Fixed in Oracle Solaris SRU 23 (Hardware Management Pack for Oracle Solaris version 2.4.2.0).
For some Oracle SPARC systems, such as the T series and M series, the fwupdate list and update commands might not list all installed network controllers or be excessively slow on systems with large numbers of network controllers installed (more than six), as follows:
If the system has six or fewer controllers installed, running the fwupdate list command might appear slow or hung (taking up to 600 seconds to complete).
If the system has more than six network controllers installed, running the fwupdate list command might appear slow or hung (taking up to 600 seconds to complete) and not list any Intel-based network controllers (either add-in PCIe cards or LAN-On-Motherboard controllers) upon completion. If the fwupdate command cannot list the details of a device, it cannot update that device.
Workaround
If you encounter this issue and you have six or fewer controllers installed, you will need to allow fwupdate list or update commands additional time to complete. A rule-of-thumb would be to allow around 1.5 minutes per installed network controller.
If you have more than six network controllers installed, you will not be able to list or update the firmware of the installed Intel network controllers. In this case, you need to temporarily reduce the number of network controllers in the system until the fwupdate list command can see them. Then you will be able to update the installed Intel-based network controllers. Repeat the process for the Intel-based network controllers you temporarily removed until all have been updated.