[Info-vax] Updated readings on Alpha to IA64 port?

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2019-06-14 08:05:38 +0000, DTL said:

> What else should be read after ... to work on a HUGE migration project, please?

If the target is OpenVMS, can't see doing all that much reading 
specific to Itanium here, unless there's an unstated scheduling 
constraint here.  This given the VSI OpenVMS x86-64 port presently 
underway.

Y'all waited this long with your exiting OpenVMS Alpha environment, 
after all.  What's a few more years with Alpha or maybe with Alpha 
emulation, and skipping an entire architecture?   A "HUGE migration 
project" might well take longer to develop and test and qualify and 
deploy than the remaining new-hardware availability for Itanium.  Per 
published reports, the last orders for new Intel Itanium Kittson chips 
will be accepted through the end of January, 2020 with last shipments 
circa July 2021, and an end of hardware support somewhere around 2025 
at the earliest. Which means there's probably an end-of new sales 
somewhere around 2021 or 2022, or while supplies last.

VSI is aiming for 2021 and 2022 for the V9.2 release, per the roadmap.

Maybe Itanium if the VSI port slips past 2022 or if it implodes, but 
then a port to some other platform will be under consideration.  
Scrounge some spare Alpha systems, and price some emulation, as 
insurance.

Spend the interim refactoring and cleaning up the existing app and the 
rest of the existing environment, more secure and more maintainable, 
and maybe also working toward a more portable app environment.  There's 
also an IP migration pending that'll be fodder here, beyond porting the 
existing apps and environment forward to VSI OpenVMS V8.4-2L2.  The VSI 
TCPIP beta isn't available for Alpha quite yet, but V8.4-2L2 is 
available.

As for your question...  If porting-forward-to-the-past with Itanium is 
the target, and for what to (else) read?  Little has changed with 
OpenVMS I64 since your cited 2005 date, beyond some errata-level 
changes such as S/HP|HPE/VSI/ in a few spots, and a few LP updates, and 
some patches.  Check whatever you have already, and check the existing 
HPE OpenVMS app porting guide.  I don't think VSI has an updated and 
VSI-branded porting guide available as yet.  Prolly won't spend much on 
updating one either, up until there's documentation needed for the 
x86-64 port, too.


https://www.anandtech.com/show/13924/intel-to-discontinue-itanium-9700-kittson-processor-the-last-itaniums 

https://vmssoftware.com/pdfs/VSI_Roadmap_20190121.pdf


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