DECing Out the Homelab with an AlphaServer 2100

What happened

Retrocomputer enthusiasts have a bad rap as nerds who just want to play old video games. Servers like the DEC AlphaServer 2100 [derelictelectronics] picked up at Vintage Computer Festival Midwest this year.

DEC did sell these units with multiple-CPU (the general-purpose processor at the centre of a computer) reports from the get-go, but the [derelictronics] particular model has a single CPU board carrying a 64-bit Alpha RISC processor. This machine from 1994 dates to near the height of the RISC wars when it seemed everyone needed to have their own high-end architecture, all of them RISC.

He does get the machine powered on around the 20-minute mark, but doesn’t get to see an operating system. Hopefully he gets it up and running with OpenVMS as promised.

Key facts

• DEC did sell these units with multiple-CPU — reports: from the get-go, but the [derelictronics] particular model has a single CPU board carrying a 64-bit Alpha RISC processor