shair@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Bob Shair) (05/27/91)
A significant number of RISC Systems/6000 were provided to universities, software developers, and others before the general availability of the products. Any system with a serial number less than 05000, or received before May, 1990 may well be a "pre-GA" system. IBM Austin has been trying to track down these systems, and get them upgraded to current level hardware. If you have one which has not yet been upgraded, please contact your local IBM representative at once to arrange for it. IBM WILL NOT SERVICE BROKEN SYSTEMS WHICH HAVE NOT BEEN UPGRADED! (there, was that loud enough?) This project has only another month to run. We've been using our internal records to track down and contact users directly, but are not convinced we've found them all. I'm therefore advertising here. If you really don't know how to contact your local IBM rep, drop me a note at rmshair@chgvmic1.vnet.ibm.com -- Bob Shair shair@chgvmic1.iinus1.ibm.com Scientific Computing Specialist SHAIR@UIUCVMD (bitnet) IBM Champaign
karish@mindcraft.com (Chuck Karish) (05/29/91)
In article <1991May27.165427.26584@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> shair@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Bob Shair) writes: >Any system with a >serial number less than 05000, or received before May, 1990 >may well be a "pre-GA" system. Some machines with serial numbers greater than 5000 were also pre- GA. The ones I saw were numbers 5115, 5116, and 5118. The symptom we found that prompted us to discover this and have the machines upgraded was that they wouldn't boot from stacked tape. >This project has only another month to run. We've been using our >internal records to track down and contact users directly, but >are not convinced we've found them all. IBM's internal records are (were) apparently not organized as well as they might have been for this task. The topology diskettes I sent back should have provided the information to show what level our machines were, but service people I talked to later didn't have access to that database. Bob, is there a way to have AIX tell us what level our firmware is? It's annoying to have to open the box and peer around the memory boards to read the numbers on the ROS chips. -- Chuck Karish karish@mindcraft.com Mindcraft, Inc. (415) 323-9000
shair@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Bob Shair) (05/29/91)
karish@mindcraft.com (Chuck Karish) writes: >Bob, is there a way to have AIX tell us what level our firmware is? >It's annoying to have to open the box and peer around the memory >boards to read the numbers on the ROS chips. >-- lscfg -v will give you a verbose listing of your configuration including many EC levels. Whether that's sufficient to decide whether a system needs upgrading, I can't say. (I should include a disclaimer, like a good IBMer... I have nothing to do with this upgrade project, being just an ordinary field Systems Engineer whose experience is limited to working with my own customer. But when that customer is the University of Illinois, one gets quite an education, and access to usenet/internet news. So I decided to publicize this here.) (output from lscfg -v first few lines of hundreds) INSTALLED RESOURCE LIST WITH VPD The following resources are installed on your machine. sysunit0 00-00 RISC System/6000 System Unit sysplanar0 00-00 CPU Planar Part Number.................71F0044 EC Level....................C26251 Processor Identification....00026821 ROS Level and ID............IPLVER0.0 LVL0.00,71F0045 Processor Component ID......0000003100000032 Device Specific.(Z0)........01250B Device Specific.(Z1)........022102 Device Specific.(Z2)........032001 Device Specific.(Z3)........042104 Device Specific.(Z4)........1D2006 Device Specific.(Z5)........FFFFFF Device Specific.(Z6)........0A3005 Device Specific.(Z7)........2A3005 Device Specific.(Z8)........FFFFFF Device Specific.(Z9)........FFFFFF ROS Level and ID............OCS(03000000) ROS Level and ID............SEEDS(05000000) fpa0 00-00 Floating Point Processor mem1 00-0B 16 MB Memory Card Device Specific.(Z3)........00 EC Level....................00 -- Bob Shair shair@chgvmic1.vnet.ibm.com Scientific Computing Specialist SHAIR@UIUCVMD (bitnet) IBM Champaign
jaime@excalibur.austin.ibm.com (05/29/91)
In article <1991May29.060940.6535@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>, shair@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Bob Shair) writes: > From: shair@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Bob Shair) > Subject: Re: "Pre-GA" RISC Systems - Free upgrade offer expiring > > karish@mindcraft.com (Chuck Karish) writes: > > >Bob, is there a way to have AIX tell us what level our firmware is? > >It's annoying to have to open the box and peer around the memory > >boards to read the numbers on the ROS chips. > >-- > > lscfg -v will give you a verbose listing of your configuration > including many EC levels. Whether that's sufficient to decide > whether a system needs upgrading, I can't say. > (I should include a disclaimer, like a good IBMer... > I have nothing to do with this upgrade project, being just an > ordinary field Systems Engineer whose experience is limited to > working with my own customer. But when that customer is the > University of Illinois, one gets quite an education, and > access to usenet/internet news. So I decided to publicize > this here.) > > (output from lscfg -v first few lines of hundreds) > INSTALLED RESOURCE LIST WITH VPD > > The following resources are installed on your machine. > > sysunit0 00-00 RISC System/6000 System Unit > sysplanar0 00-00 CPU Planar > > Part Number.................71F0044 > EC Level....................C26251 > Processor Identification....00026821 > ROS Level and ID............IPLVER0.0 LVL0.00,71F0045 > Processor Component ID......0000003100000032 > Device Specific.(Z0)........01250B > Device Specific.(Z1)........022102 > Device Specific.(Z2)........032001 > Device Specific.(Z3)........042104 > Device Specific.(Z4)........1D2006 > Device Specific.(Z5)........FFFFFF > Device Specific.(Z6)........0A3005 > Device Specific.(Z7)........2A3005 > Device Specific.(Z8)........FFFFFF > Device Specific.(Z9)........FFFFFF > ROS Level and ID............OCS(03000000) > ROS Level and ID............SEEDS(05000000) > > -- > > Bob Shair shair@chgvmic1.vnet.ibm.com > Scientific Computing Specialist SHAIR@UIUCVMD (bitnet) > IBM Champaign OK folks, let's get this right once and for all. As previously posted all machines with serial numbers less than 5000 were pre-GA machines. The serial number is found below the LED indicators on deskside models and behind the system fan on the model 320 desktop units. These are the macines IBM has been feverishly trying to upgrade. A large portion of these have already been done. If a machine has been upgraded, a sticker will be placed on the machine indicating thsi and the date the action was done. On deskside models the sticker will be found by removing the back cover and looking in the upper laft hand corner of the machine. This will be to the left of the fan. A sticker with the serial numberwill also be seen. On the desk top models, the serial number sticker and the upgrade sticker are on the back below the fan. A way for see what AIX can tell you is described above by Bob Shair. To remove the extra stuff, use the following: lscfg -l sysplanar0 -v This will only give the CPU information. The following machines REQUIRE upgrading, if not already done. Model CPU Part # 320 70F9928 or less 520 70F9645 or less 530/730 70F0240 or less 540 70F9923 or less 930 70F9655 or less It is stillpossible for machines with CPU part numbers that are higher than those stated to require upgrading. This could occur if te CPU planar was replaced with a GA level planar as part of a service call. There are other portions of the machine (I/O planar, adpater cards, cables) that can still require upgrading. PLEASE check the serial numbers and/or stickers to verify. For the user who said that their machines with serial numbers greater than 5000 that required upgrading, most likely the culprit was the tape and not the CPU that caused the stack tape not to work. The tape drives themselves required upgrading the GA level as well. Those machines you find needing upgrading, please contact Kathy Mackay of IBM in Austin at 1-512-838-4242 or for IBMer's tie-line 678-4242. The turn-around time is short and IBM pays for the shipping. Jaime Vazquez Voice: 512-838-4829 or t/l 678-4829 AIX Technical Support Fax: 512-838-4851 or t/l 678-4851 IBM AWD-Austin/2830 6000: jaime@excalibur.austin.ibm.com InterNet: jaime@austin.vnet.ibm.com or jaime%austin@vnet.ibm.com -------------------------------------------------------------------- <Standard disclaimers apply.> <I most definitely do not speak for IBM. Any information I post is as accurate as I can make it but cannot be considered IBM's official position. Any errors were made by me and only me. >