The DP264 series includes the DS20 (DP264 OEM version), DS20E, ES40, DS10, XP1000, XP900 and UP2000 based systems. When compiling a kernel all of the machine require either a generic of DP264 specific kernel.

SRM should be used to boot the DP264 series. There is a MILO for these machines however it is not very reliable.

DS20, DS20E and DP264

The Goldrush (DS20 and DP264) systems are a EV6 or EV67 (21264, 21264a) based system with 1 or 2 CPUs on daughter cards, 2 PCI buses and support up to 4Gig of RAM. The DS20 is officially supported from Compaq as a Linux box. Kernels 2.2.1 and later have support and can be compiled as DP264 or generic.

The GoldRack (DS20E) is either a workstation or rack mount version of the DS20.

• Compaq DS20 home page
• Alpha-Processor's 264DP motherboard
• Compaq DS20E home page

UP2000, UP2000+

The Swordfish is the first motherboard to come out of Alpha Processor Inc. in Concord Mass. The UP2000 is a uni or dual processor motherboard based around the Tsunami chipset though four of the C Chips have been removed so it only has one 256bit memory bus instead of two. This is also the first motherboard to use API's Slot B processor cartridge. Current configurations range from a 667MHz 2MB version up to a 750MHz 8MB version.

This motherboard was used to demonstrate the worlds first 1GHz chip running at room temperature at PCExpo in June 1999. Resources:

• Alpha Processor Inc. home page
• UP2000/UP2000+ home page

XP1000

The Monet/Brisbane is the last of the purpose built Alpha workstations to come out of Digital/Compaq. From now on all workstation will be derived from server products. The systems have a 4MB cache and support up to 2Gig of memory.

The Monet is a single 500MHz workstation, Brisbane is the 667MHz version.

CompaqXP1000 homepage.

DS10, XP900

The DS10 (webbrick) is based on a 466MHz EV6 with 2MB cache. The processor is soldered to the board (unlike the DS20 daughter cards) and it not upgradeable. They also make use of the ALI IDE controller instead of the Cypress present in the DS20 series. Also available is the DS10L (slate) which is a 1U rackmount version, both of these are now available with a 600MHz CPU.

CompaqDS10 homepage. CompaqDS10L homepage

The XP900 is a workstation version of the DS10 aimed at the OpenVMS market.

CompaqXP900 homepage.

ES40 The clipper is the high end of the Tsunami series. It supports up to 4 500MHz processors with up to 16Gig of memory.

Compaq ES40 homepage.

Note: The kernel with RedHat 5.2 for the DP264 is broken in respect to cards with builtin PCI-PCI bridges (Ex: IntraServer cards that have 2 SCSI plus Ethernet behind a bridge). If you are using one of these cards then use one of the images below.

Kernel Images
• Generic UP Image
• Generic SMP Image

Hints and Tips for the DS20/DP264:

1) Large memory configurations

At the time of writing, the maximum memory capacity of any Alpha machine running Linux is 2GB. Putting any more memory than this into your DP264 will result in a spectacular boot-time crash

2) The SRM console must have the variable os_type=vms when using the system with larger memory configurations. The OSF (Digital Unix) PALcode would cause problems which are cured by booting from the VMS PALcode. The correct PALcode is then installed by aboot.

3) SCSI cards, video cards and PCI buses.

Video cards must be put onto PCI bus 0.

In early revisions of the DP264, the system would not work with an Adaptec 2940UW SCSI card on PCI bus 0. In general, there is a performance hit when any SCSI card is put onto the same PCI bus as the video card. Put your SCSI card onto bus 1.

4) Non-generic kernel builds

Kernels up to and including 2.2.9 can not be built as anything other than generic kernels, due to a bug in the initialization procedure. Don't build them specifically for the DP264.