SPARCstation IPC (1990)

SPARCstation IPC (1990)
  • Model : 44B (4/40 )
  • Code name: Phoenix 
  • Platform:sun4c
  • Manufacturer: Sun Microsystems
  • Released in: introduced July 1990
  • Operating System : 
      •  SunOS 4.0.3c onwards
      • Solaris 2.0 to Solaris 7, 
      • Linux – Some but not all distributions still support this
      •  PARC32 sub-architecture
      • NetBSD/sparc32 since 1.0
      •  OpenBSD/sparc32 – All versions up to 5.9 (OpenBSD 5.9 was the last release to support SPARC32)

Specifications

  • CPU support: 25 MHz Fujitsu MB86901A or LSI L64801 processor; limited to use as a single-processor machine. 
  • Memory: has twelve SIMM memory slots, in three 4-slot groups; each group of 4 slots can be filled with either four 1MB SIMMs or four 4MB SIMMs, for a maximum of 48MB. 
  • Disk drives: 
      • can hold one internal 3.5″, 50-pin, single ended, fast-narrow SE SCSI disk drive and a 3.5″ 1.44MB floppy drive. 
      •  also supports external SCSI devices
      • no IDE/ATAPI support.
  •  Interfaces: SCSI,Ethernet, Two RS-232/RS-423 serial ports: 8-pin mini-DIN connectors(DB-25 adapter cables are provided)
  • Video: DB13W3 connector for integrated bwtwo monochrome framebuffer
  • Keyboard, mouse: two 8-pin mini-DIN connectors
  • Two SBus slots
  • Network support: The SPARCstation IPC comes with an on-board AMD Lance Ethernet. 

Description

SPARCstation IPC, a workstation manufactured by Sun Microsystems was based on sun4c architecture. This is included in a lunchbox chassis. The processor of this device is an LSI L64801 25 MHz processor. Thus, this is limited to a single-processor machine. There are twelve SIMM memory slots which are assembled in three groups of four slots in each. For each of these groups of slots, 1MB SIMMs or four 4MB SIMMs can be filled which goes upon a maximum of 48MB. One internal 3.5″, 50-pin, single-ended, fast-narrow SE SCSI disk drive and a 3.5″ 1.44MB floppy disk drive can be held by the SPARCstation IPC. External SCSI devices are also supported by SPARCstation IPC. It does not support IDE/ATAPI.

Due to the size, modern 80 pin Single Connector Attachment drives do not fit inside the case but can work with an adapter. The MAC address and serial number in NVRAM is held in the IPC as in all other SPARCstation IPC. Without manual intervention, the system will not be able to boot if the battery on this chip dies. An M48T02 battery-backed RTC with RAM chip is used by the SPARCstation IPC. It handles the real-time clock and boot parameter storage.