5. What Systems Does Linux/Alpha Run On?

Right now, you have the following choices:

Avanti (aka AlphaStation 200): Linux has seen the light on an AlphaStation 200/4 233. As there is now support for TGA graphics card, it should be possible to boot Linux on this machine directly (i.e., without terminal and/or VGA compatible card). However, this has not been tested yet, so you may need a good portion of adventure spirit if you want to try this. For more information on TGA support, refer to the Multia information below.
Noname (aka AXPpci33): This is a PCI-bus based motherboards using the 21066 Alpha CPU (Low-Cost Alpha). The core of the 21066 is the same as the 21064. The only difference is that the 21066 also has a memory and I/O controller integrated into the chip (which has the effect that the external interface is much simpler and therefore much cheaper).
Cabriolet (aka AlphaPC64): This is a PCI-bus based motherboards using the 21064 Alpha CPU. It is a higher-end board compared to the Noname and, consequently, more pricey.
EB* : Digital sells Alpha evaluation boards (e.g., EB66, EB64, etc.). Reportedly, Linux/Alpha may run on some of these. But they are relatively pricey and, given that they are evaluation boards, they may have other baggage that a normal user would never want.
Jensen: This is the EISA-bus based AlphaPC---you can now get faster machines for less money, so unless you have one already, you probably don't want to get one). As far as I know, you can buy it as a completely system only. It uses the 21064 Alpha CPU.
Multia : Yes, it's true! Thanks to the relentless efforts of Jay Estabrook, Linux/Alpha now also runs on the Multia. And best of all, it even supports the builtin TGA graphics and sound cards! There is no TGA X server yet, but if you plug in an S3 based video card, you could run the existing Linux/Alpha S3 server right away. The necessary kernel patches are not in the regular kernel sources yet, but should appear there soon. In the meantime, feel free to check the Linux/Alpha mailing list archive for the Multia patches or ask for them there, if you can't find them.

Similarly, EV5-based AlphaStations (21164 CPU) most definitely won't work with the current code and may require significant hacking.

Linux/Alpha is unlikely to support the TURBOchannel-based Alpha systems in the near future (this is the DEC 3000 series of workstations). I think the reason for this is two-fold: first, these machines have an I/O system that is very different from PCI-based machines and therefore do not look anything like PCs (e.g., pretty much all drivers would have to be written from scratch). Second, with the advent of PCI, the TURBOchannel is pretty much dead technology (for better or worse) and it just isn't all that much fun to develop software for dead technology (on the other hand, it may soon be possible to buy such systems cheaply, which would make them more interesting to Linux users, I suppose).

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