To submit software, comments, corrections, ideas or data send mail to voyager FAQ <voyager@milestonesolutions.com>
Sun's
SPARCstation Voyager was designed to deliver the
performance, broad capabilities, and large displays of a mid-90's
SPARCstation but in a
compact, quiet, and energy efficient package.
The Voyager is not a laptop or notebook computer,
but a full featured SPARC workstation
with performance comparable to a SPARCStation 5 system
in an easily transportable configuration.
When Sun announced the Voyager (Code-named "Gypsy") in March 1994, it premiered as the first production computer to use a MegaPixel display, microSPARC-II processor and included Lithium-Ion battery system, onboard ISDN, 16-bit audio, Infrared and a host of other advanced features. It represented a new market segment not just for Sun Microsystems but for the computer industry. While Laptop/Notebook computers have been available since the the early 80s, pioneered by GRiD, and represent the mainstream of the growing mobile computing market segment (since the early 90s companies such as RDI and Tadpole PLC have specialized in portable SPARC-based hardware) the Voyager represented a no-compromise compact and lightweight Workstation. The Voyager is not just a smaller workstation but a new kind of workstation: the Nomadic workstation.
While aggressively priced the machine at $13995, the Voyager was regarded as primarily a vertical market product providing an excellent basis for nomadic applications but was in-and-of-itself not a nomadic solution. It still required appropriate software. The Voyager required new forms of marketing at a time when SMCC's key corporate focus moved away from the desktop towards servers. SMCC Sales managers did not seem to grasp the significance of the product (compare the experiences of the pen-based markets) and when questioned promoted it within the inappropriate Workstation paradigm mainly as a space-safer for the Japanese markets (a role better served by products such as RDI's Powerscreen® LCD subsystem). Sun dropped the price to $9995 but sales still did not meet expectations and in late 1995 the machine was dropped from marketing with End-of-Delivery set for March 1996.
By dropping the Voyager, Sun left the development and marketing of Voyager (and Voyager-like) products and accessories to 3rd parties. Once the Voyager project was cancelled, Sun Express chose to add RDI to its program to fill the void (or visa versa).
The Nomadic computing group still exists at Sun but is currently focused on SunSoft issues: the integration of Solaris in Intel notebook environments.
Note: A patch for ISDN 1.0.3 (103356-01 is now available to support both ISDN and async. PPP (via PCMCIA or Serial) at the same time. ISDN PPP in previous versions of SunLink ISDN and Sun ISDN conflicted with async PPP.
[Ed: The Field Engineer's Handbook has a good deal of data on the main board. As time permits, this will be reproduced here].
The SPARCstation Voyager contains two memory card slots, for use with proprietary SPARCstation Voyager memory cards.
Each memory card is equipped with 16- or 32-MB of random access memory (RAM). The memory cards for the SPARCstation Voyager are each 66 bits in width, with 64 bits for data, and 2 bits for parity and use high-density 16 MBit DRAMs (70ns). The SPARCstation Voyagers come equipped with 16 MB of memory on the motherboard and are upgradeable to a maximum of 80 MB (using 2x32 MB RAM Cards).
120 pins
| +++++++++ |
| |
|___________|
^
|____ Pull Tab (to remove card)
Figure 1. shows a memory card for the SPARCstation Voyager.
Currently Known:
"Despite the standardisation process, other card formats continue to flourish. This is mainly true for industrial markets where the predecessors of the PC Card, such as 50-pin card-edge and 60 pin formats are still widely used. The reasons for this vary by application, but the most common is simply that the customer wishes to actively avoid the PCMCIA format in order to control the availability of cards usable in the application. This may be from a commercial point of view, for example to control the sales of cards as accessories, or from a technical viewpoint, to ensure no damage results from users using non-approved cards in the system. After all, PCMCIA cards are now freely available in the high street.This is not only restricted to the Industrial market, however, in the PC arena there are also examples of system makers adopting non-PCMCIA card formats. Psion is perhaps the most well known and it uses a small serial connector, as PCMCIA was in only its early stages at the time Psion designed the Series 3 organiser. Sun Microsystems also opted for a custom card format for its latest portable workstation, the Voyager, thus securing after-market sales. Mitsubishi designed a "Type II"-shaped card for Sun, but with a 120pin connector on the long side-edge of the card. Voyager, however, also has two PCMCIA card slots for peripheral expansion."
Production was discontinued when Sun ceased Voyager production. See Memory Upgrades.
This is enough to get access to the memory slots.
To insert or remove a memory card one should use a grounding wrist strap. The other end is connected to the metal surface near the memory slots. The memory card is sloted and fits in only one direction with the Sun logo facing towards one. The tab might need to be pushed down and back (tuck behind the card) to keep from blocking the back panel assembly.
To put the machine back together one works in reverse. As was the case with opening the unit, putting the back panel back onto the unit will require some bit of fiddling.
A good starting point for drive information is the Drive Definition Database. These drives are known to work in a voyager.
| Drive | capacity | speed | ave latency | typical seek | height |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toshiba MK2326FB | 340 MB | 4200 RPM | 7.5 ms | 12 ms | 19mm |
| Toshiba MK2428FB | 524 MB | 4200 RPM | 7.5 ms | 12 ms | 19mm |
| Toshiba MK2526FB | 524 MB | 4200 RPM | 7.14 ms | 13 ms | 19mm |
| Toshiba MK2628FB | 811 MB | 4200 RPM | 7.14 ms | 13 ms | 19mm |
| IBM DPRS-20810 | 810 MB | 4900 RPM | 6.1 ms | 12 ms | 17.5mm |
| IBM DPRS-21215 | 1215 MB | 4900 RPM | 6.1 ms | 12 ms | 17.5mm |
| IBM DMCA21080 + adaptor | 1080 MB | 4000 RPM | 7.5 ms | 13 ms | 12.5mm + adaptor |
The original 340 MB, and even the 840 MB, hard drive is too small for much more than the operating system. The 840 MB (and 340 MB) 2.5" Toshiba SCSI-2 disk with a combined power and SCSI connector are no longer available, though Peripheral Computer Support lists the 340 MB MK2326FB for $175.00.
At one point APS were selling 2.5" drives based on very low profile IBM ATA laptop drives with an attached SCSI adaptor. [ed: these are known to work, one is installed in my Voyager.] At one point, fairly large drives were sourced, but APS no longer seems to carry this product.
The IBM 840 MB (IBM-DPRS-20810) and 1.2 GB Travelstar (IBM DPRS-21215) HDDs are suspected to work correctly [they have been used by RDI in their PowerLite notebooks and by Tadpole in their P1XXX, SPARCBook and AlphaBook notebooks]. As recently as late 1999 they have been purchased from Gold Source and are currently shown as in-stock.
Gold Source are listing SCSI adapters by Trek Storage tied to Toshiba drives for upt to 2.1 GB of storage. Due to the spotty availability of the IBM drives, this may be the best source of SCSI replacement drives for the Voyager. Mid 2001 pricing showed a 2.1 GB drive for under $300 USD.
Incomplete: Content: Technical detail of the:
The battery/power subsystem is modular with a removable power supply that can function:
The battery option comes with: battery, cable (to connect power supply to battery or Voyager) and a power supply cover without the holes for the main power coard.
Sony LIP-7 14.4V 6A Lithium Ion battery.
The battery pack features 2 LEDs to show charge status when charged outside of unit. The program dtpower shows the charge state when closed to an icon in units of estimated minutes of mains free operation. A charged battery will show over 90 minutes.
The battery fits into an internal compartment normally occupied by the power supply. The supply may be used internally or externally. A cable comes with the battery to connect the power supply to either the battery or the Voyager; a power connector is at the rear of the unit.
The battery takes up to 2 hours to fast charge. When connected to the charger the left amber light lights until the battery is 90% charged then goes out and the left green led lights indicating a fully charged state, for around 30 minutes until full capacity is reached. At full charge the green led turns off.
Since its is a Lithium Ion battery it need not be fully discharged but can be charged before its needed.
When the Voyager is not used for for long periods of time the battery should be removed. The battery should be stored in a fully charged state. Lithium Ion batteries are not like NiCd plagued by so-called "memory" . One should never allow the battery to fully discharge.
The Rechargeable Battery kit (X911A) is still available from SMCC. EOL of the kit, however, was announced with the EOL of the Voyager. Since replacement batteries are not system enhancement but replacement components they should continue to be available.
Alternative sources of these batteries should be explored.
The PCMCIA Interface utilizes the STP4020QFP PCMCIA/SBus interface chip to bridge the two bus standards. The STP 4020QFP contains a fully-compliant IEEE P1496 SBus slave interface. It supplies a direct interface to the PCMCIA standard for Type 1, Type 2 and Type 3 devices.
For general SPARC PC Card information please consult the SPARC PC Card Support Information.
DC Signal Levels +5 Volt TTL/CMOS
Vcc supplied +5 Volt; power can be switched on/off
to support live insertion and removal
of PC Cards
VPP1, 2 supplied +5 Volt, +12 Volt, High Impedance -
software selectable; power can be
switched on/off to support live insertion
and removal of PC Cards
SPARCstation Voyager Product Note Revision A, December 1994, page 2:
"Make sure that the combined power of the PCMCIA Cards plugged into the two sockets does not exceed 3 watts. Doing so may cause this area of your system to overheat."
Top Socket Type I or Type II Bottom Socket Type I, Type II or Type III PC Card types can be installed in each of the two PCMCIA sockets. Note that when a Type III card is installed in the bottom socket, the top socket must be empty.
To add a new PC Card Modem:
pcmcia, instance #0
pcser, instance #0
PC,Intel MODEM 2400+ iNC110US A-0 (driver not attached)
Notice the line PC,Intel MODEM 2400+ iNC110US A-0 (driver not attached)
Both SRAM (so-called "NVRAM Cards", "Silicon Hard Disk", "hardRAM disk", etc.) and SunDisk (so-called "Flash Cards", "Flash EPROM", "Flash EEPROM") cards are supported by Solaris.
| PC Card Type | Type I (SRAM) | Type II (SunDisk/ATA) |
|---|---|---|
| Variants Available | 5v and 3v | 12v and 5v |
| current max. card size | 4MB | 40MB |
| backup battery | mandatory | not applicable |
| retention minus power | seconds | unlimited (projected > 1M years) |
| minimum write voltage | 3 to 5 volts | must have ~12 volts |
| power consumption (writing) | not a factor | AC adapter recommended |
| power comsumption (reading) | same as writes | same as SRAM |
| power comsumption (idle) | same as writes | none |
| write access | 200ns | 9us (40 times slower than SRAM) |
| erase speed | not applicable | 1.6 s/zone (~1e6 times slower than SRAM) |
| I/O Throughput (UFS) | XX Kbps | XX Kbps |
| cycling limits | no known limit | >100,000 (will eventually fail) |
| cost | ~US $XX/MB | ~ US $XX/MB |
An Apple Newton® Flash card will not work in the Voyager. It is an Intel flash card. The Newton MessagePad only has Intel flash memory drivers.
Many handhelds such as the HP 100LX only have drivers for SunDisk so their cards will work.
The bundled drivers in Solaris 2.x support both UFS (UNIX File System) and MS-DOS file systems on PC Memory cards. UFS formated Memory Cards are not interchangable between SPARC Solaris and Solaris x86. To exchange memory cards between the Voyager and Intel PC platforms (including Solaris x86) one should use a MS-DOS psuedo-formated file system.
Incomplete.
Since the Voyager is SPARC, runs standard Solaris and has a full resolution display all GUI (OpenLook®, Motif® or CDE®) or other applications will run. Some GUI software (designed for Color) might require some minor modifications to their X-resources to better display on the Monochrome panel.
The main difference between a Voyager and other SPARCStation 5s is:
The following tools developed or modified for the Voyager or
particularily suited to Mobile/Nomadic
fields of application are available.
See: SPARC Solaris PC Card Support Information
See Sun's IPv6 web page. A Solaris 2.x implementation is available from Sun's Playground. The IPv6 5th distribution allows for concurrent IPv4 and IPv6 and bundles httpd, Mosaic and a host of utility programs modified and compiled for IPv6.
The distribution is available by anonymous ftp from:
The S240 Memory cards are proprietary and production has been discontinued. See Voyager Memory Subsystem.
The Voyager was marketed until November '95 and EOD was March '96 and Memory Cards are no longer generally available. Though Sun often retains spare parts for up to 5 years after EOL this policy is often restricted to system components and not system enhancements. Sun ceased delivery of Memory Cards on 31 August 1996.
The original memory card design team was located at Mitsubishi UK which also made the cards. According to Mitsubishi, SMCC had informed them that they don't need any more cards and Mitsubishi as a consequence ceased production.
According to Mitsubishi the cards are proprietary and had been sold exclusively to SMCC. Additionaly, some components are covered by SMCC patents.
Software to "compress" the HDD, as an alternative or in conjunction with a HDD upgrade, is potentially of interest to Voyager (or SPARC notebook) users:
The amount of compression will depend on the redundancy in the data, however, Magma claims the following ratios:
| Type of File | Compression ratio |
|---|---|
| SPARC executables | 1.7:1 |
| man pages (ASCII) | 4.3:1 |
| AnswerBook | 2.1:1 |
| ASCII database | 2.6:1 |
| /usr/openwin | 2.1:1 |
| AutoCAD Model | 2.5:1 |
As with all disk compression software: files such as .Z, .gz, .zip etc will not require less space.
Although the design team of the SPARCStation Voyager SMCC explicitly selected a 60 Mhz microSPARC-II processor (the 70 and 85 Mhz version were available) to reduce the power requirements and extend the battery life.
The 110 MHz microSPARC-II processor is pin-compatible with its 70 and 85MHz predecessors but 30% faster: 77.0 SPECint92; 65.3 SPECfp92; 1.59 SPECint95.
The 170 Mhz TurboSPARC processor from Fujitsu
is also pin compatible with their microSPARC-II processor but features:
The TurboSPARC upgrade module features:
The concept seems very similar to the one that Weitek explored with their PowerUp® processor upgrade for the IPX and SS2 platforms (where they made the processor) this time applied by Fujitsu.
Known CPU upgrade modules:
All of these consist of a daughterboard with support circuitry, the turboSparc processor and a cooling fan. At least one provides power management that puts the processor into sleep mode when the OS idles. Several layouts are available and most fall within a 3.5" x 4" rectangle. The Fujitsu module includes vertical components that exceed the height of the CPU fan and in any event it is likely that the case would need to be routed out to support the fan. These units require a boot prom change as well as a CPU swap.
Power consumption of these modules is in the 15 to 18 watt range which is over twice the 60 MHz microSparc's 7 watt max.
Benchmarks are for the following outstanding:
16/32/64 DRAM PC Cards are also available primarily for PC Notebooks. These (not to be confused with the 88-pin DRAM JEIDA/PCMCIA Cards) can potentially provide the most cost effective form of additional memory as swap; DRAM is much cheaper than SRAM and allows packing into 64MB cards. Cards are fesible with 64 MB windows. They seem ideally suited for SWAP. A problem with memory cards is that they are not safe since there is no mechanical locking to prevent their removal-- a potential source of a system panic and possible loss of data.
The US Compact-1 keyboard is a reasonable compromise with one exception: the PC layout of the Caps Lock and Control keys. To ease the transition between Type 5 UNIX and US Compact-1 the best solution is simply swap the two offending keys.
Ever see how SGI machines come up in the window system?
Ever think "Why can't Sun do that?"?
Well it can: the program is called XDM
and
its been part of OpenWindows for years.
Add a call to speckeyd in your startup.
How to increase the timeout value for TCP/IP retransmitting packets due to not receiving an "Ack" from the packet destination within that timeout period?
Create a script in /etc/rc2.d with these entries:
# Alter the tcp/ip re-transmit interval.
/usr/sbin/ndd -set /dev/tcp tcp_deferred_ack_interval 500
/usr/sbin/ndd -set /dev/tcp tcp_rexmit_interval_initial 1500
/usr/sbin/ndd -set /dev/tcp tcp_rexmit_interval_min 600
This will drop the retransmit rate.
From Sun herself:
Some disk drives:
Fujitsu CPU Information:
Sunworld's SunWhere.