[rescue] Sun 3/160 and CADDStation 32 deskside

[Alan Perry]

> On Jun 3, 2025, at 00:11, Romain Dolbeau <romain at dolbeau.org> wrote:
> 
> Le mar. 3 juin 2025 à 08:06, Alan Perry via rescue
> <rescue at sunhelp.org> a écrit :
>> 1. I am using a Sun 501-1164 (3/160) CPU board. It has 4M onboard. Will a Sun 32M memory board work with it? The memory is nominally a sun4 board but it works with my 3/260.
> 
> I don't have a definitive answer, but the Sun Hardware FAQ says in part 1:
> 
> 2/160 => "2/160 upgradeable to a 3/160 by replacing the CPU board"
> 3/160 => "Upgradeable to a 3/260 by replacing  CPU and memory boards."
> 3/260 => "Upgradeable to a 4/260 by replacing the CPU board"
> 
> Part 3 lists VME boards, and while 501-1102 is "3/2xx,3/4xx,4/2xx 8M
> memory" suggesting those three families can trade memory boards, I
> don't see any commonality between 3/1xx and later systems.
> 
> So I wouldn't expect a 3/160 to be able to use a sun4 memory board :-(
> 
> Cordially & good luck with the restoration,

Thanks for the info.

I acquired my first 3/260 in ‘19. I had an exhibit on Sun clones in a VCF and someone saw my exhibit and asked if I wanted the 3/260 that had been sitting in his open barn for a dozen years. My plan was to get it running as much as I could and exhibit it in the next year’s VCF but COVID stopped that from happening.

A lot of the info that I have is my recollections of what I found in my research then.

After I got the 3/260, my local collector friends started giving me their Sun VME stuff. And I have passed on stuff to other collectors. A few weeks ago someone gave me a 3/260 that I haven’t gone through yet and then gave me a stack of CPU boards over the weekend, including both flavors of 3/160 boards.

The CADDStation was given to me without a CPU or memory and the source of the machine didn’t know what CPU it should have. But since I now had known working spare CPU boards I figured one would work and I would try to get the CADDStation going.

alan

> 
> --
> Romain Dolbeau