HP OpenVMS Hobbyist
Conceived at Digital Equipment Corporation in 1975, announced in 1977 and first shipped in 1978, HP OpenVMS is one of the classic enterprise operating systems, with new releases available today. OpenVMS sees wide use in hospitals, banking, and other installations and industries that cannot tolerate downtime, whether due to software or hardware failures, or power outages, fires, floods or storms.
The hardware classically found with OpenVMS includes the well-known VAX and Alpha systems, and systems based on Intel Itanium 2 processors. The three operating system ports associated with these platforms are OpenVMS VAX, OpenVMS Alpha and OpenVMS I64, for VAX, Alpha and Integrity Intel Itanium systems, respectively.
Three production releases of OpenVMS have shipped for Intel Itanium systems, OpenVMS I64 V8.2, V8.2-1 and V8.3, and a number of releases have shipped for Alpha and VAX platforms. V8.3 is the current OpenVMS Alpha release, and V7.3 is the current OpenVMS VAX release. HP has discussed a future OpenVMS hardware release V8.3-1H1 (2007H2) and a future mainline release V8.4 (2008).
With the commodity-level Integrity Itanium processors, HP US list prices for Integrity platforms start well under US$4000 for (new) full system configurations (and a few recent specials have been seen priced as low as US$2000, as part of a porting-related training program), a considerable savings over previous entry-level VAX and Alpha hardware, and comparable to even used VAX and Alpha hardware.
Also available in 2006 is the AlphaServer GS1280, a seriously fast symmetric multiprocessor computing platform, an Alpha system that (for the hobbyist without budgetary constraints) makes for one amazing-fast hobbyist computer.
Hobbyist OpenVMS
Free OpenVMS Hobbyist licenses are available for VAX, Alpha and (soon) Integrity Itanium (I64) systems, and a separate set of licenses are available for the core OpenVMS layered products and tools.
Please check the OpenVMS Hobbyist web site for the most current information, and the most current media distribution kits; the current Hobbyist CD distribution of OpenVMS and of core tools (including core compilers and various layered products) costs approximately US$30. (Also see the discussion of VAX systems and CD installations.)
When you acquire the Hobbyist license Product Authorization Keys (PAKs) for OpenVMS, remember that you will require a set of license PAKs for the base hardware platform, and a second set of PAKs for the layered products and tools; you will need to register for, acquire, download and load two sets of PAKs for your platform.
Choosing a Platform
To boot and run OpenVMS, you will first need to acquire hardware, or a hardware emulator.
The most common hardware choices of hobbyists are VAX or Alpha workstations, typically known as VAXstation or AlphaStation series systems. Software emulators are also available for VAX environments, and Alpha emulation is recently available.
With prices on new and used Intel Itanium, Alpha and VAX systems continuing to drop, many hobbyists can afford access to new or used hardware, and to enterprise operating system platforms.
Some might choose smaller platforms, such as the comparatively recent-generation HP Integrity rx2600-class or zx6000 Itanium series systems, or used AlphaStation XP1000 or AlphaServer DS10.
A few intrepid OpenVMS Hobbyists have gone as far as acquiring comparatively massive and power-hungry refrigerator-sized Alpha or VAX systems; what were originally intended as enterprise-class hardware configurations.
Rule of thumb: if the VAX or Alpha system marketing model is above 5000 or if the Integrity server (rx-series) system marketing model number is above rx4000, and for a number of systems with model numbers 4000 and upwards, you'll usually need to invest in a serious electrical power connection, and serious cooling, and considerable help in moving the cabinet(s) around. Some of the boxes in the various 4000 series are so-called departmental servers and are correspondingly larger, too, and even the MicroVAX II series can be rack-mounted in large cabinets. The AlphaServer 4000 and AlphaServer 4100, and the Integrity rx4640 series, are relatively larger boxes. The quad-core rx3600 is on the larger end of a hobbyist system, and a pedestal option has been announced by HP, predicted availability circa 2006Q4. The VAX 4000 model 100 box isn't a large box.
Of course, you could also acquire a new and used system configuration based on Intel IA-32e (EM64T) or AMD Athlon 64 series (AMD64) processor(s), but where's the fun in running an operating system on that?
Hardware or Hardware Emulation?
Hardware has its advantages for hobbyists, and VAX and even fairly recent Alpha systems are readily available on the surplus equipment market. Prices on new and used low-end HP Integrity hardware are also within reach of some hobbyists, as well.
Real hardware allows use of actual physical devices, rather than device emulation, and the associated directions and documentation obviously match up directly with the configuration.
The use of hardware emulation can potentially save on hardware costs, allowing use of readily available IA-32, or IA-32e (EM64T) or AMD AMD64 hardware configurations. The performance of VAX emulation on systems based on Intel Pentium 2.0 GHz and faster microprocessors can be quite reasonable for various hobbyist uses and hobbyist applications. With (only) one Alpha laptop produced (the Tadpole Technology PLC ALPHAbook 1 series portable, Tadpole also built a Sun SPARC portable; Tadpole was acquired by and is now General Dynamics ITRONIX), emulation and IA-32 (or IA-32e) laptops can also be good choices for applications where portability is a factor.
Emulation, on the other hand, is a trade-off, but one that allows use of an available platform. Performance may or may not be part of the trade-off, as emulation can be faster than the emulated platform particularly for older platforms being emulated on newer hardware.
If you choose hardware, you will have to become familiar with physical connectivity, the console, hardware service, and related tasks, and with the installation and configuration of OpenVMS VAX, OpenVMS Alpha or OpenVMS I64 systems. Information on disk storage devices is also available
Some hobbyists will provide their own direct hardware service, while some will contract with a support organization for assistance in maintaining and repairing hardware as required. Much like commercial users, hobbyists will have to decide how much effort should be expended maintaining and repairing the hardware, and maintaining a budget for hardware spares and repairs. Newer systems are generally less costly, and tend to operate with more current and correspondingly more available parts.
If you choose emulation, you will have to become familiar with creating your emulated VAX system (or emulated Alpha system), and then with installing and configuring OpenVMS. You will also have to maintain the underlying platform, and the emulator and its environment, and (of course) the underlying hardware.
Do remember that OpenVMS VAX or OpenVMS Alpha, that the OpenVMS Hobbyist licensing, and all other aspects of the environment can and do assume that an emulator is actual VAX or Alpha hardware. That written, a correctly-written emulator — other than any instruction-level or other timing-related differences — is and should be entirely indistinguishable from actual hardware. For the purposes of using OpenVMS and reading its documentation, you can, should and must assume the emulator is an actual, physical, non-emulated VAX or Alpha system.