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First OpenVMS Boot On IA64

Posted by chrisd on from the hp-isn't-so-bad-I-guess dept.

vaxzilla writes "At 3:31pm EST on Friday, January 31st, 2003, OpenVMS for the Intel IA64 architecture successfully booted and ran a DIR command. The Intel Itanium family of processors is the third architecture supported by OpenVMS in its 25 year history. Originally it ran on Digital Equipment Corporation VAX systems; in the early 1990s, support was added for the DEC Alpha processors. Following the acquisition of DEC by Compaq, and more recently Compaq by HP, the Itanium and Itanium2 port of OpenVMS is now being undertaken by HP. Congratulations on a job well done to the folks at ZK03 in Nashua, NH!"

3 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. Reasons to use VMS by palfreman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I used OpenVMS a bit at my universty, and I have to say I never really got into it - getting my solaris account was a great day! I can understand people wanting to maintain legacy apps (big purchasing systems maybe?) but is OpenVMS really good for anything _new_ today? Does it have any real particular advantages that mean you would want to use it for reasons other that "we've already got a stack of Alphas this high on it and gonna keep using it until forever"?

  2. Re:No congratulations for selling out... by nutznboltz · · Score: 3, Insightful
    end of the line for the DEC tradition of excellence that began with the PDP-10.
    But the PDP-6 had the same 36-bit architechture as the PDP-10.
    HP has done nothing innovative for computing in the last decade.
    Innovations didn't save DEC from its stupid managment.
    HP kow-towing to Intel, instead of commercializing a superior architecture.
    Well, it sux but it's not going to kill them any time soon. I wish it would kill them but USA is about Intel and MS and other mediocraties.

    HP wants to be in bed with Intel. HP needs to keep OpenVMS only alive enough to avoid jilting its inherited customer base. The same is true with porting HP-UX to the Itanic. Linux on the Itanic is HP's real server "solution". They are getting into Linux clustering in a major way.

  3. Re: VMS is the worst OS ever. by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 3, Insightful
    And if he was speaking about 15 years ago, 2 MB might have been a very generous disk quota. I know of UNIX shops where you feel lucky to get 100MB even today.

    Which just reinforces the parent rant. On a PC, that 100MB would cost ten cents. Maybe instead of rationing disk space, the sysadmins could save more money for the company by scavenging abandoned half-full cups of coffee in the break room and pouring them back into the coffee pots.