[SOLD] Sun SparcStation IPX, 64MB RAM, 1GB Disk, great shape!

[ghost180sx]

For sale is a sun SparcStation IPX, aka 4/50. Bare machine only, no peripherals or accessories included. I keep getting more machines in my collection and so I've made the hard decision that this one has got to go!

I picked this up locally and the condition is fantastic. It used to be used by a Geotechnical firm in dowtown Calgary, that still exists. Other than a tiny chip on the front right corner (see pics), the case is excellent. No fading or extreme yellowing at all. I have fully tested pretty much every subsystem and it all works, from the built-in CG6 graphics, to the network card, the serial ports, the keyboard/mouse port and so on.

I have since upgraded the hard disk to a Seagate 1GB from the original 512, and increased the RAM from 32MB to 64MB (max possible unless you get an add-on SBUS card). I have also fixed the NVRAM/TOD clock chip so that you can use a CR2032 battery. Even better, I have been able to reprogram the original MAC address and serial number that this machine originally shipped with, into the NVRAM chip. I have replaced the original ball bearing fan with a newer Panaflow that exceeds the factory rated one. None of the power supply's caps were bulging when I opened it to change the fan.

A fresh install of SunOS 4.1.4 is installed and the root and user passwords will be provided to the buyer. This is a turn-key system, and I hope you can enjoy it like I did!

Shipping is extra, and really depends on how fast you want it and where you live. Please let me know by PM what your address is if you want a shipping quote. The IPX is durable and small-ish, like a cube, so it should not be much money to ship it.

Asking $150 USD.

 

[Elf]

Edit: With apologies, I no longer wish to have involvement with SGUG or SGI communities in general,
and have also chosen to remove all of my content. Many things have changed since I co-founded, named, and ultimately
then left SGUG. There are many good people around, to whom I apologize for frustrating by removing these things, and
also many petty people that over the years whittled down both the enjoyment as well as sense of obligation I used to
feel to anyone else regarding what was ultimately just a hobby. Unfortunately one of the latter now writes the rules
and so it is time for me to take my things and go.

This message will replace all of my previous forum posts because deleting threads that I started would have removed
other peoples' posts.

 

[ghost180sx]

OK, I'll send a PM

 

[drmadison]

These are such "cute" machines - love em!

 

[indigofan]

These are such "cute" machines - love em!

Not like those JavaStations.. now those are cute as a button.

 

[ghost180sx]

Sold to an IPX lover! Thanks Elf

 

[Elf]

Edit: With apologies, I no longer wish to have involvement with SGUG or SGI communities in general,
and have also chosen to remove all of my content. Many things have changed since I co-founded, named, and ultimately
then left SGUG. There are many good people around, to whom I apologize for frustrating by removing these things, and
also many petty people that over the years whittled down both the enjoyment as well as sense of obligation I used to
feel to anyone else regarding what was ultimately just a hobby. Unfortunately one of the latter now writes the rules
and so it is time for me to take my things and go.

This message will replace all of my previous forum posts because deleting threads that I started would have removed
other peoples' posts.

 

[Jinroh]

Super cool!

Went to a super rad home! >:3

 

[ghost180sx]

Thanks gentlemen for the compliments. I hope you can use your new IPX for something more than just a backup - but also I hope it lasts as a reliable machine for another 30 years

 

[blackbit]

Hey @ghost180sx !

Nice restoration, congrats!
I am currently on a similar quest, also fixing the ubiquitous NVRAM issue.
You wrote:

have been able to reprogram the original MAC address and serial number that this machine originally shipped with

I would like to do the same, but struggle to determine the original values.
The MAC was mentioned in a log file on the HDD that was in the system when I got it, but the serial number and Host ID...
Where did you find those values?

 

[ghost180sx]

@blackbit
See attached files. screenshots above from Elf who bought my machine, and my notes I pasted here:

Decoding the NVRAM sticker on the RTC module
=============================================

My Sun Sparcstation IPX's barcode reads "N3P2". Using an iPhone app barcode reader, it confirms the barcode contains the string "N3P2".

Based on a coding table found online, and archived, this decodes to the following:

N    1010    1101    0011    = 0xAD3
3    1101    1001    0101    = 0xD95
P    1011    0110    1001    = 0xB69
2    1011    0010    1011    = 0xB2B

This means the MAC address, which aways starts with the Sun vendor's 3 bytes of 08:00:20, ends in AD:3D:95. The full MAC address is thus:
MAC Address:    08:00:20:AD:3D:95

And the host ID, when prefixed by the first byte machine code of 57 for an IPX:
Host ID:    57B69B2B

The new programming code for the NVRAM becomes:
(note that this still does not feature a production date, TBD)

1 0 mkp
57 1 mkp
8 2 mkp
0 3 mkp
20 4 mkp
ad 5 mkp
3d 6 mkp
95 7 mkp
0 8 mkp
0 9 mkp
0 a mkp
0 b mkp
b6 c mkp
9b d mkp
2b e mkp
0 f 0 do i idprom@ xor loop f mkp
reset

Setting some nvram defaults
===============================
The machine will boot up and do a full system test/diagnostic. This takes forever. It maybe is a good idea to do once in a while but this should not be the norm for everyday booting.
1. Send a break over the serial port. (Using cu: ~#)
2. Type 'n' for new command mode.
3. Set the following:

setenv diag-switch? false
setenv screen-#rows 40


Set the date properly
========================

To set the date beyond Y2K, you need to use 'rdate' to set time over ethernet.
To setup an rdate service on a networked linux box, use xinetd's 'time' service.
Currnetly, <myserver> is running xinetd/time and you can issue the command from the
IPX box:

> rdate <myserver>

And get an up to date modern time!

 

[blackbit]

Thanks much!

I was able to find this reference:

Wayback Machine

The NVRAM chip will usually have a white or yellow barcode label on it (except for sun4d).
Given the barcode, Sun can reconstruct your original hostid and ethernet address.
On newer machines (some SS5, SS20, all Ultras) the number printed on the barcode is the last three bytes of the ethernet address and also the last three bytes of the hostid.
The first three bytes of the ethernet address are always 8:0:20 and the first byte of the hostid is determined by the system type (see table below), so on these machines you can trivially reconstruct the hostid.
I have no idea how to do it on the machines with the old style barcode label, but if nothing else, the label makes the NVRAM chip easy to identify.

 

[blackbit]

I think it was your picture from above that threw me off for a while
There, the MAC and Host ID suffixes do not match actually.

 

[ghost180sx]

I think it was your picture from above that threw me off for a while
There, the MAC and Host ID suffixes do not match actually.

They are not supposed to match, necessarily. But in a pinch, it's a "safe" thing to do. In my case, the NVRAM sticker had fallen off or didn't ship with one, hence the need to do it based on the barcode on the back of the machine for my IPX.