XL-266 install

[Jay Estabrook]

On Fri, Feb 20, 2004 at 07:47:36PM -0500, U. George wrote:
>
> Since its not either the noname, or the lx it, musta have been either 
> the 150mhz (first one - jensen. Used Eisa kards ) or the 3000 ( i think 
> also 150mhz, but fancy propiatary bus ).

3000, aka Flamingo, used MIPS TurboChannel for a bus. AFAIK, never ran
Linux (though there were some that tried... :-).

> It came with a NT arc as default. But u can ask ARC for the SRM console 
> if you wanted to. It was sorta one way, as ARC knew about SRM, but SRM 
> didnt know about ARC. It all fit in the boot prom ( or whatever ). Maybe 
> SRM image fitted on the boot disk partition, which arc knew how to load 
> - I dunno.

I think the FLASH was big enough for both.

> with more ARC releases that switch eventually did nothing, as you 
> couldnt fit both images on the same prom. Eventually the switch went away.
> Sorta like the functional "setting the time" via the SRM also went away 
> due to space limitations ( to support various SCSI, or ide controllers )

Hmm; I don't remember that.

> Yup, with the newer SRM's you also get the latest PAL code. But wasnt 
> that PAL code erased and loaded with the old standard ,works everywhere, 
> "bread board" version that was publically available as source libraries? 

I think by "bread board" you're remember the EBSDK (Evaluation Board
System Developers Kit); it contained sources for much of the hardware
needs WRT console and PALcode and such. Did NOT contain sources for the
SRM console PALcode, however, but something a bit simpler that could be
used by IHVs building Alpha-based mobos as the basis for their own
console firmware (DeskStation is the only one I can readily think of
that actually did this; API/Samsung did it a bit, but also purchased
a license for SRM).

> Wasnt all the other machine-specific PAL codes sightly different? And no 
> source. And no license. And no real public explanation of the nuances.

Well, there were common parts and there were platform-specific parts
to both EBSDK and SRM PALcode sets. No source for SRM unless a license
was specifically purchased for SRM. There were some EBSDK-related docs
that talked a bit about the design/structure of PALcode, but no, not
ever anything that was really sufficient, except a Vulcan mind-meld...

;-} ;-}

> Maybe you like SRM, but i'd like to erase MTA's, DKA's and some of the 
> other "Dec" (ultrix, osf, vax ) lingo.

Aren't *all* BIOSes idiosyncratic? ;-}

> this is as i remember.

You remember well, Uncle George... :-)

 --Jay++

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Jay A Estabrook                            HPTC - LINUX support
Hewlett-Packard Company - ZKO2-3/N30       (603) 884-0301
110 Spit Brook Road, Nashua NH 03062       Jay.Estabrook at hp.com
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