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

[MG]

On 21-12-2011 7:24, Steven Schweda wrote:
>     The XP1000 was an odd-ball, a low-end workstation,
> unrelated to any server (unlike the XP900/DS10).  Originally
> (according to my Golden Egg file and several other
> documents), it was intended for use with Tru64 or Windows NT,
> not VMS.  Its firmware development stopped long before that
> of the DS10, so, as we've seen, it has no idea what a Radeon
> graphics card or a gigabit Ethernet card is.

So I see, thanks for clearing that up.  That reminds me slightly
of the Multia UDB, how it was originally marketed.

Now, getting *that* thing to boot VMS is a real challenge!


>     As I said (and discussed in this forum at the time), I
> recently put cheap-junk ($6, $10) gigabit Ethernet cards into
> my XP1000 systems.  The console can't use them, but I still
> have the built-in 10/100MHz interface if I ever need to boot
> over the network (which I can't recall ever having done with
> these things).  Newer console firmware might be entirely
> satisfied.  Again, "a GbE NIC" is not a very detailed
> description of anything.

How do you mean cheap junk?  Those are server-grade ethernet
adapters, no matter how cheaply you acquired them (good job
with that, by the way).  The server ethernet NICs never broke
on me, unlike consumer NICs.

As for the NIC, I meant indeed a Broadcom card.  It's a BCM-
5701 (HP P/N: A6825-60101).  It works great in an rx2600 (or
else zx6000) and rx2620, with EFI support, but not so much in
an Alpha (with no SRM support).  It's recognized in VMS, but
after that it gives problems and causes my DS10 to crash.  It
could perhaps also be because I don't have GbE in both DS10s,
that there's some kind of collision.  (The trouble seems to
really start during the cluster formation.)  Though, I had
similar problems with the 10GbE cards.



>> I did successfully install several Ultra320 SCSI
>> controllers. [...]
>
>     Again, not a very detailed description of anything.

They are LSI 1030 (Ultra 320, single- and dual-channel) HBAs.
I don't know the part numbers, but they work flawlessly in my
rx2620s and now also in the DS10s.

-----[begin]-----
Device PKA0:, device type SYM53C895 LVD SCSI, is online, error logging is
Device PKB0:, device type HP LSI1030 Ultra320 SCSI, is online, error 
logging is
------[end]------

(Same configuration for both of my DS10s.  The only difference
is that one of the LSI 1030 cards has an HD68 connector and the
other a VHDCI.)

The strange thing is, there's limited SRM support.  I can see
the LSI card in the device inventory, but it won't allow booting
off such a controller.


> As I recall, my cheap-junk "SYM53C895 LVD SCSI" card has a
> 33MHz bus speed, so it's probably not so spiffy as one with
> a 66MHz bus.  But the console knows that it's a SCSI card,
> and I boot from a disk on it these days.  My external tape
> and external disks are connected to a (slower) Qlogic card.

The LSI Symbios 895 (SYM53C895) card seems to be the preferred
and factory-installed SCSI HBA, for several Alpha systems of
that generation.  Both my DS10s came with one.

What kind of external disks and tapes do you use, if I may ask?
(Purely out of curiosity.)

  - MG