[Info-vax] Alpha CPU revision & serial number, blank?

[MG]

On 21-12-2011 0:21, Steven Schweda wrote:
>     My old junk looks much like your (better) old junk (to the
> extent that I know what you're seeing, which is not great):

Better?  I thought an XP1000 was a later generation system than
the DS10 (or XP900, in AlphaStation terms)?  Or, did HP/Compaq
retract support for AlphaStations earlier than the AlphaServer
systems?


>     I'm unlikely ever to own even an EV7 system, so what did
> or didn't come after that matters little to me, but even a
> CPU which didn't get produced might have had specifications
> which included info like the data you don't see.

You've had Alphas longer than I've had my DS10s, from what
I recently read about your systems.  I've only had these two
DS10s for three or so weeks.  A few years ago I did have an
AlphaServer 1000 4/266.  It worked fine, but unfortunately
broke down over time; not very long after I initially got it.
Needless to say, it wasn't the fastest and most comfortable
Alpha system imaginable either, but I was amazed how well
VMS as recent as V8.3 ran on it and how responsive DECwindows
was, with a mere EV4 and 256 MB RAM.  The thing that mostly
put me off, was being limited to the smaller capacity, 50-
pin, "RZ"-type SCSI SBB disks.

Either way, I'm very happy with my DS10s.  Now I just need
to find out how to get all the components to work nicely
together.  Once that's all straightened out, it'll all be
available and accessible through my remote access cluster
initiative.  (Which speaking of, clustering works fine so
far.)

I did write off the idea of having GbE in my DS10s.  I have
tried a GbE NIC, which I previously had in a rx2600.  It was
recognized in VMS (not the SRM, though), but beyond that it
didn't do me much good and it caused several crashes (mostly
during the cluster formation).  The only way to have solid,
functional, GbE in an AlphaServer like the DS10 would be to
get one of those Compaq/DEC-type cards, but the going prices
for those seem gigantic!

Don't laugh now, but I've also tried 10GbE cards.  Just for
'the hell of it', since I have them laying around here.  Well,
that didn't work, as I feared (and as you may've guessed).
Beyond being properly recognized under VMS, they'd do as much
as 'link up', but not much more than that.  By the time the
cluster would attempt to form, the initiating system would
usually crash.  I think only once it worked, but it didn't
feel particularly stable.  My guess is that the poor systems
couldn't handle it.

I did successfully install several Ultra320 SCSI controllers.
This seems to work better.  However, without SRM support, I
have decided to use them mostly for external devices (such
as my magnetic tape drives) once booted into VMS.  It'd have
been nice if there had been SRM support for more LSI SCSI
controllers, such as the very common LSI 1020/1030 series.
I guess this is one of the relative luxuries provided by
IA-64 systems.

  - MG