[rescue] Appropriate OS for Alpha?

[Chris Petersen]

On Wed, Jul 24, 2002 at 09:18:49AM -0500, Eric Dittman wrote:
> > On 24-Jul-2002 Chris Petersen wrote:
> > > Up until OpenVMS 7.? (I think something like 7.2-3?), the *only*
> > > framebuffers supported in workstations were:
> > > 
> > > ZLXp-E1 (TGA)
> > > PowerStorm 3D30
> > > PowerStorm 4D20
> > 
> > It's not that bad; support for the Gloria Synergy (rechristened Powerstorm
> > 4D10T) was added IIRC in parallel with the release of the XP1000 (99ish), which
> > would be 7.2-1 (might have been 7.2). That's an entirely serviceable 24 bit card
> > (8MB), have it in the XP1000 on my desk running VMS, and since I usually run
> > only 1280x1024 on 21" displays, that's OK.   
> 
> I find the Permedia 2 cards to be quite a bit slower than the
> Powerstorm 4D20.  For the XP1000, the Oxygen VX1 card is
> available and is faster than the Permedia 2.

Agreed.  Last I checked both Tru64 & OpenVMS support the Oxygen VX1 card
now, making it a good bet for an Alpha box running one of those OSes.  Not
sure about Linux/*BSD support for that card.  

The Permedia 2-based cards have always seemed to be dogs, from my experience
in the CAD world.  The Oxygen VX1 is a very competent mid-range 3D buffer. 
We've spec'd it in Win2k CAD workstations for a while at several customers,
although the Nvidia Quadro2 cards are probably a better value at this point
(not that they're alpha supported).

Chris

-- 
Chris Petersen			  E-mail: havoc at apk.net
Systems Engineer, ExperTeam Services, EDS PLM Solutions