If you are unfamiliar with Suns, or Unix in general then you may be wondering what a Sparcstation is. If you do know, skip to the next paragraph. First of all, Unix is nothing at all like DOS or Windows. It is as different as Macintosh is to Windows. The only difference being that you can run Linux or Solaris, and other unixes (unices) on your Intel computer that can also run Windows. However, a Sun Sparcstation is designed from ground up to run Unix and therefor it will never run MS-DOS or Windows. I say this, but it is somewhat incorrect. It could be possible to run Windows98 on this machine if Microsoft actually ported it to this processor and bus architechture. Just like Microsoft could port WIndows98 to the Macintosh hardware, if they wanted to. It is possible to run Windows via emulation either software or hardware. I have a 486 subprocessor board which is designed just for that, but Windows runs inside of Solaris, not as a stand alone operating system. However, many of the pieces of hardware in this box are standard and compatible with PCs. For example, the SCSI bus is just like the SCSI bus in a Mac or a PC and any SCSI harddrive will work. The memory is standard 72-pin SIMM style, just like a PC or Mac. Floppy drive takes the same 1.44 disks as well. Serial ports can communicate in regular RS232. However, the keyboard, monitor, mouse, and speaker out are entirely different.
Now.. To the point of this webpage. What can you do with one? Many people by now might be thinking it is useless. First of all, it is old. Okay, it is antique almost by computer standards. After all, it is only 40 Mhz. It doesn't run Windows, you can't play StarCraft on it. It's slow... The list goes on. Okay.. Let me put it this way. Out at First Saturday sale in Dallas these things can be picked up for as little as $25 each. Often they come with 500 MB harddrives and 32MB of memory. But that is without a monitor, keyboard, or mouse. As stated before, they are proprietary and expensive. The catch is, since it was designed as a Unix machine, it doesn't need those items to work! Just plug a macintosh serial cable into serial port A, connect the other end to a dumb-terminal or your PC running some kind of VT102 terminal program (such as hyperterm, even though it sucks) and turn it on. You should start seeing some text scroll up the screen as it goes through POST. If the Sparcstation detects that no keyboard is attached it automatically directs all input and output to serial port A at 9600 baud. This isn't a great way to use the computer. But once you get an operating system installed on it, then you can use it through the network card. It has a 10 mbit AUI port in the back. You'll need to spend about $19 and buy an AUI to 10baseT adapter (or coax or whatever you use) and it will happily connect to your network.
The 3 main Operating Systems you can choose to install would be:
I know, I know. I still haven't gotten to the point about what it is good for. Well, for starters this website (assuming you are on MY website reading this) is being run on one of my Sparc IPX units. It is connected to the internet through DSL and running Apache webserver software. It performs really well too. My pages are simple and don't receive a lot of traffic. Not much point in buying a new PC to do this chore. However, running Windows NT and IIS would be impossible on any machine you could buy for $30. However, Linux and Apache run fine.
You can also use it as a file server. It can run Samba, Appletalk, and NFS too so it can serve files to Windows PCs, Macs, or other Unix boxes. I know the harddrive is small but it can be upgraded or you can use external SCSI devices.
It can be a mail server, running Qmail or Sendmail. It could be a DNS server if you need a seperate box for it. It can be a router between two or more different network cards if you attach another SBUS network card or a modem. I bet your ISP would love to know you can use this $30 machine to dial up and connect and have the rest of your networked computers surf the web at the same time.
It can be a host to X terminals or other slower computers which are being used as X terminals. Or, if you have a monitor attached maybe you can use it as an X terminal where you have a fast host machine.
Lets not forget the simple fact though.. If you have a monitor, keyboard, and mouse it still makes a darned good workstation. It runs about the same speed, I have noticed, as a low end pentium or high end 486 system running equivilent software (Linux, X, and Netscape for example) but the sound stinks and it is a bit sluggish.
One thing is for certain, it doesn't take up much space in the house so it can't hurt to have one. I am certain there are other uses that I haven't thought of. Maybe some kind of chat or IRC server, or who knows. Maybe you are building a robot and need a powerfull brain but don't have much space.. well here you go! I just think they are darned neat computers and their technology was way ahead of PCs when these units were made! And since nobody else wants them (because most people want to run Windows), they are cheap and easy to come by. They are great tools for learners and neat toys for Unix gurus. Just lookout.. I see these all the time in used electronic stores priced WAY more than they are worth. I often see them on Ebay for more than they are worth too.. But I would say a Sparc IPX should cost no more than $100 in pristine condition with memory and HDD. I've never seen one working less than $25. However, I have seen them recently in stores for $500 or more and wonder if some poor sole eventually buys it.