Best thing you can do with a #DEC #AlphaStation 255: play #Quake 2 on it. 😂

#RetroGaming #RetroComputing #AXP #digital

Going to upgrade my #AlphaStation 255/300 today with more RAM (256 -> 512 MB) and a nice #ELSA Synergy-8 graphics card based on the #Permedia 2. Quake 2 should really fly with that configuration.

#DEC #digital #AXP #Alpha #RetroComputing

Addition to the Lair :)

#retrocomputing #dec #alphastation #risc

Hätte hier noch eine letzte #DEC #AlphaStation 255 rumstehen, die einen neuen Besitzer sucht. Für Bastler, da höchstwahrscheinlich defekt.

AlphaStation 255, 300 MHz
256 MB RAM
CD-ROM-Laufwerk
KEINE Festplatte, KEINE Grafikkarte

System lässt sich einschalten, tut aber rein gar nichts (auch nach längerer Zeit kein Piepston aus dem Speaker). Netzteil und CPU sind getestet und ok. Mehr Zeit hab ich aber dann auch nicht investiert.

Gehäuse ist "ok". Viele Kratzer und Rückstände von Aufklebern.

Gebe die hier über Mastodon für 150€ ab. Allerdings nur Abholung.

#Verkauf #RetroComputing #digital #AXP

The #digital #AlphaStation 500 is almost done now. All parts minus the PSU are reassembled. That thing is quite a beast. 🥳

Not sure how long it will take to fix the PSU. May not look into it immediately.

#DEC #AXP #Alpha #RetroComputing

For quite some time, I had no time to work on any #retrocomputing related stuff. Now I'm trying to catch up. Yesterday, I finally fixed the mainboard of the #digital #AlphaStation 500. Had to replace two shorted tantalum caps as well as one thyristor that blew due to the high current from the shorted caps.

Next is fixing the PSU...

#DEC #Alpha #AXP

Weiß jemand, ob man eine #3Dlabs Oxygen VX1 Grafikkarte unter Windows NT 4.0 in einer #digital #AlphaStation 255 verwenden kann? Und falls ja, macht das Sinn oder gibt es nichts brauchbares, was man damit laufen lassen könnte?

#DEC #RetroComputing

Nice surprise: the CPU is the 500 MHz 21164 variant. I thought it was only 400 MHz - didn't even know they made an #AlphaStation 500 with 500 MHz. 🙂

ps: also found the two shorted tantalums already. Hope this will be an easy fix.

#DEC #digital #AXP #RetroComputing

The main logic board from a #DEC #AlphaStation 500. You know what to expect when even the external cache needs a fan. 🥳

Sadly, this thing did throw sparks on me on first power-up. Guess I have to find those shorted tantalums...

#digital #Alpha #AXP #RetroComputing

Now I need to think about what the heck I'm using this thing for. 😅 Is there any interesting native Alpha software for NT that can showcase the performance and/or usefulness of it?

#DEC #AlphaStation #AXP #digital #Alpha #RetroComputing

It's done, btw. Next ones all require some sort of repair.

#DEC #AlphaStation #AXP #digital #RetroComputing

Finally, the first #DEC #AlphaStation 255 is almost restored. Way more work than anticipated... Was quite shocked what a cheap mess the PSU in these things are. Stuff is held in place only by rivets and bend tabs; trying to remove the fan connector for cleaning ripped out the whole socket from the pcb due to very poor soldering... Anyway, the PSU is clean now and only needs reassembling. After that, I can reinstall the CD-ROM drive and the system is finished. 🙂

#digital #RetroComputing #Alpha #AXP

For your viewing pleasure: the mainboard from a #digital #AlphaStation 255 and the beautiful 300 MHz Alpha 21064 CPU.

#RetroComputing #DEC #RISC #AXP

Now cleaning the case parts. The front drive doors all look nice except for one, which has tons of scratches from someone in the past trying to remove a large label. But I assume at least one #AlphaStation will be a parts-only machine anyway. So getting four good-looking ones is sufficient. 🙂

#RetroComputing #DEC #digital #Alpha #AXP

Great, all four cards are working perfectly. 🙂

With the AlphaStations, I also got two spare 9.1 GB hard disks. Tested them and both booted right into Windows NT 4.0 SP5. Saves me quite a bit of work. 🥳

btw, speed is phenomenal. You are on the desktop in about 30 seconds after POST is complete. And it feels very snappy.

#DEC #digital #Alpha #AlphaStation #AXP #RetroComputing

The PowerStorm 3D (2 MB) and PowerStorm 4D (16 MB) graphics cards taken from the various #digital #AlphaStation models that I've got - ready for individual testing. 🙂

btw, the silver IBM chip does 3D acceleration.

#DEC #RetroComputing

🌘 JP 的網站：AlphaStation 的 SROM
➤ 探究 90 年代 RISC 工作站的啟動奧祕
✤ https://thejpster.org.uk/blog/blog-2025-03-30/
這篇文章記錄了作者嘗試修復一臺 1996 年的 Digital AlphaStation 500 工作站的過程。由於機器無法正常啟動，作者專注於研究其啟動過程，特別是 Serial ROM (SROM) 的工作原理。作者成功地從 SROM 晶片中提取了原始數據，並嘗試解碼和重建可執行代碼，希望能理解並修復這臺老舊的電腦。過程中，作者分享了他們在解碼過程中遇到的挑戰，例如位元排列和快取線格式，並使用了 Python 和 Rust 編寫的程式來協助分析。
+ 哇，這真是一篇技術含量很高的文章！作者對老電腦硬體的瞭解真是令人佩服。
+ 雖然我不懂這些技術細節，但我很喜歡這種對古老科技的探索精神，希望能看到作者成功修復這臺 AlphaStation。
#電腦硬體 #懷舊科技 #AlphaStation #SROM #韌體 #逆向工程

Took some trial and error but I managed to get current Gentoo with MATE running on my AlphaStation DS15. R100 seems to be making the graphics performance terrible. But it works.

#retrocomputing #alphastation

@stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe respect #AlphaStation #DEC

Findings at my parents' house, part 3: Two AlphaStations.
They have SCSI disks of different sizes, and the last time I turned them on (2008), they were working perfectly.
They heated the room wonderfully, and the fans were strong enough to move the pictures on the wall 😆
I haven't turned them on again, but they should still have NetBSD installed.

#BlastFromPast #BlastFromThePast #NetBSD #AlphaStation #DEC #Alpha #RetroComputing