Ross SPARCplug

In September 2009 I started to downsize this collection to a few items and then archived this section to its own subdomain at the start of October 2011. Remaining items sold off in mid 2024.

"The SPARCplug is a high-performance small-footprint workstation/server that solves the price/performance problem. Featuring high-end performance with a single or dual hyperSPARC processors, up to 256 MB of RAM and an SBus slot for options like a T1 or T3 line, ISDN or 100BaseT Ethernet, SPARCplug delivers SPARCstation 20 class performance at less than half the price! The SPARCplug Solo allows users to simultaneously run PC and SPARC applications, and even cut and paste between UNIX and Windows applications. The SPARCplug Station and Server solutions complete the family. Possibilities for SPARCplug are limitless!" (unknown source)

SPARCplug PC
SPARCplug module mounted in the drive-bay of a PC, using power from the host PC
SPARCplug Solo
SPARCplug module mounted in a minitower case (basically a four-bay disk drive enclosure) with a CDROM drive
SPARCplug Station
like the Solo, but fitted with an SBus TGX framebuffer, and local screen and keyboard
SPARCplug Server
like the Station, but mounted in a rack mount case

This system

This system was acquired in two stages. First the SPARCplug, keyboard and mouse were acquired through ebay. After failed attempts at getting it running using a variety of monitors the 17" Sun monitor was also acquired through eBay.

Images

Complete system consisting of the SPARCplug Station, 17" Sun Monitor, Sun keyboard and mouse. - sparcplug-01.jpg sparcplug-01.jpg, 1280x1024, 144KB
Complete system consisting of the SPARCplug Station, 17" Sun Monitor, Sun keyboard and mouse.
Front of the unit, the SPARCplug takes up two 5.25" bays with a scsi cd-rom and hard drive in the other two. - sparcplug-02.jpg sparcplug-02.jpg, 1280x1024, 111KB
Front of the unit, the SPARCplug takes up two 5.25" bays with a scsi cd-rom and hard drive in the other two.
Rear of the unit, power supply at the bottom and the various I/O ports across the top section. - sparcplug-03.jpg sparcplug-03.jpg, 1280x1024, 149KB
Rear of the unit, power supply at the bottom and the various I/O ports across the top section.
Just the SPARCplug. - sparcplug-04.jpg sparcplug-04.jpg, 1024x768, 105KB
Just the SPARCplug.
Rear of the SPARCplug, power, io and SCSI connectors across the bottom, video adapter in the card slot. - sparcplug-05.jpg sparcplug-05.jpg, 1024x768, 112KB
Rear of the SPARCplug, power, io and SCSI connectors across the bottom, video adapter in the card slot.
Bottom plate removed, apparently a slimline harddrive can be mounted to the inside of the plate to reduce clutter when used as an actual SPARCplug. - sparcplug-06.jpg sparcplug-06.jpg, 1280x1024, 237KB
Bottom plate removed, apparently a slimline harddrive can be mounted to the inside of the plate to reduce clutter when used as an actual SPARCplug.
Top cover removed, the three fans within the cover are visible. - sparcplug-07.jpg sparcplug-07.jpg, 1280x1024, 215KB
Top cover removed, the three fans within the cover are visible.
sparcplug-08.jpg sparcplug-08.jpg, 1280x1024, 320KB
TurboXGX - sparcplug-09.jpg sparcplug-09.jpg, 1280x1024, 279KB
TurboXGX
sparcplug-10.jpg sparcplug-10.jpg, 1280x1024, 232KB
I/O card to breakout the keyboard, mouse, sound, serial and ethernet connections. - sparcplug-11.jpg sparcplug-11.jpg, 1280x1024, 191KB
I/O card to breakout the keyboard, mouse, sound, serial and ethernet connections.

Other resources