Ultra 5 workstation - hardware compatibility
 

Hi guys,

I am considering buying an Ultra 5 workstation. I have very little experience with SPARC hardware or for that matter any other hardware but x86. If I buy this workstation, can I use a PC monitor, keyboard or mouse? Where can I find info about this kind of compatibility. I am on a tight budget - it will be perfect if I don't need to buy any extra hardware.

keyboard is connected to a single mini din-8 port, the mouse is connected to the keyboard, I don't think any PC standard would fit.

The video output is normally using an HD15 connector (that may depend on what graphic card is there), there are adapters to convert it to svga 15 pins, make sure your monitor will support the card resolution, frequencies and protocol.

I guess U5 compatible keyboards, mice, adapters and even monitors are easy to find on ebay.

Thanks. I saw the adapters for the monitor, they are pretty affordabe.

Question: Are you saying that the card-monitor compatibility is more stringent for this case than it would be for "regular" svga card and monitor?

Yeah, for best chance of compatibility use a monitor that is multi-sync. Most of the time solaris and the sun video cards start up in weird resolutions and refresh rates. I just recently got an Ultra 60 with the Elite3d graphics card and used a 13w3 adapter to plug in a 17" crt....didn't work. I then used a different 17" crt that was multi-sync and it worked. Try and find a good used 21-24" crt on ebay if you can...thats what these workstations are really meant for.


Mike