6. dantzig: Digital Alpha

Compatible RAM variations:

• SN-MSP01-HC - 64MB ECC SDRAM DIMMs

• SN-MSP01-HD - 128MB ECC SDRAM DIMMs

• SN-MSP01-HE - 256MB ECC SDRAM DIMMs

• SN-MSP01-HF - 512MB ECC SDRAM DIMMs

Found on the web variously as:

• AlphaMemory has quite favorable pricing for RAM for Personal Workstations.

• 128MB Upgrade Kit Memory Upgrade Module for Digital Equipment Corporation Personal Workstation 600a (Au)

  $270 for 128MB

• Crucial - RAM for PW 433a

3DFX Voodoo 3000 graphics card, cannibalized from Knuth

Compaq/Digital has various updates to BIOS and other system components:

• PW433 Updates

• AlphaBIOS V5.70, SRM, POST

AHA-2490UW Dual SCSI Controller User's Guide

It's got a PCI bus, 53C810 SCSI, Alpha CPU running at 166 MHz, 96MB RAM, 340MB SCSI disk, and a 15" SVGA monitor. The specs are described in much more detail in my Alpha UDB/Multia web page; I've added only external components: a satellite Sony 2x SCSI CD-ROM, and a Zip drive. Note that 10Base2 and 10BaseT Ethernet is built-in on the motherboard.

It was upgraded to "Red Hat 4.1 Official Version" on April 6 1997 after a several-month hiatus wherein I had (unsuccessfully) tried to move several times to version 4.0; as of April 1999, it more recently runs the stable version of Debian GNU/Linux.

It has been upgraded, adding a Diamond Stealth Video 3200, using the S3 968 chip chipset with 2MB of apparently fast RAM. This is compatible with the S3 XFree86 X server, and provides decent high resolution graphics.

• 128MB Upgrade Kit Memory Upgrade Module for Digital Equipment Corporation Personal Workstation 600a (Au)

  $270 for 128MB

AHA-2490UW Dual SCSI Controller User's Guide

It's got a PCI bus, 53C810 SCSI, Alpha CPU running at 166 MHz, 96MB RAM, 340MB SCSI disk, and a 15" SVGA monitor. The specs are described in much more detail in my Alpha UDB/Multia web page; I've added only external components: a satellite Sony 2x SCSI CD-ROM, and a Zip drive. Note that 10Base2 and 10BaseT Ethernet is built-in on the motherboard.

It was upgraded to "Red Hat 4.1 Official Version" on April 6 1997 after a several-month hiatus wherein I had (unsuccessfully) tried to move several times to version 4.0; as of April 1999, it more recently runs the stable version of Debian GNU/Linux.

It has been upgraded, adding a Diamond Stealth Video 3200, using the S3 968 chip chipset with 2MB of apparently fast RAM. This is compatible with the S3 XFree86 X server, and provides decent high resolution graphics.

Should Dantzig fall down, and have difficulty coming back up, here are some notable bits of configuration: /dev/sda1 is the MILO partition /dev/sda2 is the root partition Unfortunately, there are several dysfunctional kernels kicking around; the one known to work OK is invoked via the MILO command: boot sda2:boot/vmlinuz-2.2.1 root=/dev/sda2

Dantzig "the Multia" is now defunct, due to a severe power surge. It has been replaced by a rather faster Alpha box by the same name...

George Dantzig was the inventor of Linear Programming, a "mathematical programming" approach to solving optimization problems. This was one of the early techniques that popularized Operations Research in industry.