Re: Old Alpha machines - are they suitable?
On Tue, 4 Jan 2000, Martin Schulze wrote:
> Oliver Elphick wrote:
> > I have the chance to get hold of an old Alpha machine:
> >
> > > I've had a chance to take a quick look at the Alpha boxes we have in the
> > > graveyard -
> > > DEC 3000 model 400 with CD no floppy
> > > DEC 3000 model 300x no CD/floppy
You may have to netboot both of those machines to initially set things up
if there's no OS already on the hard drives. Netbooting boxes that old has
proven to be a rather large pain in the neck....
> > >
> > > We have one DEC monitor to hand that 'fits' - I think the other is in use on
> > > a PC somewhere.
If you leave a keyboard, monitor, and mouse unplugged from the box, you
can access the serial termianl -- that's how I access my DEC 3000/300X.
> > > I gather they are 2xx MHz and use the Turbo Channel Bus - I gather the last
> > > bit may be the decider - does LINUX support it?
The 3000/300X is 175MHz Alpha, and yes, it's a turbo channel machine. I'm
not certain about the 3000/400, though. I've heard mixed things concerning
Linux on turbo channel machines: AFAIK, Linux will work but doesn't
support turbo channel *devices*; that's an important distinction.
> > Can you tell me if these machines can be used with Linux?
>
> Are you sure these are alpha boxes? 3000 sounds like MIPSEL to me, I
> may be mistaken, for sure.
The 3000/300X is an Alpha box, yes.
>
> Regards,
>
> Joey
Wes Kurdziolek
wes@mike.emerge.wm.edu
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