SparcBook Tadpole

[Dave McGuire]

On 8/11/10 6:38 PM, dwight elvey wrote:
>   My problem is that I don't know if I can restore the information in it.
> The early Sparcbooks didn't have openboot.

   Under SunOS, you can use the program called "eeprom" to dump out most 
of the important contents.  As far as restoring it, I'm not sure about 
that, as I don't know what ROM-based code the very early SPARCbooks use.

   One way to do it might be to read it out using an EPROM programmer. 
My Data I/O supports the MK48T02, for example.

>   Using an old battery device from digikey is just prolonging the
> eventual death. If it isn't a current manufacture it is already part dead
> when you get it.

   Well yes, but it's not really all that bad.  Those chips are shipped 
with their clocks stopped, and you need to set a bit in them (normally 
done by the OS at boot time, just in case) to "kick start" them.  I 
believe the datasheets even call it the "kick start bit".  The battery 
life is essentially the shelf life before the kick start bit is set for 
the first time.

               -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL