Hi Folks,
I really appreciate the helpful information from those who responded to my
previous message. Let me thank you all here. Thank you very much!
In summary, it is due to the problems from both hardware and software.
1. Hardware: The dead battery in the NVRAM/TOD chip caused the computer to
lose the trace of time. For detailed info please visit
http://www.squirrel.com/squirrel/sun-nvram-hostid.faq.html.
2. Software: The operating system software is SunOS4.1.3U1 released in
1995. The command "date mmddyy" obviously indicates that it has the
pre-Y2K design. My computer showed correct date between the year of 2000
-2003, with four digits for year. That means the previous user (I took over
in late 2001) had done some work on it.
Now I have ordered the NVRAM/TOD chip and hopefully it'll solve the problem.
I have some feelings that I would like to share with you for dealing with
this kind of situation.
1. Hunting for the obsolete Sun part is extremely difficult. Most of Sun's
distributors, and even Sun itself, don't carry this part, and even the
whole computer anymore.
2. It is really a dilemma to keep it as is or upgrade it. Our Sun
SPARCstation 20 has been hosting a CMX Infinity 400 since 1996. The
specific host/hardware interface does not leave the users much flexibility.
We can not simply upgrade the OS to, say, Solaris, because of lacking
Solaris driver. We can not use a newer workstation, say, Ultra or SunBlade,
because it is not compatible with the BBC interface. To upgrade the whole
thing? you need to spend big $$. To keep it as is? The parts in the 10-year
old computer are reaching their life limits and they are off the product
line/market years ago.
I did not mean to lead hard feelings to any computer or NMR manufacturers.
Thank you very much for your attention.
Ping
Ping Yu, PhD
NMR Facility
051 Kemper Hall (Engineering II)
University of California at Davis
Davis, CA 95616
Tel: 530-752-4396
Fax: 530-752-9554
Email: pyu_at_ucdavis.edu
Received on Thu Feb 12 2004 - 18:25:18 MST