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HP OpenVMS Systemsask the wizard |
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The Question is: I am wondering if it is possible to install and successfully run OpenVMS v7.2 on an Alpha XL 300 Workstation? It seems these workstations were designed to run WinNT from their product description on the Compaq site. I did not find this model mentioned in the SPD (SP2501hm.htm) for OpenVMS. The SPD did not have a specific list of what models "could" work with Ope nVMS. There was a list of "supported" systems. I guess I am confused about whether Alpha CPU machines are generic in their support of operating systems. It seems I can run several different OS's on an Intel platform, but OpenVMS is restricted to certain t ypes of Alpha CPU systems. Can you clarify? I would appreciate any information or pointers to documents that might explain this. The Answer is : The Alpha XL series, and the other Windows NT Alpha systems are not supported by OpenVMS. You may or may not be able to get these systems to boot OpenVMS -- the closer the particular system is to an existing and supported system, the better your changes of getting it to work. All current PC systems are directly descended from the design of the IBM PC, its processor, its supported buses, its BIOS, and such. For many years, the term "clone" was used to indicate how compatible a particular system was with the original IBM PC. Arguably, there have been a relatively minimal number of changes made to the hardware platform since the original IBM PC first shipped back in the early 1980s -- newer generations of chips, the addition of PCI and USB, etc. The internal system architecture and key components such as the BIOS interface are still extremely similar to the original... OpenVMS and particularly the Alpha and VAX platforms do not follow this "clone" model as closely, prefering to have the benefits that can result from various low-level differences -- while the application environment is quite compatible across the product line, changes in the I/O subsystem, the devices configured and configurable, the buses, the system console, and similar are quite common. It is these changes that must be reflected in the operating system, and these changes are what permit the improvements in the systems, and the flexibility to balance the system price, system performance, and system features. Recent OpenVMS releases (V7.1-1H2 and V7.1-2) provide the ability to perform third-party bootstraps, but this requires detailed knowledge of the platform and of OpenVMS -- much like the creation of the floppies used to add support for devices in the PC space. For an idea of what one of these third-party bootstraps look like and what they can contain, please see the files that were included with the Multia OpenVMS kit that is available at the OpenVMS Freeware website -- these are the basic pieces, and additional changes may be required. (The Multia kit, for instance, does not include the pieces necessary to use the PCMCIA or serial lines under OpenVMS.) For the details of the low-level differences between systems and the affected OpenVMS components, please see the oft-cited Internals and Data Structures Manual.
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