Linux 6.10 To Drop Support For Very Old DEC Alpha Hardware

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Linux 6.10 To Drop Support For Very Old DEC Alpha Hardware

The Linux 6.10 kernel is poised to remove support for old DEC Alpha EV5 platforms and earlier...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.10-Drop-Old-DEC-Alpha

[torsionbar28]

Have a Compaq XP1000 (EV67) in the basement, but I've always wanted a Multia. The Alpha version of course, not the Pentium. For while, folks couldn't give them away. Then it seems like overnight they went extinct. I haven't seen one for sale in years. Serious question, if anyone here has a working DEC Multia in good condition, I'm interested to buy it! Guess I won't be running kernel 6.10 on it though, lol.

[8-bit memories]

Have a Compaq XP1000 (EV67) in the basement, but I've always wanted a Multia. The Alpha version of course, not the Pentium. For while, folks couldn't give them away. Then it seems like overnight they went extinct. I haven't seen one for sale in years. Serious question, if anyone here has a working DEC Multia in good condition, I'm interested to buy it! Guess I won't be running kernel 6.10 on it though, lol.

Of course it runs NetBSD: https://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/alpha/

Back when I wanted an Apollo workstation, that was my option. Never did acquire the hardware.

[Redfoxmoon]

Have a Compaq XP1000 (EV67) in the basement, but I've always wanted a Multia. The Alpha version of course, not the Pentium. For while, folks couldn't give them away. Then it seems like overnight they went extinct. I haven't seen one for sale in years. Serious question, if anyone here has a working DEC Multia in good condition, I'm interested to buy it! Guess I won't be running kernel 6.10 on it though, lol.

Its pretty regional whether or not you'll find ones for sale, but as with all old things scalpers have gotten to a lot of it.

[bug77]

For those that do not remember, EV6 was the bus that made Athlon great. AMD got those bits when Digital (sadly) went under: https://www.anandtech.com/show/355/6

[uid313]

Just drop all DEC Alpha code from the kernel. We don't need it, I don't think anyone use it.
Drop other old architectures too.

[Dawn]

Just drop all DEC Alpha code from the kernel. We don't need it, I don't think anyone use it.
Drop other old architectures too.

Which ones, pray tell, and for what reason?

[jabl]

Just drop all DEC Alpha code from the kernel. We don't need it, I don't think anyone use it.
Drop other old architectures too.

The way it works in the Linux kernel world is that if there's somebody willing to maintain a piece of code and it doesn't cause an undue burden on the rest of the kernel, it can stay.

The corollary to that is that if I want some long obsolete architecture to be supported by the kernel, I'm not entitled to kernel developers keeping it alive. If nobody, including me, wants to maintain it, away it goes. Talk the talk, walk the walk.

Wrt Alpha specifically, at least back in the day the people doing core concurrency work used it as a kind of least common denominator test target, as Alpha has the craziest relaxed memory consistency model out there. Not sure if that's still relevant today, but anyway, somebody still seems willing to maintain it. No skin off my nose, good for them.

[pegasus]

At one point in time I had a jensen machine with dual eisa cards in my basement as a firewall. Worked fine until I decided that it's a bit too power hungry for this simple task. It was a very nice machine, have fond memories of it.

[willmore]

At least my Personal Workstation with a 21164A will make it another kernel version.