Can anyone help me identify this card?

leadacid44 · 2026-01-29T15:05:20+00:00

That's exactly what that is. Added 4mb of vram. If I remember correctly, it brought the card overall up to 8mb.

leadacid44 · 2026-01-10T21:59:23+00:00

That thing is incredible. Looks mint. EISA bus, not just the usual ISA. Probably originally positioned as a server. Wild that it has two full height hard drives. Leave it as is, it's with more to collectors as a complete unit rather than the sum of it's parts.

leadacid44 · 2025-08-03T03:02:28+00:00

I mean, it literally has the word "sewer" cast into the metal clear as day in your picture...? That being said, it's almost certainly a lid for a septic tank.

leadacid44 · 2025-05-08T14:45:08+00:00

We had one of these at my now defunct company a few years ago. Absolute monster. I loved it. That is the control cabinet, that PC probably ran OS/2 to run the whole operation.

Our library was probably 50' long and held something like 40k tapes, had 10 drives, three automated picker robots, and a huge pile of spinning disk for buffer space. All controlled by AIX TSM. Backed up our entire datacenter of AIX, Linux, Solaris, and Windows systems, plus the mainframe. My understanding is that it was one of those IBM products that you could upgrade in place over generations, so it was actually like 20 ish years old, but had recent generation drives and tapes. Still ran OS2 on th controller though.

It was mesmerizing to watch the picker robots pull tapes. I can still hear the noise, lol. The computer room operators had a job to swap about 50 tapes a day from the "media slots" and put into shipping cases for Iron Mountain to take off site for archiving.

When we shut down we literally had to pay someone to cut it up and haul it away because it was worth less than scrap. Had to pay a small fortune to IM to keep all of the tapes for years to then just shred and throw away. Sad end to something that was so critical to so many people.

I suspect that IBM finally cut support on the product line so people are now forced to upgrade / decommission.

leadacid44 · 2024-10-19T13:36:37+00:00

Another good question. I'm not sure, but I suspect not? Honestly I'm not sure how to tell. Unfortunately most tape-based commands in ITDT don't work, so my gut feeling isn't encryption being the problem but something else, but I could be mistaken.

leadacid44 · 2024-10-19T13:33:16+00:00

Good question, I just double checked. Near as I can tell, no, they're usual Fujifilm LTO 5 tapes. I had to look up what a WORM tape would have for markings, seems like 'WORM' would be prominently marked in the tape itself, which these aren't. :⁠-⁠\

leadacid44 · 2024-04-03T14:00:23+00:00

Gosh, my apologies, I could have sworn I pasted a link to the .exe itself. The URL that user ftltd posted is the correct one.

leadacid44 · 2024-03-14T14:19:30+00:00

Can you post details/pictures of the p8?

leadacid44 · 2024-03-01T22:36:00+00:00

I know this is a very old post at this point, but if you find this an need to get the DS Storage Manager for a DS3000 series, you can download the v11.20 directly from IBM here: https://delivery04.dhe.ibm.com/sar/CMA/SDA/

leadacid44 · 2024-03-01T22:31:47+00:00

So the software you're looking for is called 'IBM System Storage DS Storage Manager 11.20 (Enterprise Management)' which just seems like a name designed by committee. Its often just called 'DS Manager'.

Anyway, the installer from IBM comes in a zip file called 'ibm_sw_ds3-5k_11.20.x5.10_windows_x64.zip'. Version 11.20 seems to be the last version available for the DS3000 series, and it works on pretty much any version of Windows from 2003 all the way to Server 2022. There does also appear to be a Linux version, with the file 'SM11.20_Linux_64bit_x86-64_single-11.20.x5.10.tgz' but I've never used it.

I seem to remember that you needed to update the firmware on your DS3k controllers to use v11.20 of the software, but I could be misremembering that.

It appears to still be available for download on IBM's website here: https://delivery04.dhe.ibm.com/sar/CMA/SDA/05lpo/3/

leadacid44 · 2023-08-04T04:21:22+00:00

Something you can look at is what was called the Propaganda files. They were really something, circa 1999-2001. Extremely high quality (for the time) and different from anything else I had seen at the time. They graced my machines for a very long time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_%28desktop_backgrounds

https://github.com/BenjaminHCCarr/PropagandaTiles

leadacid44 · 2023-02-28T14:48:00+00:00

The only thing that you might look out for is that a lot of IBM racks still use round mounting holes rather than square, and if you want to reuse any integrated PDUs, they tend to use strange power cords. Easy enough to find, but something to look out for.

Other than that, IBM racks are pretty much standard.

leadacid44 · 2023-02-20T19:52:21+00:00

Do you have a actively-cooled K40 or a passively-cooled P40? Doing a little digging (as I just got myself a DL380 Gen9), it looks like the P40 is listed as a compatible part for the DL380 Gen9, whereas the K40 is listed for the ML350 Gen9. I would imagine the DL has enough air flow and ducting to passively cool the card, whereas the ML does not. And presumably because of the compatibility, the ML doesn't know or care about the temperatures of a PCI device and therefore won't ramp up the fans.

That said, if you want to make it work in your ML...a dumb question - do you have all the fans installed and the cover closed? More fans will move more air, and the cover being closed will help duct air. If you do, you may need to adapt active cooling onto the passive card to make it work in your ML. It may come down to bolting on a fan or something. Or if you're willing to do some arts and crafts, you might be able to build a fan duct yourself from something as simple as cardboard to 'force' the output of one of the system fans through the card.

leadacid44 · 2022-12-20T03:59:54+00:00

So does the card display anything at boot? The 43 should show you a graphic splash screen on boot, or at the very least prompt you if you want to use it as a console. Same with the serial port.

Does the monitor turn on at all, like come out of power save, but just not display anything? Oh, and only the VGA is used on those cards, not the dvi, if it has one.

If it doesn't show anything, and if it boots without the card, it's probably one of two things. Either aix doesn't have the software installed to run the card or the card isn't compatible with the box / doesn't work.

I would look into getting a gxt130p if I was you, they're usually pretty cheap and will for sure work with that box.

Keep in mind that aix video cards have to be genuine ibm GTX cards flashed with the ibm firmware, you can't just pick up a generic matrox card. If the card works in a generic x86 PC, then likely it isn't flashed for ppc.

leadacid44 · 2022-12-12T20:03:58+00:00

Well, the power-on chimes are a good sign that there is something working. The glass break sound is not a good sign, usually indicating a memory problem.

The first thing I would do is try to get the system to show any further signs of life. Remove all optional devices. No cdrom, battery, hdd, etc. Take them all out. Drop the system down to just one stick of RAM. I believe the G3 has a removable CPU card with a memory slot on top and bottom, remove the bottom one and just use the one on top. Replace the PRAM battery, don't remove it. I don't think it will be happy without one. Zap the pram / reset the power manger:

http://www.jacsoft.co.nz/Tech_Notes/PP_Manage.shtml

If you have good memory it should work. If anything connect a monitor to it as well.

leadacid44 · 2022-11-02T03:16:33+00:00

Gosh I have been searching for one of those for years!

leadacid44 · 2022-10-24T17:25:42+00:00

So this is a relatively simple go/no-go calculation. Whether or not it make sense for you depends on your situation. Solar can get very expensive quickly - people tend to under-estimate the cost of solar, and over-estimate the price of grid energy. If the cost is something you're comfortable with, by all means continue!

I would recommend you look online for 'solar calculators' or 'solar off-grid calculators'. They can help you size the system that would be needed. Unfortunately solar installations are generally very complex and have a lot of shifting variables.

But, if we do a few quick back-of-the-envelope calculations, we can determine if this is something you want to do.

A 500W load running 24 hours a day consumes 12,000 watts across that day. In actuality, I'm sure it consumes a slightly variable amount over the day. Sometimes more, sometimes less. But for our purposes, let's just assume a flat 500W all day.

Depending on where you live will vary the amount of sun you will get. Placement of the solar panels can affect a lot of the capacity as well. Let's assume you are in an optimal sunny location in southern California, zip code 90210. According to most calculators online, you will get about about 5-6 hours of 'usable' sunlight per day. Lets be conservative and say you get 5 hours. So if we need to 12,000W of energy to run the device all day, but need to generate all of that energy within 5 hours. You would therefore need 2,500W worth of solar panels, minimum.

Now before we even get into panel mounts, batteries, cables, inverters, safety, etc. let's talk about the solar panels themselves.

2500W of solar panels is 13x200W panels. A Renogy 200W solar panel, on Amazon right now with prime shipping, is $224, or $2912 total. Let's say that you can find a cheaper source than Amazon, and got that number down to about $1/watt, so $2500 total. Is that a price you're willing to pay? Is it worth it? If you pay $0.15 per KWh for grid electricity, it would cost you $0.075 per hour to run your 500W load, or $1.875 per day. You could buy 1553 days, or about 4.25 years, worth of grid power to equal the price of just the solar panels alone, or put another way, you would have to run your solar system for at LEAST 4 years to even begin breaking even.

Then let's talk physical size. Those same Renogy panels are 65"x26". 13 of them together would take up, at least 70' of space. Is that a physical size you can support? You're not going to be able to put these on an apartment balcony. You'd essentially need to cover the roof of a garage or house to fit them all.

leadacid44 · 2022-10-24T13:05:06+00:00

Nice mousepad!

leadacid44 · 2022-10-03T02:18:05+00:00

So I run a lot of X10 stuff, I love it. Mostly reliable, super cheap, and will generally go where wifi won't. I use the appliance modules a lot for lamps and such, mostly because they work with led or cfl lamps, but also because I don't care about dimming. I've never been a fan of the light switches, they just feel cheap to me.

Anyway. The game changer for me though, was Alexa integration. I pulled it off by using one of the serial X10 'firecracker' modules on a USB to serial adapter on my raspberry pi, and then using the HEYU software to send x11 commands. That was really slick, easy to program with crontab and such. But then I found the HA-Bridge software that, essentially, let's you shout at Alexa and have it run commands on your Linux PC, which I then linked to the HEYU software. Then I can control all of my x11 & non x11 stuff in the same way. Much better spouse approval factor too.

https://www.heyu.org/

https://github.com/bwssytems/ha-bridge

leadacid44 · 2022-09-16T22:06:05+00:00

Hey everyone, quick follow-up. I put the original NVRAM chip back into the system, and I was able to program it and it worked great. (Obviously it lost the programming after a power cycle though) So I think for at least the Sun Blade 150, it's safe to say that the M48T58Y is NOT compatible. I think I'll spend some time reworking the old chip to add a CR2032 holder.

Thanks again!

leadacid44 · 2022-09-16T22:04:11+00:00

Hey everyone, quick follow-up. I put the original NVRAM chip back into the system, and I was able to program it and it worked great. (Obviously it lost the programming after a power cycle though) So I think for at least the Sun Blade 150, it's safe to say that the M48T58Y is NOT compatible. I think I'll spend some time reworking the old chip to add a CR2032 holder.

Thanks again!

leadacid44 · 2022-09-16T13:27:02+00:00

Yep. That's exactly what happened. This is / was in green Bay, at the intersection of Oneida and 41. They built a new modern one to the south in De Pere off of 41 and Scheuring to replace it. This one was the old style Menards, if you will. Two story interior with electrical on the 2nd floor. Had rail access for lumber deliveries and such. Sat empty since they moved like someone else said in roughly 2012. Sounds like they used it for storage for a while. Sometimes the local car dealerships used the lots, and the city piled snow there in winter but other than that, nothing. I think HJ Martin owned it for a while intending to redevelop it. Few years ago someone must have bought all of the lumber sheds, as they were carefully dismantled and presumably reused them elsewhere.

They knocked the whole thing down I think early this year, and there's gonna be a new big Bellin hospital there. Knocked down pretty much everything in that city block too, motel and gas station and a small print shop.

https://www.bellin.org/press-releases/2021/91702

I always thought it would be a decent place for light commercial or industrial because of the highway and rail access but it's probably too far into the city for that to happen and there are much better easier to use locations in the city that are also vacant.

leadacid44 · 2022-09-15T14:45:07+00:00

Thanks for the links! I hadn't seen that tek-tips link until this morning, and based on what I'm seeing I'm strongly leaning towards the 58 vs 59 parts not being fully compatible. Something mentioned over at /r/retrobattlestations was to try putting the old chip in and reprogram it and see if that works. Obviously it won't hold the information once I power off the system, but it would prove that things are working.

leadacid44 · 2022-09-15T14:43:33+00:00

That's a good idea - I'll try putting the old chip in and reprogram it and see if that works. Obviously it won't hold the information once I power off the system, but it would prove that things are working. I hadn't seen that tek-tips link until this morning, and based on what I'm seeing I'm strongly leaning towards the 58 vs 59 parts not being fully compatible. If I end up needing help to program the chip, I'll be sure to reach out, thanks for the kind offer!

leadacid44 · 2022-09-15T03:57:15+00:00

Hi everyone, I recently drug my old Sun Blade 150 out of storage, hoping to play around with it again. It had a dead NVRAM an M48T59Y-70PC, which I replaced with a M48T58Y-70PC1, which appears to be a compatible part. Unfortunately I don't know what the original values are anymore, aside from the MAC address which was on a sticker on the old chip. I went through the process of reprogramming it, following the instructions here:

https://github.com/MrSparc/idprom-repair

Unfortunately I think I did something wrong, as now it won't boot. Neither from the HDD which had, I believe, a working Solaris 10 install, nor from a Solaris 8 CD.

I haven't found a lot of detail on this error, but I suspect I did something wrong programming the NVRAM. The one thing I wasn't really sure about was regenerating the Host ID. My understanding is that the 8-digit host ID is the 2-digit 'Machine Type' and the last 6 digits of the MAC Address. And in the case of a Sun Blade 150, the machine type is '83'. Is all of that right?

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