Summary: Upgrading Sparc 5 memory

From: Dave Cain (cain@athena.syrres.com)
Date: Fri Aug 30 1996 - 12:21:29 CDT


In my original message I wrote:
>I have a Sun Sparc 5 with 4 - 8 Meg SIMMs, for a
>total of 32 Meg of Memory, taking up the first 4
>of 8 memory slots.
>
>I just purchase 3 - 32 SIMMs to upgrade to 128 Megs.
>According to the salesman you can add any number of
>SIMMs, even or odd, to fill my remaining 4 slots.
>
>However, I can only get the system to accept 2 of the
>3, 32 Meg SIMMs. They can go in any 2 of the 4 slots,
>I just can't add the third SIMM. Each SIMM definitely
>works, and each slot definitely works.
>
>When I add the third SIMM, I get the following error:
>"panic on cpu 0: valloc'd past tmpptes"
>
>My question:
>Can you only upgrade in even pairs of SIMMs
>(or pairs of 2), contrary to what my salesman
>has told me?

Alex Finkel said it first and best:

No, Sparc 5 memory does not build in pairs. You may need to put the largest
capacity SIMM in the first slot. On many Sun's, there is one simm slot "the
first" that always needs to have a simm installed in order to boot. After
that slot, you are free to use any slots but usually, if you have a mix of
simm sizes, the largest size simm needs to go into that first slot.

Thanks Alex. I also found this documented in the DSIMMs installation
instructions. Guess it helps to read the documentation carefully.

Dave



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