Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!rice!sun-spots-request From: parcplace!taw@sun.com (Tom Wadlow) Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun Subject: Re: Comments (flame) about lack of 3/50 memory upgrade Message-ID: <8811171939.AA16286@waterworks.parcplace.com> Date: 1 Dec 88 06:58:35 GMT Sender: usenet@rice.edu Organization: Rice University, Houston, Texas Lines: 25 Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu Original-Date: Thu, 17 Nov 88 11:39:11 PST X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 7, Issue 30, message 6 of 12 Helios Systems (sometimes called Piceon, for reasons I am unaware of) just came out with a 3/50 memory upgrade, which I just went down to see earlier this week. They patch into the Sun by soldering a flex PC board onto the bottom of the 3/50 CPU. This terminates in a connector that attaches to a board that contains the memory. The memory board clips on to the two stiffener bars that run across the CPU board. The flex board is fairly complex, which leads me to believe that Sun never gave much thought to upgrades, because it sure didn't look like it was easy to do. I have heard elsewhere that Sun had an internal upgrade for the 3/50 that never saw the light of day (as happens to many interesting things in a billion dollar ex-startup). The Helios upgrade comes in 4 or 8 meg flavors (giving you 8 or 12 meg total). Apparently it is important to know whether you have the 15Mhz, 16Mhz, or (a surprise to me) the 12Mhz 68020 in your 3/50. You can find this out by pulling the CPU board, and looking at the 68020 chip. The last two numbers (followed by more characters) are the speed rating. The upgrade costs $2500 for 4 meg and somewhere around $4K for 8meg. We are considering buying some of these, and I would be interested in hearing from anybody with some experience with them. If we do get some, I'll report back on the results. --Tom P.S. I have no connection with Helios other than as an occasional customer.