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Alpha-Based Samsung Linux Goodness

Posted by timothy on from the more-bits-for-kids dept.

Peter Dyck writes: "This summer Compaq divested itself of the Alpha technology. The Alpha tech was purchased by Intel who most likely will bury it after grafting its best aspects to their own 64 bit IA-64 system. However, the non-exclusive terms of the deal allowed Samsung to continue producing and developing the best 64-bit processor architecture there is today. Now, as a happy owner of a four years old DEC AlphaPC164 I was delighted to see this announcement by Samsung Electronics. In short, the upcoming UP1500 motherboard will house a 64 bit 800+ MHz Alpha 21264B CPU, 4 GB DDR memory, 10/100 Mps LAN, USB and yes, it will run Linux."

2 of 202 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Where to buy chip, mobo? by CaptainCarrot · · Score: 4, Interesting
    There's a guy on eBay who sells older Alpha hardware. They're mostly build-it-yourself systems, though, and don't always conform to any standard PC formfactor, so YMMV greatly.

    Other Alpha systems are also not difficult to locate in eBay's Computer section. Just do a search on "alpha". The machines of interest aren't difficult to locate in the results, as there are rarely more than 4 pages' worth.

    --
    And the brethren went away edified.
  2. Odd selection of features by HalfFlat · · Score: 5, Interesting

    An older board - the UP2000 - is a dual processor SDRAM (not DDR) based Alpha motherboard, which has 6 PCI slots, two of which are 64-bit.

    This new board has DDR ram, but only 32-bit PCI, and then only three slots. While nice and all - DDR is good, and of course it's for the Alpha 21264B, not 21264A - this does seem a bit of a step backwards in the IO stakes. Especially when it's noted that the UP2000 has onboard Ultra-2 SCSI as well.

    Perhaps this board was originally targetted at the 'lower-end' workstation segment? Does anyone know if a more server-oriented 21264B board is on the way? It seems sadly unlikely given the current circumstances.

    If one wants to have 64-bit multiprocessing on a budget, what are the current alternatives?