Mini-Mainframe at Home: A 6-CPU Server from 1997

#1

Post by stargrave » Thu, May 14, 2020, 9:16 AM UTC

Mini-Mainframe at Home: A 6-CPU Server from 1997
cpushack.com

Re: Mini-Mainframe at Home: A 6-CPU Server from 1997

#2

Post by teddyh » Thu, May 14, 2020, 2:48 PM UTC

Probably not vulnerable to Spectre/Meltdown either.

Re: Mini-Mainframe at Home: A 6-CPU Server from 1997

#3

Post by greendave » Thu, May 14, 2020, 3:06 PM UTC

I was wondering why it had 6 CPUs (as opposed e.g. to 8). Seems that ALR did some clever engineering to work around a limitation in the chipset which was only designed for 4.

> 6x6 is based on the same 450GX chip set (previously known as Orion) as competitors' four-CPU offerings. The reason everyone else is shipping four-CPU systems is the chip set's 2-bit CPU addressing scheme -- allowing for four-CPU IDs. What ALR has done is implement two sets of three CPUs, where the missing fourth CPU in each set is actually a stand-in for the other entire group. The Pentium Pro's round-robin multitasking approach is preserved, and the four-CPU limit is broken.

[1] http://www.sandyflat.net/digerati/gatewayalr9000/infoworld%2...

Re: Mini-Mainframe at Home: A 6-CPU Server from 1997

#4

Post by blattimwind » Thu, May 14, 2020, 3:14 PM UTC

teddyh wrote: post #2

Probably not vulnerable to Spectre/Meltdown either.

Uses Pentium Pros -- the first Intel CPUs to be vulnerable.

Re: Mini-Mainframe at Home: A 6-CPU Server from 1997

#5

Post by bitwize » Thu, May 14, 2020, 3:48 PM UTC

ALR!!! I hadn't heard that name in eons. Didn't even know they were still extant in 1997. Back in the late 80s and early 90s, they were selling some of the beefiest professional-grade x86 hardware -- workstations and servers -- around. They were among the first (besides Compaq) to ship 386 and 486 hardware and early on the EISA bandwagon too.

Re: Mini-Mainframe at Home: A 6-CPU Server from 1997

#6

Post by svth » Thu, May 14, 2020, 4:55 PM UTC

Cool, but why the hell would you want to install Windows Vista on it?

Re: Mini-Mainframe at Home: A 6-CPU Server from 1997

#7

Post by icedchai » Thu, May 14, 2020, 5:03 PM UTC

I remember seeing ads for these in an old Byte magazine. ALR had some high end stuff...

Re: Mini-Mainframe at Home: A 6-CPU Server from 1997

#8

Post by taborj » Thu, May 14, 2020, 5:13 PM UTC

When one of my employers closed our site and merged operations with our Chicago office at the end of 2001, we were left with surplus equipment. Nobody wanted about 4 giant quad-PPro servers, so I took them. I never did anything with them and honestly don't remember who made them..we were mainly an HP shop, so maybe? They sat on rollers on the floor, and came up to about the bottom of a desktop, and were square boxes maybe 2 ft on a side. I think they may still be holding up a table at my father's office...

Re: Mini-Mainframe at Home: A 6-CPU Server from 1997

#9

Post by laxd » Thu, May 14, 2020, 5:16 PM UTC

I'm shure alot of you have seen this already. If not, it's an entertaining 45 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45X4VP8CGtk (Here's What Happens When an 18 Year Old Buys a Mainframe)

Re: Mini-Mainframe at Home: A 6-CPU Server from 1997

#10

Post by dfox » Thu, May 14, 2020, 5:28 PM UTC

greendave wrote: post #3

I was wondering why it had 6 CPUs (as opposed e.g. to 8). Seems that ALR did some clever engineering to work around a limitation in the chipset which was only designed for 4. > 6x6 is based on the same 450GX chip set (previously known as Orion) as competitors' four-CPU offerings. The reason everyone else is shipping four-CPU systems is the chip set's 2-bit CPU addressing scheme -- allowing for four-CPU IDs. What ALR…

Of historical note is that more than 8 socket Opteron servers were implemented in similar way. There was an chip (IIRC called AMD Horus) that contained two HyperTransport/CoherentLink controllers connected back to back.