On Sat, Aug 31, 2002 at 06:06:53PM +0200, der Mouse wrote:
> >> to my knowledge the cg6 will work in any SBus machine, end of
> >> sentence.
> > Any cg6 will work in any pre-ultrasparc sbus machine.(*)
> > [...] electrical incompatibility [...]
> 
> Anybody know what the "electrical incompatability" is?

I remember it being described as a "capacitance issue".
There is some text describing some of the limitations in
the old "Sun Framebuffer FAQ" document that is floating
around at various FAQ sites.  A recent (I think) copy
is here:

http://bul.eecs.umich.edu/~crowej/sunfaq/FrameBuffer.html

In particular, the "What frame buffers are/are not
support in the Ultra machines?" question is relevant.

> In particular, what are the symptoms if I try to use an incompatible
> card?

They just don't work.

> And is it liable to fry anything?

Empirical testing says they don't fry, either.

> Is there any similar incompatibility in the other direction
> (new cards, old SBus)?

Not that I have heard of.

-Kurt