From: hoffman@xdelta.zko.dec.nospam
Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 1999 11:30 AM
To: Info-VAX@Mvb.Saic.Com
Subject: Re: Alpha UDB 166MHz - Price estimation please.


In article <7mdf73$ir@rlyeh.deep.it>, Cthulhu <cthulhu@rlyeh.deep.it> writes:
:How much should be asked for a Multia like this:

  I'm not in a position to suggest prices.  (And my suggested offer for 
  this system would be close to US$0 anyway, as I don't really want one
  of these. :-)  I can answer the other questions you posed, and make
  some general comments, though...

  Also try some searches for previous discussions...

:	166MHz
:	128MB RAM ECC
:	1GB HDD
:	External SCSI CD 2x
:	SVGA 2MB

  By my own personal (system hog :-) standards, this system is very slow.

  This system uses the LCA 21066 microprocessor running at 166 MHz, and 
  doesn't have a particularly large cache.  Check the performance against
  an Alpha 21064, for instance -- I would expect the LCA to be rather lower.
  (The LCA 21066 microprocessor is a design targeted for lower cost systems,
  and correspondingly more highly-integrated system configurations.)

  The Multia system configuration is fairly "bounded" -- it is not a
  particularly expandable system.

:The owner wuold like a pc to bater,

  "Bater"?  Barter?
 
:                                   but I have no spare parts and I'm too
:lazy (too sweat) to search for an used one.

  If you decide to acquire the Multia -- rather than acquiring a used 
  AlphaStation or similar -- then you will want to avail yourself of 
  some of the earlier discussions around the requirement for the use 
  of the (originally provided) offsets (the stand) and around the 
  specific thermal requirements for the Multia system.

:So, which would be an honest (from MY point of view ;) ) offer?

  My personal preference (among commonly available "used" systems) would 
  be for a AlphaStation 255 or AlphaStation 500 or similar, preferably 
  with one (or preferably more) PowerStorm 3D30 or 4D20 graphics adapters.

  Among the newer systems around, the AlphaStation XP900 or XP1000 would
  be prefered, of course...  (Official OpenVMS support for the latter 
  platform is currently pending...)

:Oh, yes. It is not supported for VMS, expect some patches... but HOW it
:works when VMS is finally running on it? Some testers here?

  The Multia "more or less" works under OpenVMS.  Some things -- such as 
  the serial lines and other I/O widgets -- are known to not work.  Basic 
  DECwindows and I/O functions do operate.

  As stated, please try one of the available newsgroup search engines 
  to locate some of the previous discussions....

 --------------------------- pure personal opinion ---------------------------
   Hoff (Stephen) Hoffman   OpenVMS Engineering   hoffman#xdelta.zko.dec.com