SUMMARY: 3/xx in a x/160 box

[Greg Tarsa]

My request for information about the 3/60 yielded a number of reponses,
which are summarized below.  The questions arose because we came into
possession of a bare 3/60 CPU board and weren't sure how to make it a
"real computer".

1) Can a 3/60 board be put into a 3/50 cabinet?

   The consensus is 'Yes', except that the cabinet power supply must supply
   -5V to the connector.  Non-dimpled bases are known to supply this voltage.
   Dimpled bases have to be considered on a case by case basis.

2) Can a 3/50 mono monitor be used with a 3/60?

   If the 3/60 is *not* configured for the high resolution monitor (a jumper
   on the CPU board), then a 3/50 monitor will work fine on a 3/60.
   Apparently the Sun upgrade on 3/50's offered a while back took advantage
   of this.

3) Can a 3/60 ID prom be used in a 3/60?

   Mixed reviews on this.  The consensus was that it *might* work, but that
   the type of the CPU is encoded in the Prom so that the results would be a
   machine confused about its identity.  One respondent indicated that the
   machine would run without an ID prom at all.  As it turns out, our CPU
   board is not a replacement board and has an ID prom so we will not have to
   do any experiments in this area.

4) Can a 3/60 or 3/50 board be put into a 3/160 cabinet?

   Apparently this can be done.  One respondent reported having as many as
   three 3/50 boards in a single 12 slot backplane.  The backplane apparently
   cannot, contain a color board or SCSI controller *and* a 3/60 at the same
   time as the 3/60 appears to poll the bus for them and confuses the 3/160
   when it does so.


5) There is a "high res" jumper on the board.  Does that mean that the
   3/60 can be configured to use a high resolution mono monitor?

   The 3/60 can be configured to use the same high resolution mono monitor as
   the x/280 (1600*2000) by setting this jumper.  If using a regular
   resolution monitor be sure that it is *not* set as you stand a good chance
   of burning out your flyback transformer.

6a) What kind of SIMMS are known to work in a 3/60? 

   100ns or faster 1Meg x 9 SIMMS will work.  The 80ns SIMMS have the added
   advantage that they can be used in 4/110's if you upgrade in that
   direction.

6b) Anyone have a favorite source for inexpensive SIMMS?

   A number of sources were mentioned.  The cheapest were AnsDATAco at $71/M
   and Solflower at $74/M for 80ns memories.

Thanks to everyone who responded, including Al Kossow, John Shriver,
Kathryn Fielding, Don Sharp and b2wild at ucsdb.ucsc.edu

Greg
tarsa at elijah.mv.com
{decuac,decvax}!elijah!tarsa