Compaq AlphaServer/AlphaStation DS10
Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2025 8:52 pm
A thread of (ir)relevant things surrounding the DEC/Compaq/HP AlphaServer and AlphaStation DS10 machines. Also branded as AlphaStation XP900 and AlphaServer/AlphaStation VS10 due to some weird marketing shenanigans.
To Be Filled By O.E.M.
The Specification Things:
CPU: Alpha 21264 64-bit - Tsunami EV67 @ 616MHz (codename WebBrick)
Chipset: 21272 Tsunami (co-based on x86 Ali chipsets) + Ali Aladdin ATA-33 M5229 IDE controller + AcerLabs M1533 PCI-ISA bridge
RAM: up to 2GB
GPU: rare Compaq PowerStorm 350 32MB 3D accelerator (or a regular S3 Trio64 is also applicable)
Expansion slots: 3x 64bit PCI-X slots, 1x 32bit PCI slot, 2x undocumented ISA slots
Ports: 2x DIGITAL DE500b FE (21143 Tulip) NICs, 2x USB ports @ AcerLabs Aladdin-V M5237 USB controller, 2x COM ports, LPT parallel port, PS/2 for mouse and keyboard
The Chronological Things:
2.7.2025 - Found a guy locally selling Alpha hardware, went to take a look.
2.7.2025 - Bought two AlphaServers and two AlphaStations from said person.
2.10.2025 - ByteFEST 2025 - took one of the Alphas to ByteFEST, tried a bunch of stuff with Leandro, nearly managed to install Windows NT 4.0
31.12.2025 - experiments with Windows 2000 5.00.2128 and Windows Whistler 2001 5.00.2210
The Word Things:
The machine differences between the AlphaServers and AlphaStations are purely cosmetic and all of them report themselves as AlphaServer DS10 consistently.
USB related:
The USB ports are disabled in-firmware in SRM with no way of accessing them, neither from UNIX environments, nor from Windows NT
AlphaBIOS integrated USB switch doesn't change anything?
Solutions down below a few posts, it's obvious.
Windows NT related:
Sound problems (ES1370 works only in the first - top most PCI slot, albeit with IRQ conflicts, to be researched more)
Lack of ISA slots for more possible sound cards
No support for SCSI booting and general issues with some stuff overall
NTFS issues?
AlphaBIOS SCSI/IDE related:
Drive size 33GB limit? There are release notes that mention bigger support but it doesn't seem to be the case?
Also make sure you have a 512b sector size on the drive and that AlphaBIOS doesn't say ***Off-Line*** on the said disk otherwise you won't be able to use it.
To Be Filled By O.E.M.
The Specification Things:
CPU: Alpha 21264 64-bit - Tsunami EV67 @ 616MHz (codename WebBrick)
Chipset: 21272 Tsunami (co-based on x86 Ali chipsets) + Ali Aladdin ATA-33 M5229 IDE controller + AcerLabs M1533 PCI-ISA bridge
RAM: up to 2GB
GPU: rare Compaq PowerStorm 350 32MB 3D accelerator (or a regular S3 Trio64 is also applicable)
Expansion slots: 3x 64bit PCI-X slots, 1x 32bit PCI slot, 2x undocumented ISA slots
Ports: 2x DIGITAL DE500b FE (21143 Tulip) NICs, 2x USB ports @ AcerLabs Aladdin-V M5237 USB controller, 2x COM ports, LPT parallel port, PS/2 for mouse and keyboard
The Chronological Things:
2.7.2025 - Found a guy locally selling Alpha hardware, went to take a look.
2.7.2025 - Bought two AlphaServers and two AlphaStations from said person.
2.10.2025 - ByteFEST 2025 - took one of the Alphas to ByteFEST, tried a bunch of stuff with Leandro, nearly managed to install Windows NT 4.0
31.12.2025 - experiments with Windows 2000 5.00.2128 and Windows Whistler 2001 5.00.2210
The Word Things:
The machine differences between the AlphaServers and AlphaStations are purely cosmetic and all of them report themselves as AlphaServer DS10 consistently.
USB related:
The USB ports are disabled in-firmware in SRM with no way of accessing them, neither from UNIX environments, nor from Windows NT
AlphaBIOS integrated USB switch doesn't change anything?
Solutions down below a few posts, it's obvious.
Windows NT related:
Sound problems (ES1370 works only in the first - top most PCI slot, albeit with IRQ conflicts, to be researched more)
Lack of ISA slots for more possible sound cards
No support for SCSI booting and general issues with some stuff overall
NTFS issues?
AlphaBIOS SCSI/IDE related:
Drive size 33GB limit? There are release notes that mention bigger support but it doesn't seem to be the case?
Also make sure you have a 512b sector size on the drive and that AlphaBIOS doesn't say ***Off-Line*** on the said disk otherwise you won't be able to use it.