This is pretty cool. I have OpenVMS VAX 7.3 running under SIMH clustered with OpenVMS Alpha 8.3 running under FreeAXP. I'm using bridged TAP network adapters for each of them. DECnet, TCP/IP, LAT, cluster comms all seem to work fine so far.
BTW, I notice that FreeAXP can also mount SIMH disks, so I gather they use the same simple container format. (Of course, I don't do that while they're also mounted via clustering I know what havoc that would cause.)
FreeAXP reports about 198 EUP while pegging one processor at 100% on my 4GHz Core I7. If one EUP is honestly 700K instructions per second, then that's about 138M instructions per second. Not exactly the supposed 166M of the real thing, but not bad. However, I did give up on having TCPIP$CONFIG generate an SSH key. I didn't want to wait for it...
A VAX under SIMH can have 512M of memory, but a poor Alpha under FreeAXP is limited to a measly 128M. I gather it's going to be doing a lot of paging.
SIMH can detect when VMS is idle when emulating a VAX, but I gather FreeAXP cannot do so when emulating an Alpha. I seem to recall dim memories of idle being totally different between VAX and Alpha (or was that an even earlier VMS internals change that I'm dimly recalling)? FreeAXP constantly pegs one processor at 100% usage, even when idle. Can anything be done about that?
malmberg August 04 2022 No more VAX hobbyist licenses. Community licenses for Alpha/IA64/X86_64 VMS Software Inc. Commercial VMS software licenses for VAX available from HPE.
ozboomer July 20 2022 Just re-visiting.. No more hobbyist licenses? Is that from vmssoftware.com, no 'community' licenses?
valdirfranco July 01 2022 No more hobbyist license...sad
mister_wavey February 12 2022 I recall that the disks failed on the public access VMS systems that included Fafner
parwezw January 03 2022 Anyone know what happened to FAFNER.DYNDS.ORG? I had a hobbyist account here but can longer access the site.
gtackett October 27 2021 Make that DECdfs _2.1A_ for Vax
gtackett October 27 2021 I'm looking for DECdfs V2.4A kit for VAX. Asking here just in case anyone is still listening.
MarkRLV September 17 2021 At one time, didn't this web site have a job board? I would love to use my legacy skills one last time in my career.
malmberg January 18 2021 New Hobbyist PAKs for VAX/VMS are no longer available according to reports. Only commercial licenses are reported to be for sale from HPE
dfilip January 16 2021 Can someone please point me to hobbyist license pak? I'm looking for VAX/VMS 7.1, DECnet Phase IV, and UCX/TCPIP ... have the 7.1 media, need the license paks ... thanks!
