Dear Charles,
When I joined your fine list, I wrote a short intro... It's a tradition we
have on the AlphaNT Mailing List - Which, by the way, I'm the moderator!
More inline...
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Charles Steinkuehler
>Subject: Re: [Leaf-user] OT (was IPSec discussion)
>
>
>> >> If I need more CPU horsepower, I'll use 21264 (Alpha) CPU's instead.
>> >
>> >Sounds like a plan...I've seen reports of 3DES routines that really smoke
>> >running on Alphas, taking advantage of the true 64 bit architecture to run
>> >bit-sliced algorithms which really speed things up vs the clunky x86
>> >systems.
One of the *big* reasons why there was no NT4 past SP3 on the 21264 was
because of problems with the kernel. However, for the 21164, 21164PC and
earlier, there was no problem whatsoever with NT4/SP4 and up.
Going back to the 21264 kits from Samsung's Alpha Processor, Inc, one of the
big issues had been the firmware (BIOS): For the longest time, if you wanted
to run Tru64 or (especially) OpenVMS, you needed the SRM firmware, which was
only available on Compaq. Otherwise, you were stuck with Advanced RISC Console
(ARC BIOS) if you bought an API kit. For linux, you had to boot into ARC and
run MILO or LILO (Mini-loader or linux-loader) to finish booting.
At some point in the last few months, though, you can now download the latest
SRM for your API machine. This Is Good, because SRM is much more robust than
ARC.
For later machines - Like my 164SX - that run NT, you use AlphaBIOS, which
provides specific support for NT; and starting with v5.69, full support for
Win2k.
>> Yes, I've been using Alpha's for 5 years now - I have 3 Multia's in boxes
in
>> my basement; plus an AlphaPC 164SX (with 533 mHz 21164PC CPU) running
>> Win2k/RC2 server. [I also have another identical 164SX mobo on the way that
>> was shipped last week, so I'll be building an NT4/Datacenter cluster for
>> Exchange 5.5, to work as my "home & family" email server(!)]
Actually, Exchange 5.5's SP4 for Alpha was released in December 2000, fully
15 months after Win2k/Alpha was dropped by Q & MS.
[For the uninitiated, Compaq killed off AlphaNT development support on August
18, 1999; and six days later MS killed off Win64/Alpha development.]
>From what I've heard about exchange, your cluster of 4 Alphas should work OK
>for a home/family e-mail system (although it'll probably be sluggish), as
>long as you've got a few gig of RAM and several terabytes of HDD in each
>system :-}
Wellll, my old Prosignia 300 running Exch5.5/SP3 and NT4/SP6a ran quite
nicely servicing about 50 users, all on a rePentium 90 with 64 MB of RAM. But
No, I didn't take the pIIS. In other words, I didn't run Outlook Web Access.
:)
>> <http://www.alpha-processor.com>
>
>Been there, done that :-) I've actually got several DEC Personal
>Workstation 500a's running RedHat 7.1 for the Alpha. Nice systems.
IIRC, PWS500a's have enough room in the flash for both AlphaBIOS & SRM. I'm
assuming you're running SRM...
>BTW: How are you running Win2K on the Alpha's? I thought M$ had dropped
>support for them...(lucky for me, that's how I managed to end up with the
>system's I've got :)
Heh heh heh! Actually, the AlphaNT gang (of about a thousand members) has/had
a number of guys up in the MS-Q lab in Redmond; as well as a whole bunch from
Salem & Nashua. Many, many copies of the RC2 (Build 2072) AlphaBits made it
out the door; and I even have a copy of Pro/RC3 (Build 2128)... Which leaked
out 3 months AFTER Q & MS killed the project!
To halt the 444 day time bomb, simply edit the SETUPREG.HIV file in the ALPHA
folder.
[Actually, Dave Cutler still uses Alpha's to make sure NT is still portable
to platforms besides inHell. Judging by all the delays in Itanic, he was
right!]
-----
One of the best deals going is the Hobbyist Kit: Compaq has them for both
OpenVMS and Tru64 - I have both; but VMS chokes on the AlphaPC series.
One of the tricks is to use the Tru64 libraries with linux. Since I don't
follow the AlphaLinux
<http://www.alphalinux.com> stuff, they may have since GPL'd the coveted DEQ
libraries.
>Charles Steinkuehler
>http://lrp.steinkuehler.net
>http://c0wz.steinkuehler.net (lrp.c0wz.com mirror)
Cheers!
Dan
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