Subject: Re: VAX 6420: KA64A EEPROM and serial number mismatch
To: Gunther Schadow <gunther@aurora.regenstrief.org>
From: Paul Thompson <thompson@mail.athenet.net>
List: port-vax
Date: 05/27/2001 15:02:14
On Sun, 27 May 2001, Gunther Schadow wrote:

> Paul Thompson wrote:
> >
> > I seem to recall the 6000 line officially supported 512MB max.  Are you
> > hitting that in your memory board configuration?
>
> yes, I'm hitting this :-), this is a flaw in the design IMO.
> I will have unsused slots and unused cards in the end :-(.

At least you can think of the cards as spares.  That always makes me feel
better in that situation...

Others have pointed out the machines that had transcended the 512MB limit.
I had wondered about which machines these messages in VMS SYSBOOT.EXE were
relevant:

-W-CPUREV, CPU rev level prevents use of memory above 512Mb
-W-XMIREV, XMI adapter rev level prevents use of memory above 512Mb
-W-OLDBIDEV, old BI device prevents use of memory above 512Mb
-F-Pageable system space exceeds 512 MB

> > What sort of error are you getting when you try to mix CPU boards?
> yes, that's what I get. Since I don't have any boot media I can't
> tell whether this is just a warning or an error. So you say I can
> just ignore those messages?

I never had a problem. I think you had also mentioned changing the serial
number the boards reported so they matched your original system.  I wonder
if that feature might just be intended for VMS licenses keyed for a
specific hardware ID and not a functional necessity otherwise.