🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Sep11.224100.4755@csus.edu> hodges@huckleberry.sfsu.edu (Jack  
&) writes:
> I saw mention, in my rn files, about someone who was interested in knowing
> whether a NeXT cube could be upgraded to a turbo board, and the reply I
> saved was something like "ah, another user that doesn't read the FAQs."

Well, yes as I have read there are 33 Mhz upgrades available

> Well, I've been looking around for them for an hour or so now, and have
> not found them. Any salutations would be appreciated.

Okay, HELLO THERE JACK!!!

> Also, does anyone still have information on the folks who modify 030
> boards for use in a cube? Or, should I say, does anyone know more
> about the outfit, what they do, and how well it works?

I am currently working on a review of this configuration.  The outfit
is called Spherical Solutions, and due to no lack of net publicity
I am going to just say they are in Mill Valley, California USA.

Here is part of a FAQ.tidbits (from May '92) and hope it helps.

Subject: M2. Can I put both an 030 and an 040 system board in a single NeXT  
cube?

[Note that we have no first hand experience with this problem, we
have compiled what we consider to be an accurate report.  We acknowledge
conflicting reports where appropriate.]

In general Mach may be configured as a multiprocessor operating system;
however, the NeXT kernel is only configured to deal with one processor.
This configuration can not be changed without access to the kernel
sources.  [hopefully NeXT will offer a multiprocessor version of the NeXT
operating system at some future date]

Some have asked about the possibility of installing the 030 board
for use as a printserver or other CPU-intensive task server.  In this
hypothetical setup, each CPU would run its own copy of the operating
system (essentially two different computers sharing the same cube).

This might be workable except for the fact that even if the NBIC
(NextBus Interface Chip) chip is removed, the CPU board probes the 
bus for slot ID [**a conflicting report comes from Richard Dib who
heard that someone ran a cube with the CPU in another slot].

You could do hardware modification to the 030 board which would
isolate it enough to use only the cube as a power supply, however
you can not run two monochrome monitor heads off the cube power supply.
In this case you would probably want to first boot the 030 with a
display head, set the boot prom to boot off ttya, and attach an
ascii terminal to that serial port.

> 
> Thanks...
> 
> Jack Hodges

Your welcome.

Todd Nathan
CSNAnnounce Moderator

PS.  If the FAQ is inaccurate it is only due to its age.  It is in
	no way a reflection of Nathan Janette's work.  He has done
	very hard and quality work to keep the FAQs up to date.