Cool find! Congrats!

Nice machine to run Tru64 UNIX or OpenVMS !

I don't have any ES40's at work anymore, but we still run a pair of DS20E's in a production environment + dev system environment. OpenVMS is what most people/companies used for their industrial systems since a lot of 3rd party integrators used that as a base for porting older VAX software. I haven't come across any older coworkers or vendors who ever used Tru64 Unix for anything critical.. NT and Linux wasn't really supported, and was mainly for trying to niche transition something temporarily, but mostly in dev systems and not production systems. This was later for Itanium upgrade prepping, which of course was a dead end as well. Most of us just waited and jumped straight to Windows on x86/64 and ported code with Microsoft Fortran compiler. We looked at the OpenVMS emulators for x86/64, but they were too buggy and required later versions of OpenVMS as a base. But yeah, once Compaq was bought by HP.. that's when most of the industry either held out as long as they could on Alpha CPUs or shifted to Intel and ported their code.

What a beast ! Nice catch 😀

Horun wrote on 2025-01-11, 03:45:

What a beast ! Nice catch 😀

Yeah, thanks.

I'll give OpenVMS a try.
I've already seen some videos of it, totally different than what i know (DOS, Unix, Windows)...
Should be quite some stuff to learn.

What was the intended role of these servers?
Database-stuff? Multiuser?
Where there some well-know killerapps that needed such systems?

Starcat wrote on 2025-01-10, 18:21:

Cool find! Congrats!

Second this!

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BTW which CPUs are in there? I only had a few DEC Alpha CPUs (~4-5) in the last 2 1/2 decades but no other hardware (especially no motherboard).

kind regards
soggi

Looking thru archives it came with OS or as "linux ready" and mentions Redhat 6.1 and SUSE.

As far as I know, Windows was never officially supported on the ES40. Compaq killed Windows on Alpha shortly after the release of the DS20 and so anything newer (including the DS10 and ES40) did not receive support. That said, you could try the AlphaServer DS20 HAL - maybe it's compatible enough. Otherwise, Windows 2000 RC2 might include a HAL for the ES40.

If you plan to run Tru64 UNIX, I have some resources for that:

• "free" software - some of this is actually free (eg, firefox), while other stuff was simply "free" to download but needed a license PAK to actually work (eg, the C compiler).
• Patches/updates - v5.1B-6 is the final release. I think either Digital UNIX 4.0E or Tru64 UNIX 4.0F will be the minimum release compatible with the ES40.
• I've built the final release of GCC for Tru64 and might be able to get you binaries for it, otherwise there are build instructions for GCC 4.7.4
• Alpha Systems Firmware Update v7.3 - Latest/final firmware for the ES40 (or any Alpha). If you look around there might be some other stuff of interest in the same location.

LeFlash wrote on 2025-01-11, 17:16:

I'll give OpenVMS a try.

What was the intended role of these servers?
Database-stuff? Multiuser?

The ones I manage are for reactor core monitoring. There's separate neutron monitoring instrumentation that feeds into it from a proprietary GE-Hitachi fiber network/protocol that gets converted to the ethernet standard. You can run predictor cases and live data cases to make sure your fuel burnup rate is on track for the cycle.

The other DS20E's we decomissioned were for plant process monitoring.. thousands of data points and hundreds of calculations performed in real time. Another set of DS20E's was responsible for the whole annunciator system in the main control room -- hundreds of alarms all with real time requirements. The inputs for everything were fed from high speed multiplexers.

The ES40's we had were only over at the simulator system, basically a 1:1 copy of the plant control room where you can run real scenarios to train operators how to respond on the control surfaces. We just ended up using DS20E's over there instead of the ES40's so they just sat unused and powered off for about 20 years 🤣.

Yeh that's sexy, and filling out the empty CPU/PSU bays will have pleased the server gods.
Also pretty cool how you and your friend had the arrangement and just had this sitting waiting for it's time to come, no doubt it would have been scrapped long ago otherwise.

wiretap wrote on 2025-01-12, 01:52:

The ones I manage are for reactor core monitoring. There's separate neutron monitoring instrumentation that feeds into it from a proprietary GE-Hitachi fiber network/protocol that gets converted to the ethernet standard. You can run predictor cases and live data cases to make sure your fuel burnup rate is on track for the cycle.

The other DS20E's we decomissioned were for plant process monitoring.. thousands of data points and hundreds of calculations performed in real time. Another set of DS20E's was responsible for the whole annunciator system in the main control room -- hundreds of alarms all with real time requirements. The inputs for everything were fed from high speed multiplexers.

The ES40's we had were only over at the simulator system, basically a 1:1 copy of the plant control room where you can run real scenarios to train operators how to respond on the control surfaces. We just ended up using DS20E's over there instead of the ES40's so they just sat unused and powered off for about 20 years 🤣.

Man I love these little insights into your work. It's probably a bit of a headache actually working there maintaining all these really old systems with support options drying up, but from us on the outside looking in it's fascinating!