I have an older one and it seems like, I recall, openboot has a name for the
nvram. possible caMel or similar.
Dwight
From: erik--- via cctalk
Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2023 1:35 PM
To: cctalk@classiccmp.org
Cc: e...@baigar.de
Subject: [cctalk] Re:
Stephen,
You have a terrific website. It's very well presented and a nice resource
for homebrew computing circa the mid-1970s.
Sellam
Played a little around - and the OpenFirmware's "dump" command on my older
SparcBook 3GX (so no Ultra, but 4m architecture) is able to dump virtual
memory. Obeying to the forth syntax, the following command...
1000 100 dump
...dumps 256 bytes starting at address 1000. Of course, reading
Once upon a time DS... was (other things apart) Dallas, then Maxim, now Analog
Devices.
Mouser says DS 1553 & DS1643 are obsolete. However, there appears to be
aftermarket activity:
- https://www.radwell.co.uk/en-GB/Search/?q=ds1553
- https://www.radwell.co.uk/en-GB/Search/?q=ds1643
- which
Good afternoon to all,
I am starting the process of selling off some of my vintage computer systems,
so as to not burden anyone I leave behind.
The systems I list here are available for viewing in Bedford, NH, just west of
Manchester, NH. Anyone interested can send me an e-mail message and we
Hmmm, did littel reading in the OpenFirmware manual I linked above. There is an
example how to use show-devs for listing the existing devices. The example
contains...
/virtual-memory@0,0
/memory@0,0
/counter-timer@1,f300
/eeprom@1,f200
/openprom
So being lucky, the hex
Yes, but usually that process does only reset the boot flags described in in
the maunal, it does not reset the hardware relevant stuff like the hostID and
MAC (those are lost in the Sparc Stations when the NVRAM is pulled or
completely empty). But of course one can not be entirely sure - I
> Interesting. So you still have got the hostid and the MAC address which might
> indicate, that the contents are not completely lost yet. Maybe just a few
> bits flipped leading to a wrong checksum (and the diag-switch? being set to
> true, leading to lng POST times)?
Maybe, but it also
Interesting. So you still have got the hostid and the MAC address which might
indicate, that the contents are not completely lost yet. Maybe just a few bits
flipped leading to a wrong checksum (and the diag-switch? being set to true,
leading to lng POST times)?
> Do anyone out there have got UltraBooks or UltraBooks IIi up and running?
> Would
> highly be interested in a dump of the NVRAM/Timekeeper!!!
>
> The failed first generation UltraBook are (DS1643 NVRAM):
> (*) U20-14-9-512P with three (!!) hard drives, no battery port
> (*) U20-14-3-128B two
Exactly that is what I did lot of times with my sparc stations already. But
last week, the UltraBook IIi showed for the first time inconsistent NVRAM and
following that, I replaced the NVRAM by one with an external battery but in my
sillyness I had not saved the contens as I was not aware of
There are solutions to the dying DS chips. I have seen replacement with
newer ones (but sometimes those have old cells too), surgery to replace the
internal cell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZJDlNoJk7M, and replacement
with a clone https://www.tindie.com/search/?q=dallas.
However the critical
Hmmm, not sure on that one actually. So it does not boot up at all?
In the desktop Sun workstations and e.g. the Tadpole SparcBook, a lost NVRAM at
least shows the firmware prompt on the screen (no HOSTID and no ethernet MAC).
So there the situation is not as severe as with the UltraBooks where
Just checked the datasheets: The NVRAMs of the UltraBooks I know of are the
DS1643 and the DS1553. Both should be similar enough to be read/write by any
reader that supports the DS1643 or the DS1553. Of course I'd offer creating an
modified Arduino doing the task, to test it and to supply it to
I have RDI Powerlite 85's. The box says "RDI/Tadpole"
Bill
On Sun, Sep 24, 2023 at 12:21 PM erik--- via cctalk
wrote:
> The more are joining the higher the probability, that we will be able to
> solve it somehow ;-) What kind of UltraBook do you have got?
>
The more are joining the higher the probability, that we will be able to solve
it somehow ;-) What kind of UltraBook do you have got?
Quite sad and I really hate that type of "limited lifetime" :-( Unfortunately
the manufacturer RDI/Cupertino/US was acquired in 1998 by Tadpole and they
dissolved in "General Dynamics" in 2005. The remains are now taken care of by
Flextronics/Flex, but I do not have got much hope, they will
I have the same situation, would love to know how to resolve this as well.
Bill
On Sun, Sep 24, 2023 at 11:31 AM erik--- via cctalk
wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> in the last weeks my last two working UltraBooks died. Today I
> investigated the problem
> and obviously in these RDI made notebooks, the
I have seen similar behavior on all Force2CE VME boards with empty NVRAM.
On Sunday, September 24, 2023, erik--- via cctalk
wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> in the last weeks my last two working UltraBooks died. Today I
> investigated the problem
> and obviously in these RDI made notebooks, the NVRAMs
Hi there,
in the last weeks my last two working UltraBooks died. Today I investigated the
problem
and obviously in these RDI made notebooks, the NVRAMs not only contain the boot
information,
the host ID and the MAC address but also the hardware configuration.
Hence: Once the NVRAM is
> On Sep 23, 2023, at 5:06 PM, Will Cooke via cctalk
> wrote:
>
> I can't answer for Paul, but I can tell you how to do approximate
> calculations for yourself.
>
> You need to know two things: the equivalent parallel resistance (Thevenin
> equivalent) of the two series resistors and
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