[ILUG] Alpha Hardware vendor recommendations ?

[Paul Jakma]

On Wed, 5 Apr 2000, Mark Dennehy wrote:

> Hi all,
> I'm thinking of putting an alpha 21264-based system together for work
> (the app is seriously heavy on the CPU) and was wondering about vendors
> for the chip and motherboard. 
> I've looked at the UK, Netherlands and French recommended sites from
> www.alphalinux.org but can't find anything less than 2 or 3 grand. 

you'd be lucky to get a decent 21264 system for even 5k.

> I was
> hoping to be able to do what I do for x86 PCs and just get parts and
> hand-assemble. Has anyone got any advice on vendors ?

try www.compusys.co.uk.

Also: be aware that the AMD-751 based UP1000 has a much lower memory
'bandwidth' than the DEC 21272 based UP2000 or 264DP or even the older
2117x chipset for the 21164.

(AMD 751 has a 64bit wide path to memory, The DEC chipsets eg
2117x/21272 are 128 bit wide.) 

So if your app is at all heavy on memory access -> don't buy a UP1000
based system. If memory bandwidth isn't a concern (your app lives mainly
in cache) then you should check out the Compaq DS10 (server config) or
XP900 (workstation). These are a bit crippled in the memory bandwidth
dept. like the UP1000 - but they are relatively inexpensive, eg the
DS10 can be had for around 3k quid or so.

(DS20 is quite nice too, but is about 7k+)

> Thanks,
> 
> 

-paul jakma.