On Wednesday 08 August 2007, Jacob Yocom-Piatt wrote: > jc, > > now that i have a bit of "hobby" funds, i am accumulating other > architectures that run openbsd and am interested in having an hppa > machine. got any advice on a good one to acquire? leads on where to > acquire them and for how much would also be welcome since they don't > exactly pop up all over the place when googling. > > best regards, > jake
Hi Jake, Mark Kettenis is a better person to ask and I've cc'd him. Also, folks on the lists might be curious about the same thing (I hope you don't mind, and yes, like an idiot I previously posted my own off-list message to the lists). None the less, you're query is missing necessary details, namely your system/location requirements and acceptable cost level. Some PARISC machines are extremely expensive. The one machine that I actually have in use is my C3600, mainly because it's in a usable location and already setup. The C35xx, C36xx and C37xx systems are great general-purpose workstations. The bigger dual processor systems of the J5xxx J6xxx and J7xxx classes are humongous beasts. Just the shipping costs for getting the J5000 to Theo was a few hundred dollars, similarly my J5600 sits unused on a low shelf these days mainly because I have no way to move it with my hands as messed up as they are. There's also a difference between what is great PARISC hardware, and what hardware actually has software support (outside of HPUX). For example, the C8000 is a beautiful and powerful piece of hardware but you must run HPUX. I'd love to find a C8000 loaded to the gills, but then what would I do with it? -In my case, namely hardware design/layout with commercial tools, Cadence has dropped support for PARISC/HPUX. Logically speaking, I supposedly don't *NEED* the best PARISC workstation to do support testing with legacy code/systems. Even if I had the room in my garage and the hands to work on it, I could not justify the cost of getting one of the really bad-ass PARISC boxes. Another issue (particularly with OpenBSD) is 64bit support, multi-core support, and of course, multi-processor support. Whether or not it actually matters depends on your uses/application. At the moment, I have the following PARISC systems here: 700 Apollo 715/100 715/100XC C110 (2) C240 C3600 J5600 I believe I also still have the original "snake" here as well (the first PARISC box) but if it's here, then buried under other systems in the stacks. If it's not here, then I think I either sent it to mickey@ or possibly I sold it... -it was a very old and interesting machine. The sad part is I'm currently not allowed to lift anything over 5 pounds (2KG) and that's a recent improvement over a few months ago when I could not even hold a book. Moving systems from the stacks to the work bench is just not possible. -And yes, miod@ (correctly and politely) laughed at me for not keeping everything in a usable configuration when he saw the pictures. The best place for most people to find good parisc machines is ebay but if you're lucky enough to have a reseller warehouse in your local area you can usually find better deals with them. The silicon valley has tons of resellers that deal with used gear, and often you can find amazing deals particularly if you buy in bulk. My original message was supposed to be off-list but I'm an idiot more often than I'd like to admit. My reasoning is simple: if I send a thank-you gift to a developer or to the project (a.k.a "donation") it's nobody's business but my own. -Why the heck people insist on being listed as a "donor" for merely (and correctly) showing their appreciation is just weird. I could rant, but I won't. Anyhow, if you really want to play with PARISC (or any particular hardware), the very best thing you can do is check out the wanted hardware list and privately talk to developers who are interested. http://www.openbsd.org/want.html If you find something cool, buy at least two (hopefully more), keep one for yourself and send the rest off to the guys who write the code you use. -It's the one of the best ways to really say "thank you" to the people doing all the work. Lastly, keep in mind that our fearless developers live all over the world and often hardware that has a trivial cost in your location may be hellishly expensive in other places around the world. Often it's cheaper to buy something in Country "X" and ship it to Country "Y" than it is to just send the money. Yes, it's more of a pain in the ass but when you can't code your way out of a wet paper bag, doing the trivial, mindless yet important work is a good way to show your thanks and give your support. kind regards, jcr
