[Info-vax] NVRAM on DS10L

[John Wallace]

On Jul 9, 6:38 pm, JF Mezei <jfmezei.spam... at vaxination.ca> wrote:
> Recently moved, and unfortunatly, the system rack that holds the DS10L
> had to be powered off during the move. (movers don't provide power in
> their trucks, or while lifting the furniture up the stairs :-)
>
> I know that the system clock uses the battery to keep the time.
>
> However, now, I find my DS10L has lost its power-up script (the "nvram"
> file).
>
> I take it that NVRAM was stored in battery backed up memory as opposed
> to non volatile flash memory ?
>
> From VMS, is there a way to copy bytes to "nvram" ? (aka: load the
> power-up script from VMS from a stored file, instead of having to retype
> it after every power failure ?
>
> Also, does anyone have specs on how much power a DSL10L uses when
> powered off ? (the power supply remains warm, and a portion of the
> mother board remains active to run the RMC)

Fwiw, the DS10 (not L) Technical Summary [1] says that NVRAM is in
flash memory and therefore shouldn't need battery backup. It may be
wrong, or the DS10L may be different, or...

The console script called nvram can be edited or cat'd while in
console mode, so any other box that can feed a serial console a set of
ASCII data at the right speed can set up the nvram script. Does that
help at all? It's probably not what you wanted...

[1] http://69.59.151.44/datasheets/compaq-alphaserver-ds10-systems.pdf