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The Question is: We are currently running VMS 5.5-2 on a VAX 666-620 machine, but would like to upgrqade in order to better utilize the 4 processors currently running on the system. Will VMS version 7.1 run on a VAX 6000-620, or is it required to run on an Alpha machine? , I.e., can we keep the 6000-620, or will we need to upgrade to the Alpha architecture? The Answer is : OpenVMS VAX operates on and supports the VAX 6000 series systems, among other VAX, MicroVAX, VAXserver, and VAXstation systems. OpenVMS Alpha operates on and supports systems based on the Alpha architecture. For information on the supported platforms for any particular OpenVMS release, please see the OpenVMS Software Product Description (SPD). Pointers to the SPD are in the FAQ. Better SMP utilization is not strictly a question of the operating system, it is also a question of the system environment and the local applications. For example, a single-threaded single-process application will only run as fast as the speed of a single processor -- an upgrade that adds more processors to such an environment will succeed in improving performance only to the extent of clearing or otherwise reducing contention that might be slowing the single-threaded application. Multi-process applications and mixed environments (timeshare and batch, etc) can and do benefit from adding processors, due to the ability to schedule processes in parallel. And of course, if the application is already running at the capacity of the CPU(s), you will want to look at reducing the overhead and optimizing the system and the applications, or you will want to add performance (via faster VAX processors or via a migration to OpenVMS Alpha). For information on system tuning, see the OpenVMS documentation.
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