SUMMARY: IDPROM on SS1 cpu

From: George Nassiopoulos (nassio%cfassp8@das.harvard.edu)
Date: Thu Apr 04 1991 - 11:24:29 CST


my original question:
> could someone please help me identify the
> idprom on a SparcStation 1 ?
>
> I have an SS1 cpu that i am sending back for
> repairs and i want to remove and keep the
> IDPROM, but i am having trouble determining
> which is the IDPROM.
>
> There are two chips right next to each other on the
> CPU. One is long and thin and has a part # 525-1043-06.
> Next to it is a short fat chip with the letters B9EU and
> some sort of optical bar code.
>
> The SPARCStation 1 installation guide seems to indicate
> that the short fat (B9EU) one is the battery/clock and that the
> long thin one (525-1043-06) is the PROM. However, i
> have reason to believe that this *may* not be correct.
>
> Is the installation guide correct in identifying these chips?
> Does anyone know for a fact where the IDPROM on the CPU is?
> Is it one of these two chips?
>

Thanks for the many responses.

The "SPARCStation 1 installation guide" is correct, but far
from complete, and my suspicions were correct, in a way.

As it turns out, in the SPARC machines, there is no longer
what used to be called an idprom. The info that used to be
stored in the idprom's on the sun2's and sun3's (e.g. hostid
and ethernet address) is now stored in something called the
NVRAM (Non-Volatile Random Access Memory), which happens to
be included in the same chip that houses the clock and the
battery. So the manual is correct in identifying the clock/battery,
but fails to identify it as also storing the "IDPROM".

the clock/battery/NVRAM is a short, fat chip with four
letters/numbers on it (someone said they were hex numbers, but
the chip on my SS1 cpu includes a "U" - the two i've seen
in SLC cpu's could be hex numbers). The chip can also have a
bar code on it.

One person described the 525-1043-06 chip as having the
Open Boot Prom firmware.

One of the respondents told me that i should NOT be pulling
the NVRAM, that SUN would get "angry". I spoke with "Tech Support"
in California and they told me that I may pull out and keep
the NVRAM just in case they neglect to send me my original
NVRAM when then return my cpu. (this could be "inconvenient"
if i have any hostid dependent software)

george nassiopoulos
nassio@cfa.harvard.edu

Many Thanks to the following:

Pilotti@Jupiter.SAIC.COM
curt@mischief.ecn.purdue.edu
hanson@pogo.fnal.gov
hutton@opus.sdsc.edu
John.McCartney@EBay.Sun.COM
thos@cs.uchicago.edu
jls2013@tntech.bitnet
finlay@Eng.Sun.COM
butzer@cis.ohio-state.edu



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