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

[MG]

On 21-12-2011 21:08, Steven Schweda wrote:
> which is yet another reason for calling a DS10 "better" than
> an XP1000.  Currently, the only thing on the built-in SCSI
> bus is a DVD-ROM drive ("Disk ALP$DKA600:, device type
> TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-M1711").

SCSI DVD, nice.  I don't hear about them or see them very
often.


>     As I recall, I looked at some LSI1030 cards, but I was
> looking for the fastest (cheap) thing from which I could
> boot, so the firmware limitations eliminated them.

Did you ever look into SAS/SATA?  I'll talk about it more
below.


>     Nothing exotic.  A couple of SCSI disks ("SEAGATE
> ST336607LC" and "SEAGATE ST373207LSUN72G", in Sun 611 boxes),
> a little-used CD-writing drive ("YAMAHA CRW2100S" ), and a
> backup tape drive ("QUANTUM DLT7000").  (Some people seem
> willing still to pay real money for a DLT8000, or I'd've
> invested in a couple of those, instead.)

I believe I have one of those Yamaha CD-R/RW drives as well.
I remembered even the Multia UDB would recognize it correctly,
within the SRM environment, which was nice to know.

DLT is a nice tape medium, originally of DEC (which makes it
extra nice in my book).  I saw a few SDLT-320 drives here.
Some very affordable.  Would you be interested in one?
Except for shipping (and new tapes), it'd be a real bargain.


>     Having a (relatively) large disk available (back-up not
> required) was a practical requirement for large-file testing
> of the Info-ZIP programs and VMSTAR.  They're not used much
> now, but they're powered through an X-10 appliance module, so
> I can leave them powered off until I need them, even when I'm
> away from home.

About SAS/SATA again: Have you ever tried to install a SAS/SATA
controller?  (Particularly something based on the LSI 1064/1068
chipset.)  I've tried one of those LSI 1068 cards in an rx2600,
which seemed to work fine.  Unfortunately, I don't remember the
part number of mine, but it is LSI 1068-based: a so-called LSI
SAS3080X card.  These can be had very cheap, on the usual auction
sites.  Nowadays I have this card installed in a non-VMS system
though (an SGI Tezro).

You wouldn't be able to boot off it either on an Alpha (like
with the aforementioned LSI 1030 controller), but at least SATA
disks are relatively cheap and providing great capacities (with
VMS V8.4 supporting ~2 Tbyte volumes).  You could use it as a
user/storage disks, or for such testing purposes.

It's unfortunate that HP never made SAS/SATA backplanes for the
zx6000/rx2600 or rx2620; at least, as far as I'm aware of.

  - MG