Are UltraSparc IIe and UltraSparcIIi interchangeable?

I have a Sun Blade 100 and i'm trying to find out, if i can upgrade the CPU from UltraSparc IIe to UltraSparc IIi. I've checked, they are both PGA-370, but i have not found any pinouts to compare. Does anybody have any information about this question?

It certainly doesn't look like it.

For a start, the UltraSparc IIi was introduced in 1997 and the UltraSparc IIe in 2000. So how would you be 'upgrading' by fitting an older generation chip?

Also, (i) the clock rates are different, (ii) the power supplies are different, and (iii) one has an on-chip PCI controller.

As a result I'd say the answer to your question if definitely not.

Ref:

1 Like

I guess s/he means https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UltraSPARC_II#UltraSPARC_IIe+

The UltraSPARC IIe+ or IIi was introduced in 2002. Code-named "Phantom", it operated at 550 to 650 MHz and was fabricated in a 0.18 μm process with copper interconnect. It dissipated 17.6 W and used a 1.7 V power supply. It had a 512 KB L2 cache.

Compared to the IIe they replaced aluminium with copper.
Even if its pinout were compatible - how is the clock speed increased?

2 Likes

What i would like to do is to install the Sun Blade 150's CPU into a Sun Blade 100. The 150 has the UltraSparc IIi, 550 or 650 MHz and 512 kB of L3 cache. The 100 has the UltraSparc IIe, 500 Mhz and 256 kB of L3 cache. I did not know that there are two types of UltraSparc IIi and the later one is also called IIe+; all the manuals mentioned it as UltraSparc IIi.
So if i can install the IIi (IIe+) into the Blade 100, it will run on 500 MHz, a decreased clock rate, which means less heat will dissipate. The power supplies are identical, 1.7V and 3.3V.

The Sun Blade 100 and 150 are almost identical, the only differences i found are the cooling (which is irrelevant as the CPU will run on a lower clock rate), the power consumption (i can install a bigger power supply if needed) and the "CPU grounding ring" which i did not have time yet to check what it is.

The manuals says, it cannot be upgraded, but did not elaborate why. Maybe it's just not supported, but not impossible.

1 Like

They ARE swappable: http://bgafc.t-hosting.hu/bvk.php?m=0&o=21486&c=1