Frederik Questier
Frederik Questier

My unix computer collection

I'm collecting Unix computers. Mostly old ones, cause new ones are quite unaffordable at home... Old but still admirable for their top-notch design and very useful. Generally, a Unix machine can have 4 lives (number cruncher, workstation, server, X-terminal).
Note that my many x86 computers (aka PC's; most of them running GNU/Linux) are not listed.

Personal collection

  1. SUN Microsytems Ultra-Enterprise 2 server UPDATE 2006
    2. SUN Ultra-Enterprise 2 server

  2. Sun Ultra 2 Elite 3D
    No cpu's, no memory

  3. Sun Ultra 1 Creator

  4. Sun Sparcstation 5, 70 MHz microSPARC II CPU, 112MB RAM, Video Capure Card

  5. Sun Sparcstation 5, 70 MHz microSPARC II CPU, 48MB RAM

  6. Sun Sparcstation 5

  7. Sun Sparcstation 5

  8. Sun Sparcstation 2, 40 MHz CY7C601 CPU, 32MB RAM

  9. Sun Sparcstation 2

  10. Sun Sparcstation 2

  11. Sun Sparcstation 2

  12. Sun Sparcstation 1

  13. Sun Sparcstation IPC, 40 MHz CPU

  14. Sun Classic

  15. Sun Workstation Station Technologies Limited clone, 16 memory sockets filled, LSI 64844NC-40 Sparc Cache+

  16. Sun Workstation Station Technologies Limited clone

  17. Sun 3/60, 20MHz Motorola 68020 CPU & 68881 FPU, 16MB RAM
    X-terminal

  18. Sun 3/60, 20MHz Motorola 68020 CPU & 68881 FPU, 0MB RAM

  19. Sun Mass Storage, deskside chassis for 12 full height 5.25" disks or 24 3.5" disks

  20. SGI Onyx Extreme Silicon Graphics Onyx Extreme UPDATE 01/2005
    • Deskside
    • Dual 150MHz MIPS R4400SC CPUs (1MB cache, 64 bits)
    • Max 4 CPUs
    • Max 2GB memory

  21. SGI O2 Silicon Graphics O2UPDATE 12/2006

  22. SGI Indigo Silicon Graphics Iris Indigo XS/24
    • 33MHz MIPS R3000A CPU
    • 64MB RAM
    • SCSI Harddisk
    • IRIX
    • Served longtime as an workstation for my visitors (when broadband internet was rare)
    • Afterwards reconfigured into a Workstation/X-terminal combination
    I've described this wonderful SGI Indigo machine in detail at a separate page.

  23. Digital Alpha AXPpci 33, 166MHz Alpha LCA4 21066 CPU (64 bits), 32MB RAM
    • AT Case, painted black ;-)
    • AXPpci 33 Mainboard
      • "Baby AT" form factor 8.5" x 13"
      • ZIF socket for Alpha 21066/68 cpu
      • 4 SIMM slots 72 pins, supports up to 256 MB memory, 36-bits true parity only, ECC protected
      • 11 DIP sockets, supporting ECC-protected secondary cache SRAMs (0, 256KB, or 1MB)
      • 2 PCI slots - 4 ISA slots - 1 ISA/PCI shared slot
      • AT Keyboard interface, Serial mouse interface
      • 2 FIFO Serial (max 56 Kbaud) and 1 Parallel Port
      • FAST SCSI-2 controller NCR 53c810
      • IDE interface, Floppy interface
      • Connector for 8 LEDs
      • TOY and NVRAM (8KB)
      • 1 MB flash memory in sockets
      • ARC (Advanced Risc Computing) firmware
    • Alpha Alpha LCA4 21066 cpu
      • 166MHz
      • fully-pipelined, dual-issue, 64-bit RISC architecture
      • pipelined floating point unit, supports IEEE and Digital formats.
      • 64 bits wide memory data path + 8 bits for error correction code (ECC)
      • 8 Kbyte instruction and data caches.
    • 32 MB True parity RAM (4 8MB SIMMs)
    • S3 86C325 3D ViRGE Graphics Accelerator 4MB PCI
    • Quantum Fireball 1080A, 1039MB w/83kB Cache
    • Quantum Fireball CR4.3A, 4110MB w/418kB Cache
    • 3.5" floppy drive 1.44MB
    • Redhat Linux
    When I obtained this machine in 2000, the Alpha processors were the fastest processors available. The Alpha LCA4 21066 cpu was introduced in 1993. The AXPpci 33 mainboard was a rather cheap mainboard combining the Alpha with PC technology. Combined with too little (cache) memory it was rather slow, but it was great to have a 64-bit machine at home (3 years before Apple had an ad campaign claiming the first 64-bit desktop, and 5 years before Microsoft released a 64-bit operating system. This machine was used for years as my home Web, NAT, Firewall, and Scripting server.

  24. HP Apollo 715/50, PA-7100 50MHz CPU, 32MB RAM, HP-UX

  25. Sony News Net Work Station NWS-1250 portable, 25MHz MC68030 & MC6882

  26. Sony News Net Work Station NWS-1510, Motorola 68030


Machines at work and studies

During my studies and work, I had the opportunity to play with some nice machines. Often big iron: departmental servers, number crunchers, all-purpose servers for up till 25.000 people, ...

Hydra (2006-now)
Hydra

Updates: see the Hydra page


The new Mach (2004 - ?)

SUN V1280



Guppy = www (2003-?)

SUN 4500



Nestor (2001-?)

SUN 4500



Aster (1999-2006)

Alpha Server GS140 Alpha Server GS160

Vub = Minf1 (1998-?)

Sun Ultra-Enterprise 3000


Fabi1 (1997-?)

SUN Ultra-Enterprise 2 server I was system administrator of this departmental calculation server ;-)


Mach (1997 - 2004)

SUN Ultra-Enterprise 4000



Minf5 (1996-?)

SUN Microsytems 4/360

Orca (1995-1999)

SGI Challenge L server

  • SGI Challenge L server
  • UNIX SVR4 operating system (Irix 5.3)
  • 4 200MHz + 4 250MHz cpu's, each with 4 MB secondary cache memory
  • 1 GB RAM memory
  • 86 GB of RAID5 disk space
  • 320 MBps I/O bandwidth
  • FDDI network connection
  • Automated HSM system with at least 2.5 TB for data migration

    • Mr. Epix (1995-1997)

    Contral DataThe EPIX machines were a cluster of 4 Contral Data machines (two interactive CD4360-300 servers, a CD4360-300 file server and a CD4680-101 NIC server).

    It's very hard to find information about those machines, I only found this general information: 

                         SPEC int92  SPEC fp92  CPU     MHz  Cache Ext. + I/D
CDC 4360-300         24.9        26.7       R3000A  33   64/64
CDC 4680 Infoserver  40.6        45.1       R6000A  66   512+64/16
    The welcome banner was: 
                Welcome to the EP/IX Software System.


            **************************************************
            *        CONTROL DATA PROPRIETARY PRODUCT        *
            *      Copyright Control Data Systems, Inc.      *
            *             1990, 1991, 1992, 1993             *
            * Accessed software also protected by copyright. *
            **************************************************
            (C) Copyright 1986-1992, MIPS Computer Systems
            All Rights Reserved


            nice, EP/IX Version 2.1.1AB

    rc4 (1995)

    Vub = Minf1 (1994-1998)
    Sun 670MP

    The following comes from the SUN hardware FAQ: 

       SPARCsystem 6xxMP/xx
        Processor(s):   ROSS CY7C601 @ 40MHz or SuperSPARC @ 45 or
                        50MHz, CY7C602 FPU or on TI chip, CY7C605 MMU or
                        on TI chip (Reference); 4096 or 65536 hardware
                        contexts; ROSS: 114 MIPS. Up to four CPUs.
        Chassis type:   rackmount
        Bus:            VME, SBus, and Mbus
        Memory:         ROSS: Off-chip 64K write-back, direct-mapped,
                        virtually indexed, virtually and physically
                        tagged, 32-byte lines
        Architecture:   sun4m
        Notes:          First Mbus-based machine. Cypress/ROSS Mbus
                        modules later upgraded to TI SuperSPARC modules
                        (/xx models). Code name "Galaxy". ROSS cache can
                        be run write-through but OS puts it in
                        write-back; physically tagged for MP cache
                        coherency.  630MP/600MP: 128M
                        physical. 670MP/690MP: 640M physical.

    Creation frederik@questier.com 23-Jun-02
    Last Update frederik@questier.com 31-Dec-06
    hits on this page since 23-Jun-02
    hits on all pages since 24-Oct-95

    The fastest computer on earth has a cpu on my desk!
    www.distributed.net
    Free Speech   [NoPGPBan]   No Bit Tax