cyberluke wrote on 2022-01-26, 21:03:

Hi, I'm new here! Just got new Unisys Aquanta HS/6U / Revolution 6x6 in Czechia (from Slovakia brothers). I will be silently watching here for a while. I have also EEPROM reader, so will probably backup my BIOS as well. I'm looking for SCSI card and that nice 5.25 bay SCSI addon perhaps as well 😀

First thing I'm gonna try is: DOOM haha. Then install WinXP and try .NET with SMP and also Linux with Python. Then I would like to try to run 6x DOS window sandboxed on individual CPUs. Therefore it should be able to run 6x Quake with software rendering, correct?

Tell me how you use your server! What kind of apps and OS you run? Would OS/2 handle all CPU's and give DOS support?

welcome!

IMHO, using DOS for a machine like this, is like using a semi to deliver fast-food. My current plan is to aquire about 3 more overdrives, and setup a Team Fortress Classic server or 2. I know a guy that wants to setup a VPN for retro systems, and I think it would be cool to include my ALR in such a network for people.

I firmly believe 2000 Advanced Server is the proper Microshaft operating system. As for Linux, I don't have experience there, but it seems like a natural fit. The issue here with sandboxes, is the lack of hardware support for virturalization. It might work, but you'd lose so much performance, it would just be an academical exercise.

Section A:
1) with DOS I mean some OS like Win NT or OS/2 that can spawn one DOS window per CPU

2) Yes, I'm also thinking about using it as a server. I already have 6 retro computers in my room for VIP LAN + possible internet connection. I would be interested in setting up a VPN as well. You can make video about your 6x6 and VPN gaming setup, that would be awesome!

3) I plan to partition the drive and use a plethora of systems to experiment with it. Of course there will be 2000 Adv Server, Whistler tweak from cpushack.com for 6-core support. They recommend mostly Redhat Linux for old release or there are some newer Linuxes here: https://linux.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Distro … tel_Pentium_Pro ...one guy on Youtube shows Pentium Pro dual cpu with LUbuntu. With newer distro, it is better to compile most of the packages from the source and use a faster machine (like i7) for that.

4) Virtualization I guess is out of scope, my plan is to explore software with SMP support and MODERN programming languages support with SMP. I am Java, Node.js, Python & Arduino developer. But Java would bring a lot of bottlenecks.

Section B:
Programming languages
1) Python 3.7 works in Windows 2000 using something called Extended Kernel: http://blog.livedoor.jp/blackwingcat/archives/1978886.html
2) .NET 2.0 in Windows 2000 is enough, even for LINQ, just use LinqBridge and target .NET 2.0 as a platform in IDE: https://code.google.com/archive/p/linqbridge/
3) Java 8.0 should be unofficially supported on Windows 2000 and there is a new GraalVM java virtual machine (JVM) by Oracle, which has Native Image function and allows to create a native .exe for your CPU. The requirements do not mention SSE and you need only standard C++ compiler, so it might work as well.
4) did not find any info on how to hack Node.js to run there
5) C++ and BOOST libraries would be the best bet

Section C: Proper up to date Windows XP or Windows 2003 support
Since we all know Win XP source code is partially opensource and the rest has been leaked, there are guys who are working on their own implementation and support on top of Windows 2003.
One example would be this: https://vk.com/lwgame_ncore ...they provide image for older CPU's and platforms as well. It is some kind of Windows 2003 kernel with Windows XP libraries on top of it plus it seems to have Win 7 & Win 10 compatibility support you know from KernelEx. This would be very interesting. I asked the guys in FAQ discussion if they fixed the Whistler 6-core support from cpushack.com article already, but no response at this time (I posted it just few days ago).

New OS confirmed to work with Pentium Pro and SMP and it is modern up to date OS based on OS/2 Warp!!! https://www.arcanoae.com/ ...I just talked to a nice guy from Prague / Czechia, they have a lot of local branches for sales & support.

Install Gentoo. 😀
I'd be curious how long it takes on a 6-CPU PPro/200. 😁

(or better yet, install Funtoo which is even better https://www.funtoo.org/ )

stamasd wrote on 2022-01-28, 13:16:

Install Gentoo. 😀
I'd be curious how long it takes on a 6-CPU PPro/200. 😁

(or better yet, install Funtoo which is even better https://www.funtoo.org/ )

Care to elaborate, please? So if it takes long, it's not good, right? I'm more of Redhat/Fedora/Ubuntu/SuSE person. Now I'm looking for a set of OS that would provide some good value for this system and will support SMP for 6 CPUs. Gentoo and Funtoo will support that? Including non-ACPI i686 motherboards? A lot of Linuxes are breaking support for older machines and in the end you will compile all packages on i7 manually.

Funtoo has a dedicated i686 stage3 https://www.funtoo.org/I686 which can be used for installing on PPro-class machines. It supports multithreading of course, all you have to do is set one parameter in a config file with the number of logical processors (/etc/portage/make.conf, add parameter MAKEOPTS="-j6" for 6 CPUs) and it will get 6 simultaneous compilation threads for software. Give it a try. We have a Funtoo Discord channel for support https://discord.com/invite/BNUSpUU with the main developers/maintainers active there every day.
The advantage is that all of the software installed will be optimized for your particular CPU architecture. I have installed Funtoo on all sorts of hardware (even on a Raspberry Pi) and it's my favorite distribution. I'm posting from a Funtoo laptop right now.

Actually, thinking of it - I have never installed Funtoo on a PPro-class machine. I have a dual PPro board currently sitting and gathering dust, I should give it a go myself. 😁

Perfect, thank you! That looks good.

You know, the parameter you mentioned: MAKEOPTS="-j6" ...that is only a standard parameter for compilation. What I am asking is SMP kernel support, so if you use GUI or have more processes in OS or have multi-threaded app, if the OS can use all 6 cores itself. What we don't want is that we are on similar level as Windows 2003 Server, where it will use single cpu only. So I'm not talking about 'make' and compilation. I am talking about runtime, kernel, xwindow system, etc.

Yes, the kernel is by default SMP-enabled. The default and recommended one is sys-kernel/debian-sources, which is currently at 5.15.5

Any news on retro vpn? @luckybob

Hi, can you recommend DDR RAM for Aquanta HS/6?

Would all of these work? I assume that any ECC registered PC133R 256MB should work:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/203461754572
https://www.ebay.com/itm/374109390529
https://www.ebay.com/itm/202849972942
https://www.ebay.com/itm/224476335855
https://www.ebay.com/itm/144182093890
https://www.ebay.com/itm/281825617205

https://www.cpu-world.com/forum/viewtopic.php … =asc&highlight=

Anyone in need of spares?

H3nrik V! wrote on 2022-12-30, 08:49:

https://www.cpu-world.com/forum/viewtopic.php … =asc&highlight=

Anyone in need of spares?

I'm not on that forum, you selling it?

cyberluke wrote on 2022-12-30, 08:57:

H3nrik V! wrote on 2022-12-30, 08:49:

https://www.cpu-world.com/forum/viewtopic.php … =asc&highlight=

Anyone in need of spares?

I'm not on that forum, you selling it?

No, not me. Just thought someone here might need it

A Unisys Aquanta HS/6 service training video (circa 1997) was posted a few months ago.

https://youtu.be/1M1ENfEbUKA?si=tYE1EJbTriAXpDJU