Qchem Posted June 3, 2004 Report Share Posted June 3, 2004 At work we've got a few alpha servers, which aren't cutting edge but are still usefull machines. We no longer have a support contract for tru64 unix and so we're stuck with the current OS (we can't get updates) and compiler. The thought that comes to mind is to install Linux and try the compaq compilers, which leaves us with three main options: 1) Stick with tru64 UNIX 2) Move to redhat 7.2 (the last alpha distro they did) - should be easy to install, supported OS for one of the commercial codes we use. Very few updates available, dead product line. 3) Move to gentoo Linux. Not sure how well the compaq Fortran compiler will work, how the alphas will play with a "modern" OS (kernel 2.6 etc). I'd like to hear anyones thoughts on these options and what they think should be done (no "donate the machine to me" posts), so please post away. NOTE. I know theres a debian alpha port but I'm not keen on installing that - I'd rather have gentoo than debian. [moved from Offtopic by spinynorman] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted June 3, 2004 Report Share Posted June 3, 2004 hard one there ..... Whats up with debian ??? personally it'd be my choice for work unless the support contract is necassary. Im just guessing but Gentoo you would be on your own a bit more. You COULD do RH and source RPM but ... why not gentoo then! Im currently having a lot of hassle with AMD64 and the 10 cooker version and if that's exotic then the DEC's will be even more so. I can't believe they are financially viable really. I just got me AMD64 for about £600 (excluding disk and optical) and thats not a lot in work terms considering things like the PSU's might give out etc. (sorry :woops: ) A single 3Ghz AMD64 is going to trash em from a processing POV but the main issue for work will be support? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qchem Posted June 3, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 3, 2004 I can't believe they are financially viable really.I just got me AMD64 for about £600 (excluding disk and optical) and thats not a lot in work terms considering things like the PSU's might give out etc. We're an academic institution - we can't really afford to replace them, even with a reasonably cheap AMD64 system. We'd also need to fork out for decent compiler licences for AMD too. We are looking at getting AMD64 systems at some point (when the money is available) but we'll be looking for machines with about 4GB of mem and about 200 GB of 15x SCSI storage. I don't think you get many of those to the £600 :D Thanks for the input though, its appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted June 3, 2004 Report Share Posted June 3, 2004 Unless the gnu fortran is good enough ; its 10E4 times more expensive then the 3F4.3 A10 ...... ahhhhhhhh cant beleive I still remember fortran formaitting codes !!!!!!!!!!!! I was really thinking about the cost of the licenses including OS comparted to the priice of a single new machine doing the job of 10 not to mention pice of memory etc. for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qchem Posted June 3, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 3, 2004 Unless the gnu fortran is good enough thats a good one!!! Whilst gnu c and cpp are great, the Fortran implementation is horrible! The alphas are really quite nice machines and I'm really glad I've got this chance to tinker with them. I can't wait to get my hands on an AMD64 and/or a g5 either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlc Posted June 6, 2004 Report Share Posted June 6, 2004 I would look at Gentoo or Debian, personally i don't care for Debian all that much so i would go with Gentoo. You might check out this forum and see how much Alpha stuff you see. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewforum.php?f=32 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qchem Posted June 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2004 Thanks cybrjackle, that forum looks useful. B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qchem Posted June 9, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2004 I decided to go for gentoo, its in the process of emerge system now. Fingers crossed... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted June 9, 2004 Report Share Posted June 9, 2004 Funnily enougfh I just decided to try gentoo on my AMD64... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qchem Posted June 9, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2004 Lets race 'em..... :D Let me know how that sucker performs (you did get a shuttle right?), I'm thinking of getting something similar for my Dad (and for me to play with B) ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted June 9, 2004 Report Share Posted June 9, 2004 Yep, its the AMD 64 one.... 1GB RAM Im not at home at the moment since Im stopping at a friends place looking after their cat! Ill do the build when I get back! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qchem Posted June 9, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2004 I'll eagerly await your return.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlc Posted June 9, 2004 Report Share Posted June 9, 2004 Let me know how fast that 64 does a stage 1, i'm timeing! My dual Xeon 2.8 completed in 40 minutes. I debated between amd64/xeon but after looking at some multimedia benchmarks decided to go with the xeon's. Qchem, just an fyi. NetBSD also handles alpha if you want to go that route. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted June 9, 2004 Report Share Posted June 9, 2004 Hmm - exotic.. NETBSD .... I guess you pushed me into stage 1 then ... I was planning on a stage 3 becuase I cant see the point... i.e. its optimised for AMD64, its not like Ill be running 686 or K7 optimised for 586... Im not sure what USE and other make stuff to setup at the moment so I was planning on the easiest build but I guess a AMD64 3000 should be about double that 40 mins since its single processor.... btw what value for j ?? (I havnt a clue for 64 bit) Any advice on values to use in the Gentoo build if I do a stage 1 would be gratefully received! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlc Posted June 9, 2004 Report Share Posted June 9, 2004 (edited) This link might help you out. gcc 3.4 & gentoo 2004.1 on amd64 CFLAGS they used: -O2 -march=k8 -fomit-frame-pointer -momit-leaf-frame-pointer -fweb -frename-registers -pipe" MAKEOPTS="-j2" Since you only have one proc, but if you use "distcc" add 1 for every box. Edited June 9, 2004 by cybrjackle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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