Rick Kelly wrote:
> 
> Glendon Gross said:
> 
> >By the way, is there any way to upgrade the processor in
> >one of these older Sparc boxes?  I was able to add a 2nd processor
> >to a SPARC 10, but was wondering if there is any upgrade path
> >for the older boxes.   TIA.
> 
> You can upgrade the SS2 and the IPX to a Weitek PowerUp chip which runs
> at 80Mhz. There does seem to be some talk in the mailling list archives
> back in 1996 about problems with NetBSD after this upgrade. I'm not sure
> if this was ever "fixed".
> 
> --
> Rick Kelly  rmk@rmkhome.com  www.rmkhome.com

Its a hardware issue rather than anything in software that could be
"fixed".

The problem is that some of the old IPX's and SS2's had bad cache chips
in the chip set. The only way to tell is if you get an error msg on
booting NetBSD. I was able to get my IPX to use the Weitek by swapping
in a good cache chip from an otherwise dead IPX. It's really a trial and
error kind of thing. 

Solaris 7 uses the cache differently than NetBSD so a bad cache chip and
Weitek will work fine with it, if a tad slow. Though with the Weitek in
place, Open Look is quite usable. 

There should be more in the archive around April - May ish of 2001 from
my tribulations. I since moved onto a Sun Blade 100. 

William
-- 
You better watch out    What you wish for;
It better be worth it   So much to die for.
                                Courtney Love