[vcf-midatlantic] help with sun 3/50 video
Ethan Dicks
ethan.dicks at gmail.com
Wed Jun 26 23:13:37 EDT 2019
On Wed, Jun 26, 2019 at 10:31 PM Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic
<vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
> On 6/26/19 6:40 PM, Andrew Diller via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
> > I picked up a Sun 3/50 that works fine but I need a mono crt for it. I'm wondering if anyone here has experience with them and remembers if other monitors work or what the specs are with them. I have a keyboard and am getting a mouse.
>
> The resolution is 1152x900. I think the sync rates are H=61.8kHz and
> V=66Hz but I may not be remembering that correctly. The 3/50's onboard
> framebuffer is monochrome, 1-bit deep. The interface is TTL, if memory
> serves, but it has been awhile. There are earlier Sun monitors which
> look identical but use an ECL interface, which are typically used with
> Sun-2 systems.
That's the part I was less clear on - when Sun did ECL and when they did TTL.
My workstation experience, outside of NeXT (which is also fixed
frequency and proprietary) is all color. I know a tiny bit about mono
workstations. I think most of it is already contained in this
message.
> These do not interoperate.
Very much true.
> I've never seen a non-Sun monitor in use on a Sun monochrome
> framebuffer at the traditional hardware-imposed 1152x900 resolution.
> But then again, in my world, Sun monitors were always a whole lot more
> common than those weird ones that PCs use. ;)
Yes. Same.
> Also, along those lines, just in case you aren't aware, Suns of this
> variety implement fixed-frequency video subsystems. No changing the
> display resolution to change font size or any such foolishness...the
> workstation world knew about scalable fonts decades ago.
I think with the 3/60 you have a choice of two fixed frequencies,
changed by jumper when the board is powered off and removed from the
box, but _nothing_ like what microcomputers did in terms of different
frequencies/resolutions.
-ethan
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