Jensen system cost Paul Caffrey (caffrey@merry.salem.ge.com) Mon, 23 Oct 1995 22:22:28 -0400 (EDT) The FAQ mentions cheaper systems than the Jensen, I havn't seen any. This is especially true since Jensen systems are becoming available through the used market, I am not recommending that anyone rush out and buy one but I think that these systems bear some investigation. Here are some of my personal experiences and costs for a System. AXP-150 system stripped ( aka. Jensen/2000-300 ) $320 system excludes : disk, vga card and memory. suitable disk ( I had a few handy! ) 500mb $200 16MB RAM ( 16MB is enough for linux ) $600 Total price $1120 I havn't seen even a noname motherboard for that price, the cheapest complete system I have found wants $3200 for a system. Now for some interesting side effects: The 2000-300 / Jensen / AXP-150 system runs OpenVMS but to run X/DecWindows you need 32MB and the documentation calls for a Compaq Qvision 1024E VGA card. This card retails for $450 minimum, but a company in the UK sells a Compaq Qvision 1280/E for 44UK pounds, I ordered one which including shipping came to about $100. The card seems to work fine with OpenVMS. The above system also runs Digital UNIX and NT. Adding all this up I think that these systems make a pretty good deal. Regards Paul Caffrey
Re: Jensen system cost Jon 'maddog' Hall, USG Product Management (hall@zk3.dec.com) Tue, 24 Oct 95 07:41:26 -0400 Paul, The original port of Linux to the Alpha started on the Jensen, because there were quite a few out in the field. However we chose to concentrate on the single board computers for the first release because we felt that they gave the greatest flexibility for the least amount of money over all. It is our hope and intent to see all major Alpha platforms supported by Linux. Your observations on the Jensen are good. One of the reasons why I was interested seeing Linux ported to the Alpha was to create an operating system where older Alpha machines might become useful to a community (particularly an educational/hobbyist community) after the "mainstream" passed them by. The life of the machine is lengthened. This causes the re-sale value to escallate, causing the cost-of-ownership to decrease. The life of the machine is lengthened. A caution on the "suitable disk" and the choice of graphics card with the use of Digital UNIX, however. People buying "PC components" (particularly the graphics card) off the street, then trying to get Digital UNIX to use it may be disappointed if it does not work (due to lack of support) or if (by a miracle it does work), they call up the Digital Support Center and try to get help with a non-supported graphics card. Regards, maddog =============================================================================== Jon "maddog" Hall Senior Leader Mailstop ZK03-2/U15 UNIX Software Group Digital Equipment Corporation Internet: maddog@zk3.dec.com 110 Spit Brook Rd. Voice: 603.881.1341 Nashua, N.H. 03062-2698 Fax: 603.881.6059