 | ||
SPARCstation Classic is a workstation introduced by Sun Microsystems in November 1992. It is based on the sun4m architecture, and is enclosed in a lunchbox chassis.
Contents
CPU support
The SPARCstation Classic incorporates a single 50 MHz microSPARC processor.
Memory
The SPARCstation Classic has three banks with two DSIMM slots each. The official maximum configuration uses 16MB modules, but the first bank can also hold 32MB modules giving a maximum of 128Mb memory.
Disk drives
The SPARCstation Classic can hold one internal 3.5-inch 50-pin, single ended, fast-narrow SCSI drive and a floppy. It also supports external SCSI devices. There is no IDE/ATAPI support.
Network support
The SPARCstation Classic comes with an on-board AMD Lance Ethernet chipset providing 10BaseT networking as standard and 10Base2 and 10Base5 via an AUI transceiver. The OpenBoot ROM is able to boot from network, using RARP and TFTP. Like all other SPARCstation systems, the SSC holds system information such as MAC address and serial number in NVRAM. If the battery on this chip dies, then the system will not be able to boot.
Operating systems
The following operating systems run on a SPARCstation Classic:
Differences between Classic and LX
The SPARCstation Classic was designed to be an entry-level workstation with a lower price point than the SPARCstation LX; it has a lower-end CG3 framebuffer rather than the LX's accelerated CG6. The SPARCclassic also features 8-bit audio as opposed to 16-bit audio for the LX. The motherboards of the two systems are otherwise similar, and both use the same chassis.
SPARCclassic X
In July 1993, Sun introduced the SPARCclassic X, a stripped-down SPARCclassic marketed as an X terminal. It shipped with no local storage, and either 4 or 8 MB of memory.
Rather than running Solaris, the SPARCclassic X loaded and ran special software over the network.
Sun offered an upgrade kit to a full workstation that included a hard drive and additional memory.