On Oct 9, 3:57 pm, s...@antinode.info (Steven M. Schweda) wrote:
> Yeah, and if everyone would stop paying $300 for these things, I
> could probably get one for $200 (or less). (And I'm close enough to
> save the shipping.) I suppose that I'll just keep on using the (much
> appreciated) zx2000.

Heh, sorry. I picked up the one that went for $299 today, to go with
the one I got from IDF a few years ago. Report to follow shortly...
Whee!

And yes, apparently I'm behind the curve on noticing these.

Dean Woodward wrote:
> On Oct 9, 3:57 pm, s...@antinode.info (Steven M. Schweda) wrote:
>
>> Yeah, and if everyone would stop paying $300 for these things, I
>>could probably get one for $200 (or less). (And I'm close enough to
>>save the shipping.) I suppose that I'll just keep on using the (much
>>appreciated) zx2000.
>
>
> Heh, sorry. I picked up the one that went for $299 today, to go with
> the one I got from IDF a few years ago. Report to follow shortly...
> Whee!

I got one for about $220 and I'm not sorry. It even has a DVD-ROM drive.
The shipping made it almost $300, but they did a nice job -- even
included hard drive screws. There are a lot of challenges to getting
these things working compared to the alphas I've been dealing with as a
hobbyist for some years.

First of all you have to have the right serial cable(s) and something to
connect them to. You can't do a VGA console. You can get to the serial
console with a DB9F-to-DB9F null modem cable, but if you want to get to
the management processor (which you will want to do), you'll need a
DB25M-to-DB9F null modem cable. Then at the other end you'll obviously
need either a terminal or another computer with a serial port and a
terminal emulator. None of the new computers I've bought in recent years
even has a serial port, but luckily I have a number of old computers
laying around.

Once you get to the EFI console, nothing about it remotely resembles
SRM, and no matter how many alphas you've set up you still have to read
the docs on the rx2600 and the OpenVMS I64 installation manual to even
get started. The one really essential thing you have to do is configure
the standard input/output/error devices to only go to one place. Without
that you might be able to boot VMS but you won't see the output.

Next challenge is obtaining OpenVMS I64 media. There are still no
official hobbyist media available and Itanium systems at the office are
still under consideration but not here yet.. I managed to burn a DVD
from an LD container file built from a backup saveset of an install
disc, but it wouldn't boot using the "Boot from Removable Media" menu
option. Luckily it did boot using the "Boot from File" option and
digging around until I could select the VMS_LOADER.EFI file.

Now everything is working fine but the darn thing is so loud I can't
bear to have it in the study, but that's the only place I have the
network available. As I understand it there was no office-friendly kit
for this system. Does anyone have any tips on making it quieter?

Craig A. Berry wrote:
> Dean Woodward wrote:
>> On Oct 9, 3:57 pm, s...@antinode.info (Steven M. Schweda) wrote:
>>
>>> Yeah, and if everyone would stop paying $300 for these things, I
>>> could probably get one for $200 (or less). (And I'm close enough to
>>> save the shipping.) I suppose that I'll just keep on using the (much
>>> appreciated) zx2000.
>>
>>
>> Heh, sorry. I picked up the one that went for $299 today, to go with
>> the one I got from IDF a few years ago. Report to follow shortly...
>> Whee!
>
> I got one for about $220 and I'm not sorry. It even has a DVD-ROM drive.
> The shipping made it almost $300, but they did a nice job -- even
> included hard drive screws. There are a lot of challenges to getting
> these things working compared to the alphas I've been dealing with as a
> hobbyist for some years.
>
> First of all you have to have the right serial cable(s) and something to
> connect them to. You can't do a VGA console. You can get to the serial
> console with a DB9F-to-DB9F null modem cable, but if you want to get to
> the management processor (which you will want to do), you'll need a
> DB25M-to-DB9F null modem cable. Then at the other end you'll obviously
> need either a terminal or another computer with a serial port and a
> terminal emulator. None of the new computers I've bought in recent years
> even has a serial port,...

This is plain old RS232, right ?
It would surprice me a lot if not anyone of the cheap USB/RS232
converters wouldn't work...

In article , "Craig A.
Berry" writes:

> Dean Woodward wrote:
> > On Oct 9, 3:57 pm, s...@antinode.info (Steven M. Schweda) wrote:
> >
> >> Yeah, and if everyone would stop paying $300 for these things, I
> >>could probably get one for $200 (or less). (And I'm close enough to
> >>save the shipping.) I suppose that I'll just keep on using the (much
> >>appreciated) zx2000.
> >
> > Heh, sorry. I picked up the one that went for $299 today, to go with
> > the one I got from IDF a few years ago. Report to follow shortly...
> > Whee!

Hhmmm...maybe I should think about getting an Itanium for hobbyist use!

> I got one for about $220 and I'm not sorry. It even has a DVD-ROM drive.
> The shipping made it almost $300, but they did a nice job -- even
> included hard drive screws.

It seems to me that the prices for low-end Itanium systems have dropped
MUCH faster than was the case with ALPHA. What's the reason? Are they
missing something essential?

> There are a lot of challenges to getting
> these things working compared to the alphas I've been dealing with as a
> hobbyist for some years.

Maybe someone could set up a step-by-step guide on the web.

> First of all you have to have the right serial cable(s) and something to
> connect them to. You can't do a VGA console. You can get to the serial
> console with a DB9F-to-DB9F null modem cable, but if you want to get to
> the management processor (which you will want to do), you'll need a
> DB25M-to-DB9F null modem cable. Then at the other end you'll obviously
> need either a terminal or another computer with a serial port and a
> terminal emulator. None of the new computers I've bought in recent years
> even has a serial port, but luckily I have a number of old computers
> laying around.

I have enough old serial cables of all sorts and real terminals lying
around. Nice to know that I'll need them when I get an Itanium system!

> Next challenge is obtaining OpenVMS I64 media. There are still no
> official hobbyist media available

But presumably hobbyist LICENSES are available and it's always been OK
to borrow media for a hobbyist installation.

> Now everything is working fine but the darn thing is so loud I can't
> bear to have it in the study, but that's the only place I have the
> network available. As I understand it there was no office-friendly kit
> for this system. Does anyone have any tips on making it quieter?

How big is it? How much power does it use? How loud is it (compared to
other VAX or ALPHA systems)?

> > Now everything is working fine but the darn thing is so loud I can't
> > bear to have it in the study, but that's the only place I have the
> > network available. As I understand it there was no office-friendly kit
> > for this system. Does anyone have any tips on making it quieter?
>
> How big is it? *How much power does it use? *How loud is it (comparedto
> other VAX or ALPHA systems)?

The Hoff has a very good summary of the Itanium options for OpenVMS
available at: http://hoffmanlabs.org/openvms/hwi64.shtml.

I have a ZX6000 which is functionality equivalent to the RX2600 Office
Friendly version (single, non-redundant power supply) except that it
doesn't have the management processor card. The noise is equivalent to
my home built linux server with dual fans blowing across the cards.
Not quiet, but not a 747 taking off either. If you have dual power
supplies I would suggest try pulling one and see if that helps (not
that I'm an expert of course!)

Regarding power: with dual 1.4GHz Itanium processors, three hard
drives installed and an ATI 7500 PCI graphics card the box runs at 370
watts. Compared to my Core2 1.66Gz 3 Hard drive linux server this is a
lot of juice - the linux server runs at 100 watts. There is a summary
of the power consumption of various kit on my blog: http://blog.wickensonline.co.uk.

Hope this helps. Mark.

On Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:32:07 -0700, Phillip Helbig---remove CLOTHES to
reply wrote:

>
I have several of them, they need a lot of memory.


--
PL/I for OpenVMS
www.kednos.com