From owner-freebsd-alpha Thu May 15 15:20:28 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id PAA20772 for alpha-outgoing; Thu, 15 May 1997 15:20:28 -0700 (PDT) Received: from duke.cs.duke.edu (duke.cs.duke.edu [152.3.140.1]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id PAA20764 for ; Thu, 15 May 1997 15:20:23 -0700 (PDT) Received: from hurricane.cs.duke.edu (hurricane.cs.duke.edu [152.3.145.1]) by duke.cs.duke.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id SAA08811; Thu, 15 May 1997 18:20:20 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from gallatin@localhost) by hurricane.cs.duke.edu (8.8.4/8.7.3) id SAA12115; Thu, 15 May 1997 18:20:14 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 18:20:14 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <199705152220.SAA12115@hurricane.cs.duke.edu> From: Andrew Gallatin MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: Brandon Gillespie Cc: freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Alpha questions.. In-Reply-To: References: <199705151537.LAA01984@hurricane.cs.duke.edu> X-Mailer: VM 6.22 under 19.15 XEmacs Lucid Sender: owner-freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Brandon Gillespie writes: > On Thu, 15 May 1997, Andrew Gallatin wrote: > > > > 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) Cool! > 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. See http://ftp.digital.com/pub/Digital/info/semiconductor/literature/sdkrmf.pdf The DEC part number is QR-21B02-03. I understand it costs $75. > 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). Right. $75 isn're really a wad, but that could change at the drop of a hat. What I'm suggesting is to use SRM as an interim solution until such time as an ARC-loadable console program can be developed. Drew ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Andrew Gallatin http://www.cs.duke.edu/~gallatin Duke University Email: gallatin@cs.duke.edu Department of Computer Science Phone: (919) 660-6590