Update hardware support. Add note on TGA. Remove DEFPA FDDI (it did

not work when I last tried).  Tell people to not spend money on anything
less than EV5 machines.

Approved by: re (blanket)
This commit is contained in:
Wilko Bulte 2005-06-15 19:41:24 +00:00
parent 91c284db80
commit bcdc9124d8
Notes: svn2git 2020-12-20 02:59:44 +00:00
svn path=/head/; revision=147404

View file

@ -256,13 +256,15 @@
improved FPU and 16 kByte on-chip separate I & D caches compared
to the EV4 on which it is based. Rule of thumb: the higher the
digit immediately following <quote>EV</quote> the more desirable
(read: faster / more modern).</para>
(read: faster / more modern). Spending money on anything less than
an EV5 is not recommended. Hardware available for free is a different
matter of course.</para>
<para>For memory you want at least 32 Mbytes. I have had
&os; run on a 16 Mbyte system but you will not enjoy
&os; run on a 16 Mbyte system years ago but you will not enjoy
that. Kernel build times halved when I went to 32 Mbytes. Note that
the SRM console steals 2Mbyte from the total system memory (and keeps
it). For more serious work 64 Mbytes or more are recommended.
it). For more serious work 128 Mbytes or more are recommended.
Although Alpha machines typically can accomodate large to very large
physical memory sizes, &os; is limited to 1 or 2 Gbytes (dependent
on the core chipset) of RAM. This restriction is due to the
@ -2608,8 +2610,6 @@ cpu EV5</programlisting>
beware: the &man.fxp.4; driver is reported not to work correctly
with &os; (although it works excellently on &os;/x86).</para>
<para>DEC DEFPA PCI FDDI network adapters are supported on alpha.</para>
<para>In general the SRM console emulates a VGA-compatibility mode
on PCI VGA cards. This is, however, not guaranteed to work by
Compaq/DEC for each and every card type out there. When the SRM
@ -2619,9 +2619,9 @@ cpu EV5</programlisting>
so that leaves you with 80x25 consoles.</para>
<para>In some Alpha machines you will find video adapters based
on TGA chips. The plain TGA adapter does not emulate VGA and is
therefore not usable for a &os; console. TGA2 cards have a basic
VGA compatibility mode and work fine as &os; consoles.</para>
on TGA chips. TGA support in &os; is not as robust as it should
be. In case of problems it is advisable to try either a
serial console or a plain VGA card.</para>
<para>The <quote>PC standard</quote> serial ports found on most
Alphas are supported.</para>