Subject: Re: Source for AlphaPC 164SX?
To: Kevin P. Neal <kpneal@pobox.com>
From: Jason Thorpe <thorpej@nas.nasa.gov>
List: port-alpha
Date: 04/23/1998 13:13:53
On Thu, 23 Apr 1998 15:58:38 -0400 
 "Kevin P. Neal" <kpneal@pobox.com> wrote:

I just talked to "Steve".  He was somewhat hesitant to sell me a board.
Basically, he said - "I have one, and I have a customer who thinks his
is busted, so I might not have that one."

Annoying.

 > I called and got the sales guy "Steve". I told him I was looking for an EB64
 > or EB64+ board. He said that that was an old board and that he did have
 > these AlphaPC64 boards. 
 > 
 > I asked if it ran NetBSD and he said it did (add grain of salt here).
 > Anybody beg to differ?

There is some support for the EB64+ in NetBSD.  The EB64+-specific PCI
stuff was ripped out during the license scandal that some of you might
remember.

I have very thorough documentation on the EB64+, so rewriting these
bits should be about a day or two's worth of work.

 > Steve called the board a "Cabriolet", which my roommates tell me was a VM
 > convertable also. Perhaps I mispronounced it. 

Nope, you've got it right.  Although, lots of other automobile manufacturers
have had "Cabriolet" models, too :-)

 > The board comes with the processor and cache (but I don't remember how
 > much). It doesn't come with the rest of the stuff needed to build a running
 > system: memory, case, pw supply, etc. You get to add that. So it's cheap,
 > but not as cheap as a first glance might let you think. 
 > 
 > Now, is $250 for a Cabriolet motherboard+cpu+cache a decent price? 

Probably, if it's a reasonably fast 21064 processor.  It's certainly going
to be faster than an AXPpci33 or a Multia (and a lot more reliable than
the latter!).

Jason R. Thorpe                                       thorpej@nas.nasa.gov
NASA Ames Research Center                            Home: +1 408 866 1912
NAS: M/S 258-5                                       Work: +1 650 604 0935
Moffett Field, CA 94035                             Pager: +1 415 428 6939