Sparcstation 5

[Mark O. Kimball]

On Sat, 10 Jan 2004 01:08:49 -0800 (PST)
David M Rosonowski <rosonowski at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Well, from the bit of research I've done, the one I
> have is actually a 170mhz model, which isn't too bad
> at all, if lacking in RAM. It's no AXP3200+, but I
> imagine It'll get the job done.

The 170MHz differs from the rest of the SPARCstation 5 lineup. This chip
is a Fujitsu TurboSparc while the rest of the line are TI microsparc
chips. 

The biggest difference (other than clock speed) is the memory management
unit. This mmu is not completely supported with the Linux kernel and
causes some heartburn to the RedHat installer (6.2, Aurora).  Other
distributions may have more success. 

I have successfully installed Gentoo on a SS20 and then swapped the disk
into a SS5/170 and seen it run. It is possible Gentoo would have
installed directly onto the SS5 (I already had the SS20 running so
cloning the disk was easier than a full install on the SS5). Be warned,
installing Gentoo on this machine will take time.

Marko
-- 
Mark O. Kimball
Gasparinilab, University at Buffalo  |  Low temp physics
mok2 at physics.buffalo.edu  |  URL: enthalpy.physics.buffalo.edu
lab phone: 716-645-2017x122  Fax: 716-645-2507