mem@unify.UUCP (Mark Mason) (11/16/89)
Kinda quiet here...
I have a few questions that I hope someone can help me
with.
I have a old 32000 chipset that I am considering building
a computer around. My typical method of construction involves
point-to-point soldering using wire-wrap wire. Since this
is going to be a fair bit fast clock-wise than my other
projects (10Mhz compared to 2Mhz), is it likely that I will
run into any problems (due to the higher speeds). If this
is not a good technique and/or you can reccomend another,
I would like to hear about it.
The chipset that I have is actually old enough that most
of the chips are from the 16000 series, and about half of
them at rated to 6Mhz. I thought that I would go ahead and
use these for the moment, use parts that will work at 10MHz
for everything else, and a 10Mhz crystal (5MHz system clock).
Later I will upgrade the crystal and the chipset to 10Mhz parts.
I take it that the pinouts did not change between the
16000 and 32000 series (the cpu is a 32016-6, the
fpu, tcu, icu and mmu are all 16xxx series).
How much does a 10Mhz chipset cost? (and where is a good place
to get it?).
How useful is the DB32000 eval board from NS? (& how much).
Gee, just add a scsi port, get minix for the 32000 & have a
nice little unix-like system ;-) anyone do this?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
mason
BTW: has anyone been able to reach the beowulf archives? (does
it still exist?). I've tried to get to it from several different
sites, and have hit the email "black hole" each time.
--
tektronix!sequent!unify!mem
...{csusac,pyramid}!unify!mem
mason@reed.bitnet
The above opinions/falsehoods/misconceptions are my own....greg@legs.legs (Greg Ebert, a.k.a GJ EBERP) (11/17/89)
Building an entire system from scratch is not something for the light-hearted. After you figure out what kind of enclosure, bus, features, etc you want, you can start the real nitty gritty stuff. Chances are that you will not save any money doing it yourself versus buying a complete system. I won't even comment on the amount of time you need to invest. A few months ago, someone was selling a 16 Mhz 32016 with 8Meg RAM, 80Meg disk, and running Sys V for $1200. If you're gonna build a system from scratch, I *STRONGLY* urge you to carefully wire-wrap it. The basic CPU/MMU/FPU/TCU and associated buffers contains hundreds of connections, making it almost impossible to solder point-to-point. If you have the time and $$$$$$$, whip-up a PC board ( a major task, believe me ! ). I have had great success wire-wrapping boards with the Vector Slit-N-Wrap stuff which allows you to go point-to-point without stripping or cutting wire. I'm building my 32032 from a 6Mhz chipset I bought from Jameco Electronics (mailorder) for about $75 a few years ago (see how long it takes to build it yourself ?). I'm using S-100 cards, and a modified bus pinout to handle 32 Data/ 24 Address bits while still supporting 8-bit S-100 cards. If I had to start over, I would use the 32016 and build it around the PC-AT bus as a bus-master device (see your local IBM Technical Manual). That way, I can use all of the cheap RAM/video/serial/disk/MODEM cards out there. Good luck on your endeavor !