>> >So far, every reply has been, "It's yours if you pay >> >to ship it." >> Count me in; I will help pay shipping as well. > >Count me in too, I have slightly limited funds but will help as much as I can. >Please contact me off list if I can be of any use.
There isn't a shortage of multi-processor sparc64 machines that are available for development use, per se. Theo and I literally had to force Kjell to take a dual U60 machine off my hands earlier this year. The issue is that the longevity of the port is much more dependent on getting proper support for Ultrasparc III and more recent incarnations of the processor and glue logic. It wasn't until Jason Wright and Mark Kettenis started plowing away at the 2006 Hackathon on US3 gear I donated that the port progressed. Theo had a US3 machine for over a year but we could barely get past a hung boot kernel because there were so many nuances in the processor, cache and glue logic. As I type this, I'm testing Mark's latest tweaks to try to get the US3 processor running better than an M5 burning bunker oil as fuel. We didn't ship a Blade 1000 back with Mark because it would seriously upset the center of gravity on his bike for his summer tour! Given the choice between giving EOL'ed hardware a second chance at life and supporting the effort to get the port to work on current Sun hardware, we're currently choosing the latter. i386 and amd64 clearly win from an effort-expended standpoint for SMP enhancements. And just how many significant patches have been committed recently to improve the performance on those platforms? Not enough to start focusing attention on other platforms with multi-processor options. The extension to the "give us open documentation" is "give us money so that we can reallocate human resources in a more efficient, business-like manner in order to try to find other solution paths around problem sets". If your turnaround time for functionality isn't being met by volunteers working in areas they find interesting, there is always the "suitable and adequate funding" approach. There are vehicles available and in place for this type of work other than personal cheques to Theo, Paypal and CD sales. Serious inquiries may contact me off list for more information. No tire-kickers, please. In the meantime, Money, meet Mouth. Sorry to be harsh, but from time to time, the list needs to have this idea pounded solidly back into place in people's minds. --J Jason George, P.Eng. Calgary
