Tadpole sparcle install cd

Show Threads. Show Posts. Registered User. Join Date: Nov Guys, I'm fighting a real bitch of a problem. I've got 2 Tadpole Bullfrog sun4u laptops. The idprom is virtually all zeros. I haven't been able to find a Open Boot source to maybe retrieve the mkp code and recompile.

Any ideas? Join Date: Dec Hi, Is this just to restore the hostid or is there more required here, re-writing the prom is pretty long winded if you have to do it. Regards Gull Find all posts by gull Looks that even Sun removed the mkp in later firmware; typical! Like this: Code :. Last edited by Don Cragun; at PM.. These Bullfrog laptops are expanded to virtual desktop configuration having the bottom added cardcage installed to permit one full size board to be added.

I ave full root access to both, and full access to OBP to do the usual boot params and the like. Units are both fully operational. Tadpole argues that the lower prices mean companies can now afford to purchase Sparcle portables for a large number of product engineers, software developers or technical sales staffers, whereas those businesses might have introduced desktop workstations or Notebook PCs before.

The company will tout the advantages of technical staff being able to travel frequently or work on projects at home, while also having access to productivity software, such as StarOffice, which will be preloaded on the Sparcle. This will let engineers carry out their work and still read e-mail and produce word processing documents using the same machine.

Tadpole has also developed a CPU sharing feature that lets a Sparcle whose CPU is not being fully utilized run jobs in the background, downloading them via a wireless network. By offering the Sparcle at a lower price, Tadpole hopes to sell many more of its portable Unix workstations than it has in the past.

But even if the plan succeeds, the size of that market is still extremely small when compared with the world market for notebook PCs, which totals several million units per year. The main reason the Sparcle portable is less expensive than previous Tadpole products is because it was designed to be more like a PC. It uses off-the-shelf components, such as memory, hard drives and optical drives. I was able to import and export Microsoft Word and Excel documents using the included StarOffice software.

Solaris 8 patches and maintenance updates from sun. I did not try to install any alternate operating systems Linux, etc. I found battery life to be fairly close to the advertised three hours. Tadpole includes some great tools for controlling the system and adjusting power consumption display brightness, CPU speed, etc.

Fans in the case will come on and turn off automatically as needed to cool the system, which has vents in the back to aid airflow. I did not have the opportunity to test the wireless networking features during this review, as I do not have a wireless network at home.