[Info-vax] VSI Community License Program - x86

[Scott Dorsey]

Andrew Back  <andrew at carrierdetect.com> wrote:
>On Sunday, 16 April 2023 at 04:19:03 UTC+1, Mark Berryman wrote:
>> I do not believe the issue is CPU related. My understanding is that it=20
>> is only Gen 9 and later that use UEFI. Previous generations are=20
>> apparently BIOS based. VMS requires UEFI.=20
>
>In that case I should think you could run it on earlier than Gen 9, albeit =
>via Qemu + KVM, where the virtual machine is configured to use OVMF bios (T=
>ianoCore UEFI port).

Yes.  As I pointed out, it's possible to run it under a VM on some pretty
slow and obsolete hardware, so the issues with running on bare metal have
nothing to do with CPU demands but the boot process and the device drivers.

>Interesting also to see someone has had bare metal success with an Asus mai=
>nboard. Has me wondering how much effort would be involved in porting the A=
>MDgpu open source driver, plus others as required, to get OpenVMS up and ru=
>nning on a modern laptop.

You need to provide device drivers for all the disk controllers, for the USB
controller, for the wifi controller, for the ethernet controller, and in the
case of the laptop there's a bunch of stuff for power management that is very
problematic.   The laptop is EXACTLY the sort of application where
virtualization is a clear win.

Right now I am thinking the primary limitations for support have to do with
VSI supplying only the drivers for the devices available with the Gen 9 server
and for a few virtual devices.  With more drivers and a little bit of sysgen
stuff, I am sure it would be possible to run it on the bare metal of other 
machines... but the number of different ethernet chipsets alone makes for 
difficulties in supporting a wide number of machines.  This is how the PC
world is.
--scott
-- 
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."