AlphaServers

[Peter Coghlan]

>
> When my 1000 started failing, the manual lead me to believe it was b-cache,
> but the jumper map wound up to be wrong,
>

There are a number of variants and the manuals are extremely unclear.

>
> it was actually failed RAM.
>

I forgot.  I had that too.  The firmware is supposed to specify which bank
and SIMM is faulty.  Another reason to not love these machines:

If SIMM 0 has failed, the firmware reports a failure in SIMM 0.
If SIMM 1 has failed, the firmware reports a failure in SIMM 1.
If SIMM 2 has failed, the firmware reports a failure in SIMM 3.
If SIMM 3 has failed, the firmware reports a failure in SIMM 3.

>
> Even knowing that, I’m not sure I want to
> invest hundreds in new RAM for a machine whose b-cache is known to be a
> ticking time bomb. (1000s and 1000As have notoriously unreliable b-cache)
>

I might be willing to swap my AS1000A RAM (some of which may be faulty and
I probably can't test it unless I can resurrect one of my machines briefly)
for memory for a PWS 500, Alphaserver 2100 or an Alphaserver 800.

Regards,
Peter Coghlan.