The collected works of Winnili - Page 1

IRIX, as we all know, has the fairly flexible VFC. I was wondering, what about Solaris? I have an Elite 3D-M6 (UPA) graphics adapter, but it apparently only seems to support 4:3 resolutions. Most of my monitors are of the ‘wide’ variety (e.g. 16:9 and 16:10). Also on the internet I could find no trace of anything besides 4:3, or anyone trying to make it do anything beyond that.

It's not very important, merely out of curiosity. Else I'll keep on using it with the (4:3) 17" monitor I've been using with it, no problem whatsoever.

With regard to this thread, well, largely this:


The HP rx2620s have dual “Montecito” hyperthreading/dual-core SL9PCs in them and 24 Gbytes RAM each, also 10GbE and a bunch of other additions. HPVM works nicely, too.

The HP DS15 is a 1000 MHz EV68CB, with 4 Gbytes RAM, has an original (read: costly) HP/Compaq ATI Radeon 7500, with active cooling (thus no noise, no artifacts and great picture quality) and runs SRM V7.3-2 (2008). Various additions, such as dual-ported GbE “DEGX2” (Broadcom BCM5704 via the fairly well-known PCI ID modification trick). The Compaq DS10s have a (as is mentioned above) 466 MHz EV6, with 2 Gbytes RAM each and various 3.3 and 5 V add-ons, whilst running SRM V7.3-1 (2007). To my pleasant surprise, the DS15 ― thanks to the improved bus and bandwidth, with PCI-X, compared to the DS10 ― also runs fine with a 10GbE adapter, which I installed recently; while the DS10s, not surprisingly, couldn't handle it at all.

The DEC, “Digital” or even “[d|i|g|i|t|a|l]”, Personal Workstation 500au systems have the stock 500 MHz EV56 and I increased the RAM to the theoretical 1½ Gbytes in each of them, although I'm not sure how good the memory will eventually prove to work. They run a version of SRM that doesn't sound too old, but definitely feels so (V7.2-1, 2000). I've heard and read that there are issues involved, so I'll see. It's too bad that pre-EV6 systems, like these, don't support Radeon 7500 cards.

Besides the above, I also have a DEC Multia/UDB VX40B, with 166 MHz LCA4, 256 Mbytes RAM and the AXPpci233 “MT Common Console” X4.5-819 (1996). The 340 Mbyte 2½" (old, non-SCA... obviously) SCSI disk died a while back. Before it died, I ran NetBSD/alpha V5.1.1 and also briefly VMS V7.3 with the DEC employees' initiative “midnight hack” kit. I've since been trying to get a so-called PowerMonster II SCSI<=>CF adapter to work, where the manufacturer (“Stratos Technologies”, via the “Art-Mix” company from Japan) told me to be looking into getting it to work for Alpha systems, so I'll await it.

I used to also have a bunch of maxed out HP rx2600s (only a System Board, SL6XF, memory and various ― mostly spare parts ― still left) and a DEC AlphaServer 1000, but I got rid of those over time. Well, that's about it...

That's correct.



Can you confirm that this one does actually work in a Multia/UDB? (If so, I'll notify Stratos Technologies/Art-Mix about it.)

This is amazing, thanks for sharing!

If you want to run something close to IRIX on a non-IRIX/non-MIPS system, you should consider getting your hands on an IA-64 system. I can confirm that, with SGI QuickTransit (MIPS<=>IA-64 binary code translation suite), one can execute IRIX binaries in a cut-down IRIX 6.5.27 environment on top of Linux IA-64.

My max'ed out Ultra 10 would certainly have adequate hardware-accelerated graphics processing capability ― with an Elite 3D-M6 (UPA) board installed ― for anything requiring or recommending OpenGL. If I had the means to try it (i.e. having the software at my disposal), I would definitely try it. (I actually haven't used this system seriously in a while, I'm actually thinking of parting with it. Maybe some interesting software might persuade me otherwise.)

Solaris 9 is installed on it at the moment. (Although I was thinking of upgrading to 10.)

That is very interesting indeed! Composer was always the more obscure one to me, the one I personally never heard (or got to hear) much about. I'd (still) love to try Composer one day. (I have an IRIX 5.3 IRIS-GL capable Indigo² 250 MHz R4400 Extreme, so it'd theoretically be possible.)

Anyway, like the other excellent pictures and articles, thank you very much once more for sharing!

Digital (Equipment Corporation) Personal WorkStation 500au (or DEC PWS 500au , for short), second generation with the extra I/O, with the following:

• 500 MHz 21164A/EV56 processor (socketed);
• 1½ Gbytes ECC RAM;
• DEC (DE500?) 10/100BASE-TX ethernet NIC on-board;
• DEC DE450 NIC with AUI, Coax and UTP (PCI);
• PowerStorm 3D30 (TGA2, SN-PBXGB-AA, PCI);
• DEC KZPBA (QLogic ISP1020) SCSI HBA on-board;
• DEC KZPBA SCSI HBA (PCI add-on);
• Ensoniq ES1888 audio on-board;
• Cypress USB controller on-board;
• latest SRM loaded for it, V7.2-1 (2000).

Instead of the PowerStorm 3D30, I alternatively also have a PowerStorm 3D10T (ELSA GLoria Synergy, PBXGK-BB). No disks, although I may arrange one or two (contact me for more details). There are two of these systems available, with the above specifications and options, are available. (One of the systems may have a failing NVRAM battery, but it's fortunately a standard ‘miniature cell’ type.) I also cleaned the systems thoroughly recently. The systems work fine with VMS V8.4, to name something.

As far as trading goes, I'd be prepared to trade a system, or maybe two, for SGI systems and parts of interest.

[• Update 11-OCT-2012: Changed the formatting.
• Update 11-OCT-2012: Mentioned specific items of interest to trade.
• Update 22-OCT-2012: Slightly new situation.
• Update 11-DEC-2012: One is sold, the other one reserved.]

The DS15 and ES47 shouldn't be forgotten, as far as powerful non-‘big iron’ Alpha systems go. Those were some of the last released systems, along with the 64-processor GS1280. My DS15, for instance, is also one of the few systems that supports the very last SRM V7.3-2, as released in 2008.

Isn't there also the 1300 MHz 21364/EV7?

On a slightly different, yet related, note: What I don't quite ‘understand’ about some of the last Alpha CPUs, is that they had so relatively little amounts of on-chip cache(s). Does anyone know why? I guess it didn't affect performance? Either way, I'd love to read more about the ‘design decisions’ of later Alpha designs. (The majority of the literature that I've come across so far seems to mostly cover or otherwise mention 21064/EV4 and 21164/EV5 in greater depth, in my experience.)

Somewhat of an anecdote, that I wanted to share (but forgot about doing so initially), with regard to the above: There were a few items that I ordered from Australia, which were in amazing condition ― new, actually, with all the manuals and such, in the original box ― and so incredibly cheap that even the total sum with shipping included was almost half the price of what I'd have to pay for something in used condition locally, in nearby countries in Europe or from the USA. There are a few sellers on eBay from Australia with amazing prices. But yes, the larger and heavier items won't exactly be a pleasure to have shipped.

Added some pictures to this thread as well.

Another great series of scans, thanks!

I think I'll start scanning my materials as well.

sgi_mark, did you see my the two DEC PWS 500au and two Compaq AlphaServer DS10 systems, or even the HP Integrity rx2620 , which I've put up for sale/trade? (With pictures.) All systems should be max'ed out (or very close to it), with lots of possible extras. I'm located in the Netherlands, so relatively nearby.

That's a good question, I was actually wondering about that myself as well.

For VMS:

If you don't count the DEC Multia/UDB (based on the DEC LCA4 processor which would only support up to VMS V7.3, perhaps V7.3-1, albeit with many likely issues related to cooling or the lack thereof), I'd say the Digital Personal Workstation 500au ( see here for pictures of two PWS 500au's of mine ) and the Compaq AlphaServer/AlphaStation DS10/XP900 ( see here for pictures of a DS10 of mine ). Those two types of systems will run VMS up to the latest version (i.e. HP OpenVMS Alpha V8.4) and comfortably so, especially with 256+ Mbytes RAM and an ATi Radeon 7500 (e.g. in a DS10).

There are naturally all sorts of VAX and Alpha workstations and desksides, but some are quite old with equally old firmware/boot consoles (e.g. SRM, for Alpha) without upgrades. The latter can be very limiting, especially if you plan on running the later/latest versions of VMS.

Lastly, there weren't many genuine VMS “I64” (Itanium) workstations, but VMS supports both the HP workstation zx2000 (which is rare to find, in my experience) and the HP workstation zx6000 (which is similar to the HP Integrity rx2600). Keep in mind though, VMS doesn't support the stock AGP graphics typically installed in these types of workstations. Although, that's no problem, as you can swap it out for any suitable, supported, PCI graphics option.

(The above would also largely apply for Digital/Tru64 UNIX, in the case of Alpha systems.)

For HP-UX:

It greatly depends on which version you'd like to run, also on which architecture: MC68000, PA-RISC and/or IA-64. If you don't mind running (e.g.) an old PA-RISC version, you could find one of those 700-series “pizza box” type systems. Besides being restricted to running older versions, some of these older systems also use proprietary interfaces for input devices ― peripherals, like a keyboard and a mouse ― where “HIL” comes to mind.

The fairly recent, aforementioned, HP workstation zx2000 (IA-64) is fairly small, but very hard to find (and probably not going to be very affordable). I guess and that system would probably be capable of running the latest version, HP-UX 11i v3.1 U10 (although without HPVM support and such). Unlike VMS, HP-UX ― provided you run the proper version ― would be able to take advantage of interesting AGP graphics options, such as the ATi FireGL X1, X3 and other stock options for PA-RISC (e.g. HP workstation c8000, also known as 9000/785) and IA-64 (again, pretty much the aforementioned zx2000 and zx6000) workstations. The last version of HP-UX to provide hardware-accelerated graphics support for IA-64 workstations is HP-UX 11i v2.3 with the MTOE and DCOE.

If you do want HPVM (also known as Integrity VM) support, the smallest will probably be an HP Integrity rx2620 in 2U, 19" rack-mounting enclosure, with one or more “Montecito” ― i.e. Itanium 9000-series, with Intel VT-x Virtualization Technology ― processors installed ( here you can see pictures of such a system, an rx2620 of mine ).

Possibly, but that's well beyond what the original DEC employee initiative “midnight hack” (of which the sources still aren't available) was made to support. I also managed to install something later on my Multia/UDB, but that's really besides the point. The person appears to be new to VMS, did you perhaps miss that?



Do you have a Multia/UDB? If so, how long did you run it? A few days, a week, a month? The Multia/UDB is notorious for failing, due to the very poor stock cooling fan and overall design. I replaced the stock fan in mine and also had to replace the battery, with a battery pack of my own. Even like that, I still don't fully trust it.

I'd definitely not recommend a rather unreliable and potential disastrous mess of a system like a Multia/UDB to a newcomer to VMS. The Multia/UDB wasn't exactly one of DEC's better systems and I fear it could indirectly not leave a very good impression of VMS, either.



Who in his right mind would want to install a 3½" disk inside a Multia/UDB to begin with? That's asking for trouble. Also, having a disk in an external disk box/enclosure is also no guarantee that things will ‘work’. The Multia/UDB, or rather the various models, have all too often differing components such as SCSI controllers (sometimes not even an optional riser with SCSI controller, so merely the on-board IDE/ATA) and can behave very differently.



That system is so slow, already in its day it was considered sluggish and as a result even many die-hard DEC enthusiasts wo(uld)n't touch it. Definitely not recommended to a VMS newcomer. For that system to run somewhat comfortably, you'd need a very old version of VMS (very likely distributed on tape). Good luck finding that...



Is that large in your book? I think the much faster EV56 in the PWS 500au, plus having more universal PCI options at one's disposal, is much better than running an early and rather dated EV4. In fact, the PWS 500au enjoyed its last SRM release over approximately half a decade after the DEC 3000 systems were discontinued.

If you can find one, sure, because they're more rare in my experience. You could've named other systems as well, such as the +100 MHz faster EV56 PWS 600au, the EV67/EV68 AlphaServer/AlphaStation DS20E (in deskside configuration), the EV68C AlphaServer/AlphaStation DS25, the amazing EV68CB AlphaServer/AlphaStation DS15 (I have one of these, great systems) and possibly even the EV7 ‘holy grail’ AlphaServer/AlphaStation ES47 (also in deskside configuration), those are also more powerful than a PWS 500au and have been offered as workstations. But really, how likely is it to find one ― especially the later systems and models ― under a hundreds or even thousands of dollars/euros? I think the poster implied that he's new, wants a small yet capable system and doesn't want to spend a fortune.

I did read that the average XP1000 should consume less power than the average PWS 500au, which I'll admit is interesting, although I don't have first-hand experience. What I can say, as I heard from others, is that it almost equally suffers from lagging behind in terms of firmware, SRM and such support. So, for that, an AlphaServer ― like a DS10 ― is going to be the better choice.

It's best if you sent me a private message, make sure to also mention what kind of configuration you have in mind. As I've indicated, I'm most interested in trading (preferably with SGI parts).

By that you mean that you cut the thermistor wire?



It was never really a “workstation”, I think that even DEC never went that far as to call it one (as far as I can remember). DEC treated it like a ‘thin client’, or an ‘X terminal’, but then with optional internal storage and other additions and marketed it alongside its famous VTs. See the below marketing photograph:




I agree, if you can get one up and running, it's nice and it doesn't take much space. If it hadn't suffered from the terrible thermal design, inadequate stock cooling, failure-prone battery, dated VMS support and tricky VMS installation procedure, I'd have easily recommended this system to the thread starter.



Not everything, you didn't run VMS. (By far the most tricky one.)

NetBSD is easy, aside from the fact that it can whine if the TOY/NVR battery is dead. I find that a very peculiar requirement, from a ‘flexible’ operating system like NetBSD.

The PWS 500au isn't 30 kg, as far as I remember (e.g. reading from QuickSpecs) and can tell, especially without disks. I'll naturally weigh one myself, to be absolutely sure, once there's serious interest and when there's a desire to have one or more shipped.

Shipping is what it is, nothing new there. If one cares to run the latest version of VMS (without having to emulate), Digital/Tru64 UNIX or whatever, with a graphics head and such, it would be worth the price in my opinion. Alphas can be scarce, especially the more desktop/-oriented ones; the PWS 500au also has audio and even USB on-board, which is a nice touch.

Sorry, you've lost me there...

If you desire to run a more than 11 year-old version of VMS (i.e. V7.3 ) at most, sure , then by all means go for it...

It would sure be useful if the thread poster would give some feedback.



I wouldn't say that, at all. Subsequent versions ― such as V8.4, as released in 2010 ― have enjoyed numerous new features, including in fundamental areas such as the file system. I happily run 2 Tbyte volumes in my VMScluster, being served through U320 shared storage paths (with allocation classes set) and additionally through MSCP over 10GbE. Try to that with V7.3(-1/-2), V8.3 or even V8.3-1H1.

The last few posts (above this one) show me that I've likely been wasting my time on this thread...

Why, do you love loud, high-pitched, noise? (Produced by the typical 1U.)

DS20 L , which is the 1U (as SAQ also mentioned) as can be seen below:

It differs somewhat from the DS20 E , as can be seen below:

Also, what's wrong with the Hobbyist Program? I get my PAKs within 24 hours typically, even during weekends. (Especially since it was in-sourced by HP.)

Cheating? I'm not sure about that. But, if you don't mind to emulate and want to run V7.3 at most (which has been pointed out various times already, in this thread alone) ― whilst also lacking a graphics head and not being able to take advantage of very nice VMS features such as shared storage ― then it might be a solution... I guess.

CSX 4 Gbyte [4096 Mbyte] DDR3 PC-10600 1333 MHz x8 204-pin SO-DIMM (P/N: CSXO-D3-SO-1333-4GB). In terms of transfer rates, it should be able to do: 10.6 Gbytes/sec. per module, 21.2 Gbytes/sec. dual-channel and 31.8 Gbytes/sec. triple-channel. It's compatible and marketed for (e.g.) Apple MacBooks and iMacs.

Update: No longer for sale.

Another one I didn't see mentioned yet: There's a (somewhat forgettable) PC computer game, «SWAT 4» or a subsequent expansion for it (as far as I remember), where there's an ‘data center’ environment with ‘Origin3x0’-appearing systems in the racks. I can see if I can make a screenshot or two.

Does anyone have an IP59 1 GHz MIPS R16000 quad-processor board (P/N: 030-1989-003 ) and is perhaps willing to trade/sell it?

I could exchange it for an IP53 700 MHz MIPS R16000 dual-processor board, or perhaps even a 700 MHz MIPS R16000 quad-processor board, in the case a 1 GHz quad-processor board would have to be removed from a working system. (Along with additional additional items to trade and/or an additional payment, of course.)

I have various things to trade, see my other threads. Thanks in advance.

Anyone interested in a barely used, mint-condition, HP AlphaServer DS15? Equipped with a 1 GHz 21264C/EV68CB, maxed out with 4 Gbytes RAM, ( original HP , active-cooled, noise-free) ATi Radeon 7500, (rare) DS15 audio option, DEGX2 (dual-port Gigabit Ethernet) and a hot-swap front access disk cage (I may also be able to include two disks and sleds, contact me about that). A nice touch, especially for those used to the DS10, is that SCSI (KZPEA) is on-board.

Besides the on-board KZPEA, I also have a KZPDC (HP/Compaq Smart Array 5300, Ultra160 SCSI RAID HBA) and/or KZPEC (HP Smart Array 6400, Ultra320 SCSI RAID HBA), as well as an HP/Exar/Neterion Xframe 10GbE NIC.

Feel free to PM or e-mail me offers.

[Updates:
• 15-NOV-2012: The system is reserved.
• 11-FEB-2013: Sold.]

What are you sorry for? Either way, thanks. I forgot to add that I have a lot of extras, like additional Radeon 7500s (though, OEM) for multi-head graphics output, all sorts of SCSI HBAs, GbE NICs, NEC USB card and even a dual-channel U320/SCSI-and-GbE ‘combo’ card with OpenVMS support (though I'm not sure about Tru64 UNIX, as I haven't tried it with that specific card). I also have a spare DS15 audio option. (Note: The DS15 has 4 × PCI-X slots and only PCI-X, unlike e.g. the DS10.)