From owner-freebsd-alpha Thu May 15 14:39:44 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id OAA17173 for alpha-outgoing; Thu, 15 May 1997 14:39:44 -0700 (PDT) Received: from cold.org (cold.org [206.81.134.103]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id OAA17167 for ; Thu, 15 May 1997 14:39:42 -0700 (PDT) Received: from localhost (brandon@localhost) by cold.org (8.8.5/8.8.3) with SMTP id PAA10813 for ; Thu, 15 May 1997 15:39:43 -0600 (MDT) Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 15:39:43 -0600 (MDT) From: Brandon Gillespie To: freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Alpha questions.. In-Reply-To: <199705151537.LAA01984@hurricane.cs.duke.edu> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Thu, 15 May 1997, Andrew Gallatin wrote: > Jordan K. Hubbard writes: > > > provided by a future Milo-like FreeBSD console program). The SRM > > > console is available for every machine I can think of with the > > > exception of the XL series personal workstations. For most machines, > > > the SRM console is freely available from > > > ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/Alpha/firmware. For EB* motherboards, > > > one can order the "Alpha EBSDK and Firmware Update Kit" from Digital > > > > Just to note that the "Alpha PC" designs which people like Aspen > > Systems ship (http://www.aspsys.com) come only with the ARC console > > unless you're willing to pay $175 more for SRM. This is not made > > freely available anywhere - I looked into that thoroughly before > > writing out the check. :-) > > Actually, most of these "Alpha PC" type systems (including Aspen's > Durrango & all Enorex's systems) are just re-packaged DEC AlphaPC164 > or EB164 motherboards. Firmware for which is included in the > above-mentioned Alpha EBSDK. The company I work for will be selling Aspen Alpha PC's as well as just Alpha PC stuff in general. I would like to have FreeBSD available as a no-cost default O/S option. (just a fyi) If it means anything, I've had the impression so far that by default everything comes with the ARC console, and you have to pay more for the SRM console (the amount will vary, I've seen the SRM console cost up to $2,969 for the official ''digital Unix SRM console''). I have no idea what EBSDK is. Basically, what I'm saying is please try to keep the low-cost alternatives in mind. If FreeBSD was only available off the SRM console that means to use FreeBSD you would have to pay an extra wad of cash just to switch from the ARC to the SRM console so it'll boot (people have the same problem when wanting Digital Unix vs NT). -Brandon Gillespie