At 05:26 PM 1/19/99 -0500, Michael Maciolek wrote:
>I believe Mr. Ibarra is talking about an RDI laptop.  Before RDI
>and Tadpole merged into a single company, they were the two most
>well known (but very distinct) Sparc laptop vendors; RDI's boxes
>were based on the original Sun motherboards, and followed the
>naming convention of 'BriteLite', 'PowerLite', 'UltraLite', etc.
>There would be no trouble popping a Weitek accelerator in an RDI
>BriteLite, as it would indeed be 'exactly the same architecture
>as an IPX.'
>
>Tadpole designed their own motherboards and they adopted the
>naming scheme of 'SPARCbook', 'SPARCbook 2', etc.  While I don't
>claim any particular knowledge of the Tadpole implementation, I
>know that they did NOT provide an openboot PROM until the third
>generation (SPARCbook 3), and I would generally expect Tadpole's
>SPARCbook architecture to be substantially different from Sun's
>original motherboards.
>
>On the other hand, the NetBSD implementors have done a remarkable
>job covering a wide range of hardware, and it wouldn't shock me to
>learn that NetBSD does indeed run on a Tadpole SPARCbook.
>
>I'd just like to know if you're making that particular claim from 
>your own experience with a Tadpole SPARCbook, or if you're talking
>about an RDI BriteLite instead, just to set the record straight.
>
>(I've got a Tadpole Sparcbook 2, haven't yet tried to run NetBSD
>on it but I plan to as soon as I have a chance, hopefully in the
>next few days.)
>
>If Mr. Maynard has had any more luck with his SPARCbook 2, please
>let me know either in this forum or by private Email.  Thanks!
>
>	Michael Maciolek

Indeed my experiences were with an RDI, just couldn't remember the name
off-hand. (The original owner decided it would be a good idea to place a
stapler on top of this machine when folded, thus ruining the monitor :)


-mike

>
>
>On Wed, 13 Jan 1999, Michael C. Ibarra wrote:
>
>  >> 
>  >> 	If it has a floppy, download the floppy image from the latest
>  >> 	snapshot (ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/arch/sparc/...) and try
>  >> 	booting it. You dont have to run any of the install programs
>  >> 	so your disks should be safe if you decide not to go ahead :)
>  >> 
>  >> 		David/absolute
>  >> 
>  >>  -=-  "I know its not the right thing, and I know its not the good
thing"  -=-
>  >> 
>  >> On Wed, 13 Jan 1999, Jay Maynard wrote:
>  >> 
>  >> > The SPARCbook 2 isn't listed as one of the supported platforms.
Anyone have
>  >> > any experience at all with these and NetBSD? I'd love to jettison
SunOS
>  >> > 4.0.3...
>  >
>  >I've blasted one of those not too long ago, SunOS 4.1.4, however it
>  >was exactly the same architecture as an IPX. I even installed a
>  >Weitek chip in there as well.
>  >
>  >-mike
>  >
>
>
>
>