Blade 1000 motherboard in Blade 2000.

I know this issue has come up before, but I've never seen a definitive
answer.

I have a Sun Blade 2000 (2 x 1200 MHz, 8 GB RAM), which got hit by
lightning. The Ethernet connector on the motherboard has blown up. I've
got an Ultra 27 on order to replace this, but I'd like to keep a SPARC
machine, so want to repair this. (As all the slots were used, and I had
to pull out a PCI card so I could fit a quad fast ethernet card, I
decided to try to repair this, rather than leave a QFE board in it.

I bought a used Blade *1000* on eBay, with no disks and 1 GB of RAM. It
cost me £43 which was less than I could buy a motherboard for!


The part number on the motherboard is 501 4143. According to the 'Sun
Blade 2000 - Full Components List'

http://sunsolve.sun.com/handbook_pub...ts#SystemBoard

there are 4 different part numbers for the Blade 2000's motherboard.


Option # ManufacturingPart# Description
n/a 501-4143 0MB FRU (SCHIZO <=2.1)
n/a 501-5938 0MB FRU (SCHIZO 2.2)
n/a 501-6230 0MB FRU (SCHIZO >=2.2)
n/a 501-6560 0MB FRU (SCHIZO 2.5)

I assume the 'SCHIZO <=2.1' means this is an older design (not
surprising, as I bought a Blade 1000, not a 2000).

Should this support the 1200 MHz CPUs from my Blade 2000?

Does anyone know what the differences between these 4 part numbers is?

Were there any issues with the earlier boards for the Blade 2000?

Dave

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On 2009-10-14, Dave <> wrote:
> I know this issue has come up before, but I've never seen a definitive
> answer.
>
> I have a Sun Blade 2000 (2 x 1200 MHz, 8 GB RAM), which got hit by
> lightning. The Ethernet connector on the motherboard has blown up.

Ouch!

> I've
> got an Ultra 27 on order to replace this, but I'd like to keep a SPARC
> machine,

Understandable.

> so want to repair this. (As all the slots were used, and I had
> to pull out a PCI card so I could fit a quad fast ethernet card, I
> decided to try to repair this, rather than leave a QFE board in it.

O.K. Did it work with the QFE? It should, unless some other
part of the system board was also damaged.

> I bought a used Blade *1000* on eBay, with no disks and 1 GB of RAM. It
> cost me £43 which was less than I could buy a motherboard for!

O.K.

> The part number on the motherboard is 501 4143.

The oldest of the system boards.

> According to the 'Sun
> Blade 2000 - Full Components List'
>
> http://sunsolve.sun.com/handbook_pub...ts#SystemBoard
>
> there are 4 different part numbers for the Blade 2000's motherboard.
>
>
> Option # ManufacturingPart# Description
> n/a 501-4143 0MB FRU (SCHIZO <=2.1)
> n/a 501-5938 0MB FRU (SCHIZO 2.2)
> n/a 501-6230 0MB FRU (SCHIZO >=2.2)
> n/a 501-6560 0MB FRU (SCHIZO 2.5)
>
> I assume the 'SCHIZO <=2.1' means this is an older design (not
> surprising, as I bought a Blade 1000, not a 2000).
>
> Should this support the 1200 MHz CPUs from my Blade 2000?

If it is listed as one of the possible ones for the Sun Blade
2000, then yes, it should work.

> Does anyone know what the differences between these 4 part numbers is?

Other than the different SCHIZO numbers -- no. I know that the
SCHIZO is a chip on the board -- but I have no idea what it does, or
what effect the older versions have.

> Were there any issues with the earlier boards for the Blade 2000?

The board you have is the only one listed in my dead-tree
edition of the FEH (Field Engineer's Handbook). The on-line one from
SunShack in OZ lists five system boards, the four you have listed, and
501-6768.

The board you have is not compatible with the Sun Fire 280R,
presumably because it lacks the connector for the RSC/LOM card. This is
no problem for the Sun Blade 1000 or 2000.

But the most important ones are these from the UltraSPARC III Cu
notes:

3) The 900 MHz "UltraSPARC III Cu" requires OPB >= 4.4 Version 6
4) Support for 1 GHz processors is in OPB 4.5 Version 16
5) The minimum recommended OBP for 1015/1050 MHz is 4.5 Version 16

which suggests to me that the 1.2 GHz CPUs (which are also "Cu" type)
need the same versions as the 1015/1050 MHz ones.

I'm running the 501-6230 system board in all of my compatible
systems (SF-280R, SB-1000, and SB-2000). All have been upgraded to
OBP 4.16.4,POST 4.16.3,OBDIAG 4.16.4 using the following downloaded file
from Sun: 118323-01.zip

Does your used system come with CPUs? If so, I strongly suggest
that you upgrade the firmware (flash it) using the old CPUs before
moving the board to the SB-2000, as I get the impression that you can't
run well enough with the old OBP firmware and the new CPUs to install
the firmware patch.

Good Luck,
DoN.

--
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DoN. Nichols wrote:
> On 2009-10-14, Dave <> wrote:
>> I know this issue has come up before, but I've never seen a definitive
>> answer.
>>
>> I have a Sun Blade 2000 (2 x 1200 MHz, 8 GB RAM), which got hit by
>> lightning. The Ethernet connector on the motherboard has blown up.
>
> Ouch!

Yes. The Blade 2000 was not the only item destroyed either - 5 bits of
computer hardware all got hit.

>> I've
>> got an Ultra 27 on order to replace this, but I'd like to keep a SPARC
>> machine,
>
> Understandable.

With a quad core 3.33 GHz processor the Ultra 27 should be a bit quicker
than my Blade 2000. I just wish I knew when I was going to get the U27.
I've not even got a delivery date yet. It is assembled to order, so I
gather can take 4-6 weeks. The order was placed a couple of weeks ago.

>
>> so want to repair this. (As all the slots were used, and I had
>> to pull out a PCI card so I could fit a quad fast ethernet card, I
>> decided to try to repair this, rather than leave a QFE board in it.
>
> O.K. Did it work with the QFE? It should, unless some other
> part of the system board was also damaged.

It had a SunPCi card too, which suffered the same fate - blown Ethernet
port.

But otherwise it works fine with the QFE card. I'm well aware lightning
can cause latent damage that does not show immediately, but so far
nothing has gone wrong.


>> I bought a used Blade *1000* on eBay, with no disks and 1 GB of RAM. It
>> cost me £43 which was less than I could buy a motherboard for!
>
> O.K.
>
>> The part number on the motherboard is 501 4143.
>
> The oldest of the system boards

Yes, I thought that.

>> Does anyone know what the differences between these 4 part numbers is?
>
> Other than the different SCHIZO numbers -- no. I know that the
> SCHIZO is a chip on the board -- but I have no idea what it does, or
> what effect the older versions have.

A Google did not help me find what this SCHIZO thing is

http://sunsolve.sun.com/search/docum...hclause=101458

is a patch needed for specific SCHIZO's, and the link above even shows
how to get the version of the SCHIZO from prtdiag -v, for some systems.
But it does not work on my Blade 2000, so I don't know what I have in
here. I will at some point open the case, but I obviously need to shut
the machine down for that.

>> Were there any issues with the earlier boards for the Blade 2000?
>
> The board you have is the only one listed in my dead-tree
> edition of the FEH (Field Engineer's Handbook). The on-line one from
> SunShack in OZ lists five system boards, the four you have listed, and
> 501-6768.

> The board you have is not compatible with the Sun Fire 280R,
> presumably because it lacks the connector for the RSC/LOM card. This is
> no problem for the Sun Blade 1000 or 2000.

Good.

> But the most important ones are these from the UltraSPARC III Cu
> notes:
>
> 3) The 900 MHz "UltraSPARC III Cu" requires OPB >= 4.4 Version 6
> 4) Support for 1 GHz processors is in OPB 4.5 Version 16
> 5) The minimum recommended OBP for 1015/1050 MHz is 4.5 Version 16
>
> which suggests to me that the 1.2 GHz CPUs (which are also "Cu" type)
> need the same versions as the 1015/1050 MHz ones.

The type of CPUs in the Blade 2000 is 'Cu' too - it says that on them.
I'm told they are 900 MHz, but I have not verified that yet. It appears
to have OpenBoot 4.5 installed. I'm a bit puzzled by the 'zPU seeprom
format: 0000.0000.0000.0002' A google shows references to 'CPU seeprom
format: 0000.0000.0000.0002' which tend to appear when people have
problems with booting. This hoots ok from CD-ROM, so it will boot.

drkirkby@swan:[~] $ tip hardwire
connected

CPU seeprom format: 0000.0000.0000.0002
SUNW,Sun-Blade-1000 (2 X UltraSPARC-III+) , No Keyboard
Copyright 1998-2002 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.
OpenBoot 4.5, 2048 MB memory installed, Serial #16457033.
Ethernet address 8:0:20:fb:1d:49, Host ID: 80fb1d49.


after typing reset-all, there is no such message.

> I'm running the 501-6230 system board in all of my compatible
> systems (SF-280R, SB-1000, and SB-2000). All have been upgraded to
> OBP 4.16.4,POST 4.16.3,OBDIAG 4.16.4 using the following downloaded file
> from Sun: 118323-01.zip

I'll do likewise before trying this with the 1200 MHz CPUs.

> Does your used system come with CPUs? If so, I strongly suggest
> that you upgrade the firmware (flash it) using the old CPUs before
> moving the board to the SB-2000, as I get the impression that you can't
> run well enough with the old OBP firmware and the new CPUs to install
> the firmware patch.

Yes, it has a pair of 900 MHz CPUs. I've got some other FCAL disks
around, so will install the latest firmware before trying it with the
newer CPUs.

I had to decide which Blade 1000 to buy. There was this one with a pair
of CPUs but no disks for £43

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=400077588472

and this one, with a 36 GB disk, but only one CPU for £603.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=310120972774

Perhaps the seller of the latter auction is hoping to find a Sun fan
that has escaped from a lunatic asylum. Who else would pay around $1000
for a used Blade 1000?

It's strange this system. Its either not been used, or been used in a
very clean environment, as there is no dust inside it at all. Also, the
number of power cycles is only 25, and I reckon 5 of them must have been
me. So for a used machine to have only been power cycled 20 times seems
quite low. (Most I have bought have been in the hundreds).

Dave

--
I respectfully request that this message is not archived by companies as
unscrupulous as 'Experts Exchange' . In case you are unaware,
'Experts Exchange' take questions posted on the web and try to find
idiots stupid enough to pay for the answers, which were posted freely
by others. They are leeches.

* DoN. Nichols:

>> I assume the 'SCHIZO <=2.1' means this is an older design (not
>> surprising, as I bought a Blade 1000, not a 2000).

SCHIZO is the "Northbridge" that connects the expansion slots and the
other I/O ports (i.e. USB) to the CPUs. Older revisions had some strange
bugs which could drive you crazy if you fell into them (which however
was quite rare).

Benjamin

* Dave:

> A Google did not help me find what this SCHIZO thing is

It is the Northbridge (connects the I/O ports to the CPUs).

> Perhaps the seller of the latter auction is hoping to find a Sun fan
> that has escaped from a lunatic asylum. Who else would pay around $1000
> for a used Blade 1000?

Considering that there often still are offers for Sun Ultra 250 and 450
in the high hundreds or even over 1k I think this offer is a real
bargain ;-)

Benjamin

Benjamin Gawert wrote:
> * DoN. Nichols:
>
>>> I assume the 'SCHIZO <=2.1' means this is an older design (not
>>> surprising, as I bought a Blade 1000, not a 2000).
>
> SCHIZO is the "Northbridge" that connects the expansion slots and the
> other I/O ports (i.e. USB) to the CPUs. Older revisions had some strange
> bugs which could drive you crazy if you fell into them (which however
> was quite rare).
>
> Benjamin


OK, thank you for that. I think I'll check the version of the board in
my Blade 2000 and if it is newer, I might decide not to replace the
board for a working, but older one, and put up with the non-functional
Ethernet port. I do not wish to swap one problem for another.

However, I think my Blade 2000 was made in 2002, and I believe the Blade
1000 I bought was also made in 2002, so its possible they have the same
board anyway. I'll check my board version first.

I quite like my Blade 2000, and want to keep it working, despite the
fact I should soon have a quad 3.333 GHz Xeon Sun. I spend some of my
spare time helping on the Sage open-source project, and particularly on
Solaris support, so I must have a SPARC box. The Blade 2000 is the best
SPARC I have.

--
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unscrupulous as 'Experts Exchange' . In case you are unaware,
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idiots stupid enough to pay for the answers, which were posted freely
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In comp.sys.sun.hardware Dave <> wrote:

[snip]

>
> OK, thank you for that. I think I'll check the version of the board in
> my Blade 2000 and if it is newer, I might decide not to replace the
> board for a working, but older one, and put up with the non-functional
> Ethernet port. I do not wish to swap one problem for another.
>

I have a SF 280R which suffered the same fate as your Blade 2000. There
was a thunderstorm, maybe five years ago, which took out my cable modem,
a couple of ethernet switches, and the ethernet port in the SF 280R.
Fortunately for me, the ethernet port in the RSC card survived, and the
machine had a gigabit ethernet card installed but not connected. I
reconfigured it to use the gigabit card and it has worked ever since.

I'd recommend that you do the same with your Blade 2000. Save yourself a
pile of work, and keep the Blade 1000 as a fully working spare machine.



--
Dr Tristram J. Scott
Energy Consultant

On 2009-10-16, Tristram Scott <> wrote:
> In comp.sys.sun.hardware Dave <> wrote:

Dave, I'm sorry I missed the original posting, but I have a S/B 2000 with
2x1.2GHz Cu processors, 2Gb (or it might be 4Gb, I forget!) of memory and
2 x 73Gb disks here not doing anything that you're welcome to for a price
which we can discuss. You'll have to collect, though, you know how much the
damn things weigh...


--
What did happen on the 9th of November, anyway?
http://hyperangry.blogspot.com/
[email me, if you must, at huge {at} huge (dot) org <dot> uk]

On 2009-10-15, Dave <> wrote:
> DoN. Nichols wrote:
>> On 2009-10-14, Dave <> wrote:
>>> I know this issue has come up before, but I've never seen a definitive
>>> answer.
>>>
>>> I have a Sun Blade 2000 (2 x 1200 MHz, 8 GB RAM), which got hit by
>>> lightning. The Ethernet connector on the motherboard has blown up.

[ ... ]

>>> so want to repair this. (As all the slots were used, and I had
>>> to pull out a PCI card so I could fit a quad fast ethernet card, I
>>> decided to try to repair this, rather than leave a QFE board in it.
>>
>> O.K. Did it work with the QFE? It should, unless some other
>> part of the system board was also damaged.
>
> It had a SunPCi card too, which suffered the same fate - blown Ethernet
> port.

Which suggests that the phone line (if your net connection comes
in via phone) or cable (if that is the path for the net connection) is
what really got hit, instead of the power line -- though a power line
hit still is most likely to take out the items connected between the
phone line and the power line).

> But otherwise it works fine with the QFE card. I'm well aware lightning
> can cause latent damage that does not show immediately, but so far
> nothing has gone wrong.

Only things close to the ethernet are very likely to have been
damaged.

>>> I bought a used Blade *1000* on eBay, with no disks and 1 GB of RAM. It
>>> cost me £43 which was less than I could buy a motherboard for!
>>
>> O.K.
>>
>>> The part number on the motherboard is 501 4143.
>>
>> The oldest of the system boards
>
> Yes, I thought that.
>
>>> Does anyone know what the differences between these 4 part numbers is?
>>
>> Other than the different SCHIZO numbers -- no. I know that the
>> SCHIZO is a chip on the board -- but I have no idea what it does, or
>> what effect the older versions have.
>
> A Google did not help me find what this SCHIZO thing is
>
> http://sunsolve.sun.com/search/docum...hclause=101458
>
> is a patch needed for specific SCHIZO's, and the link above even shows
> how to get the version of the SCHIZO from prtdiag -v, for some systems.
> But it does not work on my Blade 2000, so I don't know what I have in
> here.

Hmm ... was that "prtdiag -v | grep -i 'schizo'" ? In my
Sun Fire 280R system, I get:

Schizo 8 ok 5

While the Sun Blade 2000 gives nothing.

However -- to find your current system board, try this:

prtfru | grep "Sun_Part_No: "

and the first number returned will be the system board. Other part
numbers include each DIMM. and I forget the rest.

> I will at some point open the case, but I obviously need to shut
> the machine down for that.

But just to find the part number for the system board, the above
will work.

>>> Were there any issues with the earlier boards for the Blade 2000?
>>
>> The board you have is the only one listed in my dead-tree
>> edition of the FEH (Field Engineer's Handbook). The on-line one from
>> SunShack in OZ lists five system boards, the four you have listed, and
>> 501-6768.
>
>> The board you have is not compatible with the Sun Fire 280R,
>> presumably because it lacks the connector for the RSC/LOM card. This is
>> no problem for the Sun Blade 1000 or 2000.
>
> Good.
>
>> But the most important ones are these from the UltraSPARC III Cu
>> notes:
>>
>> 3) The 900 MHz "UltraSPARC III Cu" requires OPB >= 4.4 Version 6
>> 4) Support for 1 GHz processors is in OPB 4.5 Version 16
>> 5) The minimum recommended OBP for 1015/1050 MHz is 4.5 Version 16
>>
>> which suggests to me that the 1.2 GHz CPUs (which are also "Cu" type)
>> need the same versions as the 1015/1050 MHz ones.
>
> The type of CPUs in the Blade 2000 is 'Cu' too - it says that on them.

O.K. Though the auction which you show has some interesting
things based on the photos:

1) Only one of the two CPUs is a "Cu" type -- the second one is
missing the green sticker. (Though it could still be "Cu", and
examination of the orange barcode on the CPU module will be
needed to be sure -- and that requires a shutdown and removal of
the CPU modules to be able to see that.

2) The color of the case is that of a SB-2000. The SB-1000 has a
gray front panel, and a lighter size color. But the Bezel
around the DVD-ROM drive is SB-1000, both by marking and color.

3) The Torque screwdriver supplied is that for the SB-1000 (second
photo -- the green thing between the two FC-AL disk slots is the
carrier for the formed loop torque driver supplied with the
SB-1000. The SB-2000 usually comes with the later
torque-limiting screwdriver style which lives in a bright green
clip in the compartment were the DVD-ROM drive is mounted.

4) The screen shot says "Sun-Blade-1000", but it does so even on
SB-2000 systems, so that is no true indicator.

5) The screen shot does say OBP 4.5.

> I'm told they are 900 MHz, but I have not verified that yet.

If you can simply swap the disks into it from your current one,
you can boot that and use the prtdiag to get the list of CPU numbers,
and look them up by that. 5016002 are the 900 MHz ones which I am
running in my SF-280R. 5016485 are the 1200 MHz ones which I am running
in my SB-2000.

> It appears
> to have OpenBoot 4.5 installed. I'm a bit puzzled by the 'zPU seeprom
> format: 0000.0000.0000.0002' A google shows references to 'CPU seeprom
> format: 0000.0000.0000.0002' which tend to appear when people have
> problems with booting. This hoots ok from CD-ROM, so it will boot.

Probably it was moved into that system board from another. You
found the cure with your reset-all.

> drkirkby@swan:[~] $ tip hardwire
> connected
>
> CPU seeprom format: 0000.0000.0000.0002
> SUNW,Sun-Blade-1000 (2 X UltraSPARC-III+) , No Keyboard
> Copyright 1998-2002 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.
> OpenBoot 4.5, 2048 MB memory installed, Serial #16457033.
> Ethernet address 8:0:20:fb:1d:49, Host ID: 80fb1d49.
>
>
> after typing reset-all, there is no such message.
>
>> I'm running the 501-6230 system board in all of my compatible
>> systems (SF-280R, SB-1000, and SB-2000). All have been upgraded to
>> OBP 4.16.4,POST 4.16.3,OBDIAG 4.16.4 using the following downloaded file
>> from Sun: 118323-01.zip
>
> I'll do likewise before trying this with the 1200 MHz CPUs.

Though your 4.5 will probably work, since it does with the 900
MHz CPUs. (If only one is a "Cu" 900 MHz, then you are using a mix of
Cu and non-Cu types, which the FEH says is not supported. (But I do know
that a mix of 900 MHz Cu and 1200 MHz Cu works for me, even though it is
listed as not supported. :-)

>> Does your used system come with CPUs? If so, I strongly suggest
>> that you upgrade the firmware (flash it) using the old CPUs before
>> moving the board to the SB-2000, as I get the impression that you can't
>> run well enough with the old OBP firmware and the new CPUs to install
>> the firmware patch.
>
> Yes, it has a pair of 900 MHz CPUs. I've got some other FCAL disks
> around, so will install the latest firmware before trying it with the
> newer CPUs.

Good practice, even if not needed.

> I had to decide which Blade 1000 to buy. There was this one with a pair
> of CPUs but no disks for £43
>
> http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=400077588472

Comments above about that after examining the auction.

> and this one, with a 36 GB disk, but only one CPU for £603.
>
> http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=310120972774

And -- he does not say whether it is a "Cu" or non-Cu type. The
900 MHz speed is the only one made in both styles.

> Perhaps the seller of the latter auction is hoping to find a Sun fan
> that has escaped from a lunatic asylum. Who else would pay around $1000
> for a used Blade 1000?

:-)

I presume that you were limiting your searches to those auctions
local to the UK?

> It's strange this system. Its either not been used, or been used in a
> very clean environment, as there is no dust inside it at all.

Or -- it has been built up using components from multiple boxen,
and each has been blown free of dust before re-assembly. The very old
system board, the SB-1000 bezel, and the front panel and side panel
colors matching the SB-2000 suggest this. Hmm ... while the colors are
for the SB-2000, the logo is for the SB-1000. I wonder what may have
been done in PhotoShop with those images.

It also looks as though it has two framebuffers -- likely the
Creator-3D ones, leaving all four PCI slots free.

> Also, the
> number of power cycles is only 25, and I reckon 5 of them must have been
> me.

From the OBP prompt, type:

setenv #power-cycles 0

and see what that does. If not that, you can reset it from the eeprom
command from a booted Solaris. (I forget which actually works, or
whether both work.)

> So for a used machine to have only been power cycled 20 times seems
> quite low. (Most I have bought have been in the hundreds).

Most have not had the count reset as part of the testing. (And
perhaps the "reset-all" reset it too.

Enjoy,
DoN.

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--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

On 2009-10-16, Benjamin Gawert <> wrote:
> * DoN. Nichols:
>
>>> I assume the 'SCHIZO <=2.1' means this is an older design (not
>>> surprising, as I bought a Blade 1000, not a 2000).
>
> SCHIZO is the "Northbridge" that connects the expansion slots and the
> other I/O ports (i.e. USB) to the CPUs. Older revisions had some strange
> bugs which could drive you crazy if you fell into them (which however
> was quite rare).

Aha! Thanks much. And the name actually makes sense that way,
being the joining of the PC world (PCI) and the SPARC world.

Again, thanks,
DoN.

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