Subject: Info needed on Sun SCSI/Ethernet sbus card plus sun sparc2 FS

From: jmd <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Jun 29 18:29:48 2003

i recently came across 2 X1054A SCSI/Ethenet Sbus cards. I am having
trouble finding info about the Ethernet connector. This is not a
standard port configuration. Its quite small (measuring 1/2 wide by 1/4
inch tall) and its *D* in shape. Female.

are there adapters? adapter cables?

I have 2 of these and only need one at present. If anyone is interested
in the other card its free. Just pay shipping. If I cannot use this,
then both are free for shipping.

i also have a sun sparcstation 2 with 425M hd (w/sled), some memory
sticks (one stick is bad for sure) with a dual sbus video card (cg6?),
floppy drive. the NVRAM is bad. i think i have a sun keyboard too. ss2
for $5 and keyboard is $10. plus shipping. this is *as is* no
guarantees.

located in glendale california

jeff duncan

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From: "Dr. Ido" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Jun 29 18:30:27 2003

>for $5 and keyboard is $10. plus shipping. this is *as is* no

You can connect an external battery to those NVRAM chips and program them
from the openboot prompt.  I did it in a couple of sparcstation 1s a while
back.  Instructions are available on a couple of web sites that I can't
find the addresses for at the moment.  

You have to cut the plastic away at one end to expose the battery contacts,
cut through to disconnect the dead battery, and solder a CR2032 or similar
battery in place.  Just don't remove the entire plastic top of the chip,
there's also a crystal in there.  I made that mistake on the first one I
did, resoldering the crystal in place was a prick of a job.

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From: Jesse Kempf <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Jun 29 18:32:05 2003

On 28 Jun 2003 08:56:46 -0700

> inch tall) and its *D* in shape. Female.

It's an HDI something or other. Sun has a weird dongle that connects to the port and takes AUI on the other end. You'll still need a 10BT->AUI adaptor. Apparently, Sun had things set up so that the same port carried ethernet and audio out. The dongles have a similar port on them specifically for audio...
Sun was on crack in the 90s. They still are.
- -Jesse
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eeOw0vOI+u7syCLRvkHmGaI=
=oFt3
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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From: Ethan Dicks <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Jun 29 18:43:19 2003

--- Jesse Kempf <[email-masked]> wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> It's an HDI something or other. Sun has a weird dongle that connects to
> the port and takes AUI on the other end. You'll still need a 10BT->AUI
> adaptor. Apparently, Sun had things set up so that the same port carried
> ethernet and audio out. The dongles have a similar port on them
> specifically for audio...

Looking at http://lios.apana.org.au/~cdewick/data/sunpix/5011869.jpg
it has the appearance of an Apple AAUI connector.  Given Sun, though,
all bets are off.  Based on a little googling, it does seem to be a
10Mbps port, though.

-ethan

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From: "Fred N. van Kempen" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Jun 29 18:43:39 2003

> all bets are off.  Based on a little googling, it does seem to be a

It probably is an Ethernet MII interface connector, which was used
on many SBus cards, for space reasons alone.  The MII (Media Independent
Interface) was a "generic ethernet" connector that could be used for
10, 100 and even 1000Mbps media, using a transceiver of some kind to
connect the controller (chipset) to the media (cable), much akin to
the old (10Mbps) AUI interface.

Both of my SBus cards (one with dual Ethernet, the other Ether/SCSI)
have MII connectors.  You need an MII->UTP, MII->BNC or MII->AUI
transceiver to hook it up, obviously. :)

--f

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From: Patrick Finnegan <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Jun 29 18:44:00 2003

> all bets are off.  Based on a little googling, it does seem to be a

Just a warning, Sun's port ISN'T compatible with Apple transcievers.  Sun
puts 12V for the transciever on the port (like normal AUI ports), and
apple only puts 5V on the port.  Other than that, the pinouts probably
aren't the same, either.  You could probably chop off the connector on an
AAUI cable and wire it up to a standard DA-15 AUI port.  In fact, if you
want, I could probably determine the pinout on the adaptor that I "have".
(It's not really mine, it's from work...)

Pat
--
Purdue University ITAP/RCS
Information Technology at Purdue
Research Computing and Storage
http://www.itap.purdue.edu/rcs/

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From: Patrick Finnegan <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Jun 29 18:44:20 2003

> transceiver to hook it up, obviously. :)

Actually, no, it's not an MII interface.  Those (at least the pair of Sun
ones I have) are wider connectors, similar to a high-density SCSI
connector.  That connector is a mini AUI connector (or with the proper
cabel and setting on the board, it becomes a 10BaseT port.  I don't have
one of those cables, however.)  I don't think you could fit a SCSI
connector and an MII connector on the bracket of an SBUS card, anyhow.
IIRC, MII has about 34 pins.  If I felt less lazy, I'd go look at the one
on my Ultra 1...

Fred, do you know what number (Xnnnn or 501-mmmm part number) those cards
with the MII connectors are?  I'd like to see a picture of how they fit
the SCSI and MII connector on one card.

Pat

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From: jmd <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Jun 29 18:47:43 2003

On Sun, 2003-06-29 at 10:09, Patrick Finnegan wrote:

thanks to all for the info. 

i think 25 bucks for a standard RJ45 is looking awfully appealing right
about now.

so that leaves one more of these cards if anyone wants it for the price
of shipping. $5.00 US Priority Mail. the other one is spoken for.

jeff duncan
-- 
jmd
www.theshrub.com

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From: John Ruschmeyer <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Jun 29 18:48:04 2003

On Saturday, June 28, 2003, at 03:10 PM, Jesse Kempf wrote:

> It's an HDI something or other. Sun has a weird dongle that connects 
> to the port and takes AUI on the other end. You'll still need a 
> 10BT->AUI adaptor. Apparently, Sun had things set up so that the same 
> port carried ethernet and audio out. The dongles have a similar port 
> on them specifically for audio...
>

I think you're thinking of the weird AUI port in the Sun 4m's 
(particularly as implemented on the LX and SS10).

OTOH, if the original poster is talking about the card, I think he is, 
they originally came with two adapters: one which had the mini-din, a 
short piece of CAT-5 and an AUI port; the other had a short piece of 
CAT-5 to an RJ-45 Male(!) port. (You could attach the latter to a 
10BaseT network with an included RJ-45 F-F adapter.)

Unfortinately, I lost my access to spares of those after they cleaned 
out the lab at work while I was on vacation.

<<<john>>>