🚀 go-pugleaf

In <3ud8aq$e6m@firehose.mindspring.com> chrisc@mindspring.com (Chris Curry) writes:

>I'm about to get a Sun 3/60 motherboard, I know nothing about Suns at all but 
>I was reading this Web site about the Sun3 series and the author was 
>explaining how he had increased some of the performance out of his 3/60 by
>replacing the 68020 CPU with the 68030, replacing the FPU MC68881 with the
>MC68882 and increasing the clock speed to 50Mhz by changing the occilator
>and cooling fan.

That 50 MHz figure is the master clock, not the CPU clock. The standard
3/60 has a 40 Mhz master clock which is divided by 2 to get the CPU clock. 
One of the fortunate design quirks of the 3/60's for us hacker-types is
that everything has it's own oscillator. There's the master 40 Mhz
oscillator for the bulk of the major computing hardware, a 20 Mhz clock
for the ethernet hardware, another oscillator for the serial port
controllers, and yet another one for the real time clock. 

As for interchanging chip types, 68881 and 68882 math co-processors are
completely interchangable. I'm running a 68020 with a 68882 in my 3/60 and
there are no compatibility problems. However, putting in a 68030 requires
soldering in a new socket next to where the 68020 currently sits (since a
68030 has more pins). 

Actually you will find that there is virtually no performance increase by
replacing the 68020 with a 68030 because if there is a hacked kernel that
works with a 68030 on a 3/60 board it can't use any of the special
features of the 68030 (like the MMU cache) which the 68020 doesn't have
since the 3/60 doesn't have the required support hardware to use it
(neither does the 3/80 BTW). 

The only performance increase you'll get is by swapping out the master
oscillator for faster one. My machine works fine with a 50 Mhz one, but
some people have reported problems using 50 Mhz and have had to be
satisfied with 48 Mhz instead. 

The only Sun-3 machines which make use of the 68030's extra features are
the 3/470 and 3/480, which are rackmounted, VME-based monsters (but good
quality machines nonetheless. 

>Has anyone done any of this, with positive results?
>Whats the most people get out of their 3/60?
>Any good tweaking stories? :-)

About a year ago I upgraded my 3/60 to run the CPU and math co-processor
at 25 Mhz instead of 20. It's an easy mod to do providing you can get a 25
Mhz rated CPU and co-pro, and you can find a place selling 50 MHz can
oscillators. 

You may need to replace the 100 ns SIMM's with faster ones as well. I did
when I upgraded my machine, but others report no problems with the faster
clock speed. 

The increase in performance is very noticable (especially when running X,
as I do), but you'll never be able to get it to match even the lowest-end
of the Sun-4 (sparc-based) line because the 68020 and 68030 just don't
have the grunt. If you are happy with the speed you'll get by upgrading to
a 50 Mhz master clock there's nothing wrong with the machines - for
reliability they can't be beaten. 

>I've looked around the net for some info on Sun3s however there I have 
>found very little (I guess since its no longer supported by the company).

Yep, Sun haven't support the Sun-3 line for a few years now. 

>Does anyone no a good place for a novice (or pre-novice) like me to start?
>I'd like to be able to (eventually) use X-windows (and any apps associated
>with it), dial up my PPP provider and use it to do much of the Internet 
>stuff I do now with my PC.

The first thing to do is make sure you can assemble a working system and
install SunOS to your liking from boot tapes. This is the bulk of the
initial learning curve, and once you get along well enough with the
machine to try other things, you can start grabbing public domain software
packages (newsreaders, mail programs, X-windows, etc.) and give yourself
the challenge of getting them built, installed and working. 

Regards,

Craig.
-- 
    Craig Dewick, Passenger Train Driver residing in Sydney, NSW, Australia.
      Please send email to craig@zeta.org.au OR cdewick@orb.apana.org.au.
 "It is without question that planning should be for the long term. Not for the
     next day, but for the next millenium. Otherwise we shall not survive."