Retrocomputer enthusiasts have a bad rap as nerds who just want to play old video games. There’s some truth in this, but the reality is that we’re nerds who want to do all sorts of things with old hardware — everything from consoles to servers. Servers like the DEC AlphaServer 2100 [derelictelectronics] picked up at Vintage Computer Festival Midwest this year. He was kind enough to record a tour for those of us who missed seeing these early Alpha machines in their heyday.
DEC did sell these units with multiple-CPU reports from the get-go, but the [derelictronics] particular model has a single CPU board carrying a 64-bit Alpha RISC processor. This machine from 1994 dates to near the height of the RISC wars when it seemed everyone needed to have their own high-end architecture, all of them RISC. While the machine could host up to 2GB of RAM, the example [derelictelectronics] found only has 256 MB, which was still not a small number for 1994!
He does get the machine powered on around the 20-minute mark, but doesn’t get to see an operating system. We’ve seen before that booting an Alpha machine is a bit different, but the problems he’s having appear to be power-related. Hopefully he gets it up and running with OpenVMS as promised. In the meantime, the VAX-descended OS lives on in the cloud and in the virtual machine of this operating system museum.
While yea i will agree there is some overlap tween retro computer nerds and the retro game nerds I still find your opening statement both false and a bit offending
One does not just wander into a random thrift store to find anything dec for 9.99$ with some latex paint splattered on it like a genesis or ps1
It might be able to run DEC OSF/1 (Compaq Tru64), or even Windows NT 4.0 !
I once wrangled a re-purposed DEC Alpha machine, running Exchange 5.5 under NT 4.0. It was a beast, it just kept on running for years, long past when the whole exchange thing should have been migrated to Win2000.
Until one day the network adapter failed – it was still a functional Exchange server, it just couldn’t talk to any clients. That was the day I got to give “the look” to the CFO who’d been refusing my requests for an upgrade. The CEO over-ruled him. to my great joy. Don’t ever muck about with the CEO’s email.
I used to work in news channel in Turkey in 1997 and we had those DEC workstation running NT. great machines…
I just love the way DEC machines look – color, form, you name it. I know that I can’t (and I shouldn’t try to) own a PDP-11 or a VAX machine at home (for lots of practical and WAF-related reasons), but they’re just so adorable.
Pre-ATX internal computer design could be more interesting, even if proprietary.
LOL!
The comment about 256 MB of RAM brought me way back.
About the time these were common, I set up 2 SGI workstations to run Pro-E for project we had. After the initial setup, the need was felt to upgrade the existing 256 MB to 512 MB to accommodate the models we were building.
I distinctly remember writing the purchase request authorization for 2 – 256 MB sticks of RAM for $10,000.
Good times.
… and so history repeats itself.