Subject: Re: Are PC164 based alphas supported?
To: None <mjacob@feral.com>
From: Chris Csanady <ccsanady@scl.ameslab.gov>
List: port-alpha
Date: 08/06/1997 15:35:38
> >Did anybody ever determine if the SRM console now has some sort of
> >hack in it which causes it to punt when it detects that it was booted
> >on a 'NT-designated' CPU?  If so, you might end up having to pay 3 or
> >4 times as much to get a Digital UNIX designated CPU.. Sigh..
> >
>
> Ah, sorry. I forgot about this foo. This one is more complicated- the
> CPUs in this case have the PALcode located at a fixed address (not
> compatibile for the OSF/1 PALcode).
>
> I don't remember the details of this- but it should be fairly safe to
> insist to the vendor you buy the systems or boards from that they
> 'must be able to run Digital Unix'.

Must I do this?  The Digital Unix certified CPU's seem to cost twice as
much.  The reason were going for the AlphaPC's though is that they are
not very expensive.  With this increase in cost, it would be over our
limit, and we'd be stuck with linux. :(

Also the vendor was saying that the SRM might not work with the newer
lx based boards.  Any truth to this?

Is there any way to hack around having to boot from a magical CPU?

Anyways, thanks for all the info..

Chris