Hiho knowledgable old Sun hardware people!  (I know you're
here, I lurk and learn from you when you least expect it!)

An acquaintance of mine recently came into posession of a
secondhand 4/330 pedestal unit, quite respectably configured.
(I told him he should run NetBSD on it; he runs a Solaris
 shop so far, but I think I convinced him 8)

Unfortunately, it's suffering from a cache data (not tag)
failure according to the diagnostics.  The cache memories on
this board are Cypress CY7C162-20PC parts, which are a
discontinued line according to the local Cypress supplier 
(who I do a lot of business with, so I'm happy that they're
not just giving us the flick...).  They're asking about $7
each, but 4 weeks lead time and a 75pc MOQ, which is harsh
given that he only needs 16 to do a complete cache swap.

There exist a couple of alternatives at this point;

 - We can try sourcing some substitute parts (Quality 
   Semiconductor's QS8882, or the LOGIC Devices L7C162).  
   It's likely that similar leadtimes and MOQ numbers 
   will apply though.

 - We can try to scrounge some parts off a dead unit of
   some sort.  Haven't had much luck there so far.

 - Perhaps we can find another CPU card.  They seem to
   be rare in this corner of the world.

 - We can ask the nice people on this list whether they
   have or know of someone who has a suitable quantity of
   these parts and is willing to part with them for a 
   realistic price.

It'd also be nice to know if we were correct in trusting
the diagnostics, or whether this is a known 'feature' of
the board and the fault is really somewhere else.  A careful
visual inspection of the board doesn't seem to indicate
dry joints or a broken patchwire.

Thanks for any ideas you might have...

--
Mike Smith  *BSD hack  Unix hardware collector
The question "why are the fundamental laws of nature mathematical"
invites the trivial response "because we define as fundamental those
laws which are mathematical".  Paul Davies, _The_Mind_of_God_