier" <Matthew.Stier@MCI.Com>
Guenter Millahn <gm@Informatik.TU-Cottbus.DE>
"F. David Sinn" <dsinn@dsinn.seanet.com>
szh@zcon.com (Syed Zaeem Hosain)
martin@stavanger.geoquest.slb.com (Martin Oksnevad)
Duncan White <css1dw@ee.surrey.ac.uk>
"Jeff J. Dingbaum" <dingbaum@hep.net>
joe@rave.net (JOE WEBER)
jgarb@erim.org (Joe Garbarino)

Thanks again,

Rich



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