Agreed.. this is definitely pushing the SPARC workstation market to an end.
Unfortunately, its this type of thinking that leads to people not developing
for a platform anymore. I remember when the number of DEC/Compaq Alpha
workstations started to drop off.. even before the HP merger and how it
crippled sales of the servers. For one company I use to do work for on the
side.. they use to build powerful supercomputers using Alpha workstations and
2-4 way boxes.. only needing a handful of nodes. When the question mark
appeared over the Alpha.. they had to change gears and hop on the x86/linux
bandwagon and sell customers hundreds of servers to equal the performance. For
the SPARC line, I see a similiar fate if the ecosystem is not re-newed.
Otherwise, the T-series will be as low-end as you can get and no one is going
to put that on their desk. This impacts a lot more than just developers or
SA's.. this affects companies that heavily use SPARC workstations
as part of their products.. like Xerox, MRI machines, etc. Making it harder
for developers, ISV's, etc. to develop software due to high hardware costs for
their developers will make it easier for them to not support SPARC in the
future regardless of how well the roadmap does on the server side.
I had even blogged about a good configuration..
* Kewl enclosure. Perhaps something between an old IPX and a Mac
Mini? Sun Logo that lights up (best feature of the SB2000 besides it's
power)! Metallic shell, like the front of the T5x20's.
* UltraSPARC-T2 with 4 cores
* 4 x FBDIMM slots (have to stick with the memory controller tech in
the chip)
* 2 x GigE NIC ports
* 2 x SATA 2.5" laptop hard drives (gotta keep the space down)
* 1 x DVD-RW/CD-RW slot drive
* 4 x USB 2.0(3.0?) ports
* 1 x Nvidia video chipset with 2D/3D support, DVI port, no skimping
here!
* 1 x Integrated sound card with all the normal in/out ports.
* 2 x PCI-E low-profile slots (combo XAUI slots?.. if it can be done
within the costs)
* Type 7 keyboard/mouse USB kit.
* Silent fans!
* External power brick to save space and reduce heat.Something like
that would sell if it could be kept under $2500 and I don't really see a reason
why it can't be done.
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Octave J. Orgeron
Solaris Virtualization Architect and Consultant
Web: http://unixconsole.blogspot.com
E-Mail: unixconsole at yahoo.com
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----- Original Message ----
From: Paul Gress <pgr...@optonline.net>
To: OpenSolaris X Window System List <xwin-discuss at opensolaris.org>; Open
Solaris <opensolaris-discuss at opensolaris.org>
Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2008 3:44:51 PM
Subject: Re: [osol-discuss] *LOL* : - "Xorg on SPARC will not work with any
driver except the included wsfb (which only works on m64 graphics in 8-bit
mode) unless you get updated matching driver packages from the SPARC graphics
team, since this release breaks API/ABI." __/
Martin Bochnig wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 28, 2008 at 6:18 PM, Alan Coopersmith
> <Alan.Coopersmith at sun.com> wrote:
>
>> Martin Bochnig wrote:
>>
>>> ***LOL***:
>>>
>> And here I thought the part you'd appreciate most was going to be
>> that no one downloaded the builds I announced either
>>
>
> No, why should I?
> The lack of interest on the ( only SPARC?) side of this community's
> user base is frustrating.
> To you, to me, to anybody who works or has worked on it and then
> nobody even downloaded it :-(
>
> I need space in my living room.
> I already took all SPARC testing boxes (all!!!) and put them into the
> basement (w/o any wiring).
> Except a wonder happens and at least 23 people tell me that they are
> interested in seeing the merge of the legacy SPARC drivers (#0) into
> Xorg 1.5.x++ (or if I finally get a symbolic unpaid job at Sun, which
> always had been my "dream"), I list them on ebay, or directly throw
> them away (to save time and work).
> They are pretty much worthless in contrast to what I once had paid for them.
>
> (#0)
> http://opensolaris.org/os/project/fox/SPARC-Xorg/
>
> Martin Bochnig
>
>
>
I for one would be very interested, but unfortunately, I use a Blade
2500 with the XVR1200 Graphics card. To add fuel to the fire, I just
recently found out Parametric Technologies (manufacturer of MCAD
software Pro-Engineer) does not support the Sparc Workstation for WF5
(they have released a pre version as of now). They are only supporting
the X64 Solaris (thank god, there is a Unix flavor still available).
The X64 version has many feature missing that were available on the
Sparc Platform. So reluctantly, it appears that X64 may be in my future.
Cannot Sun add to their OBP a layer to use standard graphics cards?
Unless Sun does that, it appears the Sparc Workstation me become extinct.
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