wasserroth@fokus.berlin.gmd.dbp.de (Stephan Wasserroth) (06/14/89)
Some time ago I asked the following two questions: >1. Does SUN offer an upgrade 3/280S ---> 3/480S (that would be a > CPU-upgrade)? >2. SUN now has 32MB-memory-boards. A 3/480S seem to support both 8MB and > 32MB boards (up to a total of 128MB). Is it possible to put the 32MB > boards into a 3/280S? If not, why doesn't it work? Is it possible > to put more than 32MB into a 3/280S? > >The "official" answer (our friendly sales rep...) is: >1. CPU-upgrades only 3/280S ---> 4/200 (but we need 3/... no SPARC!) >2. No 32MB boards into a 3/280S. Reason unknown. I received the following answers: vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv From: Greg Christy Date: Wed, 17 May 89 13:52:37 PDT Stephan, When we ordered a 3/260C in April our Sun salesperson told us of a special deal that Sun was offering to keep people from canceling their 3/2xx orders when the new 3/4xx machines were announced. They offered to upgrade our CPU board to the new 3/4xx board (when they become available) for 5000 US dollars. He stated that this was half of the normal upgrade price. I have no idea if this offer is available in the BRD, but at least you can inform your salesperson that the CPU upgrade can be done here in the US. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Greg Christy dumb email: greg%irad_sun1@wlv.imsd.contel.com Contel Federal Systems smart email: greg@irad_sun1.imsd.contel.com 31717 La Tienda Drive phone: (818) 706-4307 Westlake Village, CA 91359 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv I don't know if Sun is different in Germany for some reason, but in the USA my sales Rep (who generally has his act together, unlike many Sun Reps) says Yes to both of these. #1 costs about $17,000 but may not be in current sales lists. You'll need SunOS 4.0.3 to handle the Pegasus board. For #2, you can put 4 32MB boards in a 3/280, but you need the latest ROMS (I'm not sure how recent; if your Sales Rep can't find out I can try to find out for you.) and SunOS 4.0. You have to dig to find out any of this; Sun's Sales is almost as lame as their support (except for my Rep, who walks on water). --Carl Rigney cdr@amdcad.AMD.COM {ames decwrl gatech pyramid sun uunet}!amdcad!cdr MS 167; AMD; 901 Thompson Place; Box 3453; Sunnyvale, CA 94088 +1 408 749 2453 vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv From: Randy Smith Date: Thu, 18 May 89 12:54:04 CDT While I couldn't find such an upgrade in the normal price list, some Sun e-mail given to me by our local rep. shows the following 3/280 to 3/480 Product number UG3/200-PROMO List Price $5000 Category "A" discountable This info came under the category "Q4 Promotionan Upgrade Programs" This seems like a really good deal to me... Unfortunately we already spent our equipment budget for the year. Randy Smith University of Minnesota Minnesota Supercomputer Institute wsmith@s1.msi.umn.edu ...!rutgers!umn-cs!wsmith vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv From: Jamie Sonsini Date: Thu, 18 May 89 13:00:56 PDT I've inquired into the same upgrade and was told my our local Sun sales rep that this was "simply a CPU board swap". I'm still waiting for price information (it's been a few weeks now). So, maybe Sun's sales folks don't all have the same instructions or information? Our sales rep is Seymour Stein (Los Angeles, CA, phone: (818) 905-0200). Good luck. Jamie Sonsini UC Santa Barbara 9531sons@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv For at least some 3/280's, the answer to both is yes, but not all of any model are the same - sort of like VAXen, they keep changing things here and there (cf "dimple-top" vs. "flat-top" 3/50's, same model, slightly different design. You can upgrade very recent 3/280's, maybe all of them, maybe only those produced with some recent tweak of the design - like maybe those produced after Sun itself knew what the 3/400's would be like. We have a brand new 3/280 that we stuck a 32M board in. The spec says you can't do that, but it finds and uses all 48M. Dick St.Peters GE Corporate R&D, Schenectady, NY stpeters@dawn.crd.ge.com uunet!steinmetz!dawn!stpeters GE would charge for opinions if it could find any. These are mine. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Thanks to everyone! DFN-EAN: <wasserroth@fokus.berlin.gmd.dbp.de> ARPA: <wasserroth%fokus.berlin.gmd.dbp.de@relay.cs.net> / GMD-FOKUS Stephan Wasserroth \_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _/ Hardenbergplatz 2 System Manager for / \ D-1000 Berlin 12 VAXes and Sun-WS \ Fed. Rep. of Germany