The Sun-2 series of

UNIX Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, ...

workstation A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by a single user, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems. The term ''workst ...

s and

server Server may refer to: Computing *Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called clients Role * Waiting staff, those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending customers and su ...

s was launched by

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, t ...

in November 1983. As the name suggests, the Sun-2 represented the second generation of Sun systems, superseding the original

Sun-1 Sun-1 was the first generation of UNIX computer workstations and servers produced by Sun Microsystems, launched in May 1982. These were based on a CPU board designed by Andy Bechtolsheim while he was a graduate student at Stanford University and f ...

series. The Sun-2 series used a 10 MHz

Motorola 68010 The Motorola MC68010 processor is a 16/32-bit microprocessor from Motorola, released in 1982 as the successor to the Motorola 68000. It fixes several small flaws in the 68000, and adds a few features. The 68010 is pin-compatible with the 6800 ...

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circ ...

with a proprietary Sun-2

Memory Management Unit A memory management unit (MMU), sometimes called paged memory management unit (PMMU), is a computer hardware unit having all memory references passed through itself, primarily performing the translation of virtual memory addresses to physical a ...

(MMU), which enabled it to be the first Sun architecture to run a full

virtual memory In computing, virtual memory, or virtual storage is a memory management technique that provides an "idealized abstraction of the storage resources that are actually available on a given machine" which "creates the illusion to users of a very ...

UNIX implementation,

SunOS SunOS is a Unix-branded operating system developed by Sun Microsystems for their workstation and server computer systems. The ''SunOS'' name is usually only used to refer to versions 1.0 to 4.1.4, which were based on BSD, while versions 5.0 an ...

1.0, based on 4.1BSD. Early Sun-2 models were based on the

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 ser ...

Multibus Multibus is a computer bus standard used in industrial systems. It was developed by Intel Corporation and was adopted as the IEEE 796 bus. The Multibus specification was important because it was a robust, well-thought out industry standard with ...

architecture, with later models using

VMEbus VMEbus (Versa Module Europa or Versa Module Eurocard bus) is a computer bus standard, originally developed for the Motorola 68000 line of CPUs, but later widely used for many applications and standardized by the IEC as ANSI/IEEE 1014-1987. ...

, which continued to be used in the successor

Sun-3 Sun-3 is a series of UNIX computer workstations and servers produced by Sun Microsystems, launched on September 9, 1985. The Sun-3 series are VMEbus-based systems similar to some of the earlier Sun-2 series, but using the Motorola 68020 microp ...

and

Sun-4 Sun-4 is a series of Unix workstations and servers produced by Sun Microsystems, launched in 1987. The original Sun-4 series were VMEbus-based systems similar to the earlier Sun-3 series, but employing microprocessors based on Sun's own SPARC V7 RIS ...

families. Sun-2 systems were supported in SunOS until version 4.0.3. A port to support Multibus Sun-2 systems in

NetBSD NetBSD is a free and open-source Unix operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). It was the first open-source BSD descendant officially released after 386BSD was forked. It continues to be actively developed and is ava ...

was begun in January 2001 from the Sun-3 support in the NetBSD 1.5 release. Code supporting the Sun-2 began to be merged into the NetBSD tree in April 2001. sun2 is considered a tier 2 support platform as of NetBSD 7.0.1.

Sun-2 models

Models are listed in approximately chronological order. A desktop disk and tape sub-system was introduced for the Sun-2/50 desktop workstation. It could hold a 5 ¼" disk drive and 5 ¼"

tape drive A tape drive is a data storage device that reads and writes data on a magnetic tape. Magnetic tape data storage is typically used for offline, archival data storage. Tape media generally has a favorable unit cost and a long archival stability. ...

. It used DD-50 (sometimes erroneously referred to as DB-50) connectors for its

SCSI Small Computer System Interface (SCSI, ) is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, electrical, optical and logical interface ...

cables, a Sun specific design. It was often referred to as a "Sun Shoebox". Sun-1 systems upgraded with Sun-2 Multibus CPU boards were sometimes referred to as the 2/100U (upgraded Sun-100) or 2/150U (upgraded Sun-150). A typical configuration of a monochrome 2/120 with 4 MB of memory, 71 MB SCSI disk and 20 MB 1/4" SCSI tape cost $29,300 (1986 US price listSun U.S. Price List, End User and OEM Version, Effective March 25, 1986, Sun Microsystems). A color 2/160 with 8 MB of memory, two 71 MB SCSI disks and 60 MB 1/4" SCSI tape cost $48,800 (1986 US price list). A Sun 2/170 server with 4 MB of memory, no display, two Fujitu Eagle 380 MB disk drive, one Xylogics 450 SMD disk controller, a 6250 bpi 1/2 inch tape drive and a 72" rack cost $79,500 (1986 US price list).

Sun-2 hardware

Sun 2 Multibus systems

Sun 2/120 (9 slot deskside) and 2/170 (15 slot rackmount) systems were based on the

architecture. The CPU board was based on a 10 MHz 68010 processor with a proprietary Sun Memory Management Unit (MMU) and could address 8 MB of physical and 16 MB of virtual memory. The top 1 MB of physical memory address space was reserved for the monochrome frame buffer. The Multibus CPU board supported the Sun-1 parallel keyboard and mouse as well as two serial ports.

Sun 2 VMEbus systems

The Sun 2/50 (2 slot desktop), Sun 2/130 (12 slot monochrome deskside) and Sun 2/160 (12 slot color deskside) used quad-depth, triple height Eurocard

CPU boards. The

CPU board was based on the same design as the

CPU but also included 2 MB or 4 MB of memory, the Sun-2 monochrome frame buffer, and 10 Mbit/s Thick Ethernet on board. Sun provided 1 MB Multibus memory boards and 1 MB and 4 MB VMEbus memory boards but only supported configurations with a maximum of 4 MB RAM. Companies such as Helios Systems also made 4 MB memory boards that would work in Sun systems. A common frame buffer was the Sun-2 Prime Monochrome Video. This board provided an 1152x900 monochrome display with

TTL TTL may refer to: Photography * Through-the-lens metering, a camera feature * Zenit TTL, an SLR film camera named for its TTL metering capability Technology * Time to live, a computer data lifespan-limiting mechanism * Transistor–transistor lo ...

or ECL video signals, and keyboard and mouse ports. It normally occupied the top 1 MB of physical memory address space. There was also a Sun-2 Color Video board available that provided an 1152x900 8-bit color display. This board occupied the top 4 MB of address space. 42 MB MFM disks were commonly used for storage. Two disks could be connected to an

Adaptec Adaptec was a computer storage company and remains a brand for computer storage products. The company was an independent firm from 1981 to 2010, at which point it was acquired by PMC-Sierra, which itself was later acquired by Microsemi, which itse ...

MFM/

and then to a Sun-2 Multibus Serial/SCSI Host Adapter. The SCSI board provided two additional serial ports. For larger storage requirements, 65, 130, and 380 MB SMD disks were connected to a Xylogics 450 SMD Controller. The SMD controller could support four disks even though Sun only supported two. A 20 MB QIC tape drive could be connected through an

Archive An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual ...

QIC/SCSI converter. The system also supported 1/2" tape drives connected to a Computer Products Corporation TAPEMASTER or a Xylogics 472 board. An Ethernet connection was provided by a Sun board based on the Intel 82586 chip, or a

3Com 3Com Corporation was an American digital electronics manufacturer best known for its computer network products. The company was co-founded in 1979 by Robert Metcalfe, Howard Charney and others. Bill Krause joined as President in 1981. Metcalfe e ...

3c400 board. The server could support diskless Sun-2/50 clients through the Ethernet board. Other supported Multibus boards included the Sky Computer Floating Point Processor, Sun ALM (Asynchronous Line Multiplexer) with 8 serial ports, and Sun SunLink Communications Processor (SCP) for SNA and

X.25 X.25 is an ITU-T standard protocol suite for packet-switched data communication in wide area networks (WAN). It was originally defined by the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (CCITT, now ITU-T) in a series of drafts a ...

connectivity.

Reception

''BYTE'' in August 1984 described the Sun-2/120 as a " VAX-class machine", with "superb graphics and excellent response time under loading".

References

External links

The Sun Hardware Reference, Part 1
*The Sun-2 Hardware Reference
Part 1
an
Part 2Sun2 Review from UNIX/WORLD October 1984Sun 100u with Sun2 boardsSun 2 board manualsgunkies.org Sun-2 wiki
{{Sun Microsystems Computer-related introductions in 1983 Diskless workstations Sun servers Sun workstations 68k-based computers 32-bit computers