Alpha/Linux Wiki

Alpha systems used expansion cards and peripherals for graphics, storage, network, sound, USB, serial, and input. Digital sold many of these as options under its own part numbers, often rebadged from other vendors. Whether a card works on an Alpha depends on three things: whether the firmware can initialize it (and, for storage and network cards, boot from it), whether its Linux driver works on Alpha, and whether the card's addressing and bus requirements suit the system.

The table summarizes commonly used cards, with the current kernel driver and whether the SRM console can boot from them. SRM boot support varies by system and console version; the sections below give the details.

PCI cards are keyed for 5 V or 3.3 V signaling, or are universal cards that fit both kinds of slot. A card keyed for one voltage does not fit a slot for the other, and forcing it in can damage it. ³⁰⁾ The EV56 motherboards such as the AlphaPC 164LX have 5 V PCI connectors, and supply +3.3 V to cards that need it. ³¹⁾ Among the EV6 systems, the DS10 and ES40 accept both 3.3 V and 5 V cards, ^{32) 33)} while the DS15 accepts only 3.3 V cards. ³⁴⁾ The DS25 and ES45 have 5 V slots at 33 MHz and 3.3 V slots at 66 MHz: a 3.3 V card works only in a 66 MHz slot, a universal card works in any slot, and a 33 MHz card in a 66 MHz slot slows the whole bus to 33 MHz. ^{35) 36)} All the slots of the ES47 tower use 3.3 V signaling, with PCI-X at up to 133 MHz and a 1.5 V AGP slot, ³⁷⁾ and the GS1280's standard I/O drawer has 5 V PCI slots alongside its PCI-X slots. ³⁸⁾ For the AGP slot of the UP1500, see UP1500.

The DS10, ES40, and DS15 accept both 32-bit and 64-bit PCI cards, ^{39) 40) 41)} but the XP1000 guide says not to use 64-bit cards in 32-bit slots. ⁴²⁾ The Personal Workstation's 64-bit slots have their own restrictions; see Personal Workstation 64-bit slots.

No Alpha system has PCI Express slots: even the EV7 systems offer only PCI-X, PCI, and AGP. ⁴³⁾ PCI Express cards can be used only through PCIe to PCI bridge adapters, with mixed results. Under NetBSD, a USB 3 card on such an adapter works in a DS20L, but the adapter is not detected at all in a DS25. ⁴⁴⁾ A Radeon HD 5000 series card with an on-board PCIe to PCI bridge works in a DS15 under Linux. ⁴⁵⁾

PC cards carry x86 code in their option ROMs, and Alpha firmware must run a graphics card's video BIOS in an x86 emulator to initialize it. When the console cannot initialize a card, the system can still be used with a serial console, and the X server's own x86 emulator may be able to initialize the card once Linux is running. ⁴⁶⁾

Newer video BIOSes are often too much for older consoles. nVidia Riva cards could not be used as the primary card because of 32-bit instructions in their BIOS, ⁴⁷⁾ and no nVidia cards worked with the LX164 and SX164 consoles until nearly the last firmware releases. ⁴⁸⁾ The ATI Rage 128 and Radeon do not work with the BIOS emulators of most older systems. ⁴⁹⁾

SRM V5.6 for the AlphaServer ES40 added "an X86 bios emulator" to support the KZPCC-CE RAID controller. ⁵⁰⁾ On these systems show bios lists controllers with an expansion ROM, and run bios runs a card's ROM, for example the KZPCC-CE's configuration utility. ⁵¹⁾ Some cards' settings, such as the Adaptec 7895's, could only be changed with DOS-style utilities run under AlphaBIOS. ⁵²⁾

The core logic of older systems can only reach PCI and ISA memory through "sparse" address spaces. X servers that assume dense access, such as the nVidia server, do not work on systems that require sparse access, ⁵³⁾ and neither do Matrox Millennium cards on EV5 systems with sparse access. ⁵⁴⁾ Among systems that current kernels support, the 21172 (CIA-2) systems use sparse I/O addressing. ⁵⁵⁾

ISA bus-master cards do not work, because Alpha systems have "no PCI DMA windows in the address range 0 - 16Mb, which makes "true" ISA devices (24-bit addresses) unsupported". ⁵⁶⁾

PCI cards that can only address part of the 32-bit space may fail. The SB Live's EMU10K1 "is incapable of issuing addresses larger than 512MB-1". ⁵⁷⁾

Network cards that only place receive buffers on 32-bit boundaries, such as those using the VIA Rhine, leave IP headers misaligned and cause floods of unaligned access traps unless the driver copies packets. ⁵⁸⁾

The Miata (Personal Workstation a and au series) has a small table of cards allowed in its 64-bit PCI slots, which are in front of the PCI-PCI bridge. With an unrecognized card in one of these slots, SRM refuses to boot; the card can be moved to a 32-bit slot behind the bridge. ⁵⁹⁾ The check can be disabled with set pci_device_override -1, but the early Pyxis core logic has a scatter-gather DMA erratum (see Chipsets). ⁶⁰⁾ A graphics card can run in a 64-bit slot with the override set, but cards that use DMA risk data corruption there, and the workaround mentioned in the boot messages is incomplete. ⁶¹⁾ Storage controllers in particular should not be installed in the 64-bit slots of a first-generation Personal Workstation. ⁶²⁾

Most of the cards below are PCI or PCI-X cards that also fit the 64-bit slots of the later systems. The console generally cannot boot from any of them; see Booting from SRM. Reports since 2011 are:

Some notes on these:

• SATA disks cannot be booted by SRM. ⁷²⁾ A common arrangement is to keep /boot on a disk that SRM can read, such as a small SCSI disk or a PATA flash module on the onboard IDE controller, and the root file system on SATA. ⁷³⁾
• AHCI controllers are not enabled in Debian's Alpha kernel configuration, ⁷⁴⁾ and no reports of them working on Alpha are known.
• Radeon. Since Linux 6.3, radeon can be loaded as a module; ⁷⁵⁾ from about Linux 3.11 until then, the module was too large to load on Alpha, failing with "Relocation (type 4) overflow", and had to be built into the kernel. ⁷⁶⁾ The driver needs current firmware from linux-firmware. ⁷⁷⁾ Linux 5.11 introduced a hard lockup with a Radeon HD 4350 in an XP1000, bisected to the driver's new memory allocator; no fix has been reported. ⁷⁸⁾
• USB 3. No reports of xHCI cards under Linux on Alpha are known. Under NetBSD, a USB 3 card works on the DS20L, even through a PCIe to PCI adapter. ⁷⁹⁾
• Intel gigabit cards: the PCI and PCI-X cards use the e1000 driver and work well. e1000e is the driver for Intel's PCI Express cards, which need a PCIe slot that no Alpha has. Likewise, the newer LSI SAS cards (mpt2sas, mpt3sas) are PCI Express cards.

The table is compiled from Digital's supported options lists, ^{80) 81)} Systems and Options Catalogs, ⁸²⁾ firmware release notes, ⁸³⁾ and QuickSpecs. ⁸⁴⁾ The driver column gives the kernel's framebuffer driver; XFree86 and early X.Org also had X drivers for these cards (tga, s3, ati, and glint), which have since been reduced to basic 2D support or removed (see PC graphics cards). Of the PowerStorm cards, only the 3D10, 3D30, 4D10T, and 4D20 had X drivers. ⁸⁵⁾ The Intergraph MSMT259 cards found in AlphaStation 500s sold for Windows NT are PowerStorm 4D40s. ⁸⁶⁾

The ZLXp-E cards use Digital's DC21030 "TGA" chip. The ZLXp-E1 is 8-plane, the E2 24-plane, and the E3 24-plane with a Z-buffer and 16 MiB. The Multia has the equivalent of an E1 built into the motherboard. ⁸⁷⁾ The kernel's tgafb driver supports all three. ⁸⁸⁾ The ZLXp-L cards use a different accelerator chipset and are not supported. ⁸⁹⁾

The TGA2 cards, the PowerStorm 3D30 and 4D20, use a Cirrus VGA chip for the text-mode console and the TGA2 chip for accelerated X. ⁹⁰⁾ The kernel framebuffer driver does not support them, but they can be used with the standard VGA text console driver. ⁹¹⁾ The PBXGB-AA's switch should be set to position six (1024x768 at 72Hz). ⁹²⁾ The PowerStorm 350 has no X driver. ⁹³⁾

The ATI Mach64 was a lower-cost option for the AlphaStation 200 4/100; its jumper JU10, which enables the card's interrupt request, must be installed in that system. ⁹⁴⁾

In reports from 2001 to 2008, cards that worked well with the X servers of the time included:

• the ELSA GLoria Synergy, which passed both console and X tests on an AlphaServer 1200, ⁹⁵⁾
• Permedia 3 cards such as the Oxygen VX1, which have 32 MiB of memory and a fast RAMDAC, ⁹⁶⁾
• the Matrox Millennium I and II, G200, and G400, ⁹⁷⁾
• the 3dfx Voodoo3 3000, ⁹⁸⁾
• ATI Radeons, which are the best choice for EV6 and later systems. ⁹⁹⁾

S3 Trio64 cards are unreliable, particularly in the AlphaStation 200 and 400, ¹⁰⁰⁾ and the Trio64V+ works poorly. ¹⁰¹⁾ On the UP1000, UP1100, and UP1500, the AGP slot operates only as a PCI slot; see UP1000.

The radeon KMS driver is the only X.Org driver known to work on Alpha today; the older X drivers for cards such as the Permedia 2 and S3 Trio64V2 have been reduced to basic 2D support or removed. ^{102) 103)} The radeon X driver requires the kernel's mode setting, since its user mode setting code was removed. ¹⁰⁴⁾ In 2021 a PCI Radeon HD 3450 ran a 1920x1200 display from a DS20. ¹⁰⁵⁾

• On the AlphaServer 4000 and 4100, "VGAs configured as console display devices must be in PCI0." ¹⁰⁶⁾
• On the ES40, "Only one VGA graphic controller card, that is VGA-Enabled, is supported in PCI0 bus slots." ¹⁰⁷⁾
• With SRM V5.9 and earlier on the ES40, an Adaptec controller in a lower-numbered slot than an Oxygen VX1 "may cause a console hang". ¹⁰⁸⁾
• On the UX164 (Ruffian), the VGA card must be in the single 64-bit slot, because it is in front of the built-in PCI-PCI bridge. ¹⁰⁹⁾
• The AlphaServer 800's onboard S3 Trio64 must be disabled with jumper J27 to use another VGA card. ¹¹⁰⁾

The table is compiled from the AlphaServer 4100 firmware release notes, ¹¹¹⁾ the ES40 firmware release notes, ¹¹²⁾ and the kernel's myrb driver, which names the KZPSC and KZPAC. ¹¹³⁾ The KZPBA-CA is a QLogic ISP1040B, ¹¹⁴⁾ and the KGPSA-CA is an Emulex adapter, not a QLogic one. ¹¹⁵⁾ The KZPSA is a Digital design, not a Mylex card, ¹¹⁶⁾ using a Symbios 53C720 and an Intel i960. ¹¹⁷⁾ The dpt_i2o driver was removed in Linux 6.0. ¹¹⁸⁾

The AlphaServer 4000 and 4100 SRM console can boot from the KFPSA, KZPDA, KZPSA, KZPSC, KZPAC, KZPBA, KZPAA, and CIPCA storage adapters, the DE435, DE450, DE500, and DEFPA network adapters, the floppy drive, and the CD-ROM. It "does not support any EISA options as boot devices." ¹¹⁹⁾ The SRM console for evaluation boards and OEM motherboards has drivers for the NCR 810 and QLogic ISP1020 SCSI controllers, and the DC21040 and DE205 Ethernet controllers. ¹²⁰⁾

For third-party cards, the SRM console supports QLogic ISP1020 and ISP1040 SCSI controllers and most NCR/Symbios controllers except the 885. ¹²¹⁾ The consoles do not support BusLogic cards. ¹²²⁾ Later SRM releases added some Adaptec controllers, the Intel EEPro100, the NCR/Symbios 896, and some Mylex RAID controllers. ¹²³⁾ SRM can boot from Adaptec cards on the AlphaPC 164LX and 164SX with firmware 5.8, and on the DS10, DS20, ES40, and XP1000 with 5.9. ¹²⁴⁾ Some DVD drives are incompatible with the SRM console, usually because of their block size. ¹²⁵⁾

Digital sold Mylex DAC960 RAID controllers with its own firmware. The Linux driver required firmware 2.73 or later, but many of the older DAC960s sold by Digital have Digital's custom firmware 2.70 or older. ¹²⁶⁾ The kernel accepts firmware 2.70 on Alpha. ¹²⁷⁾ SRM can boot from DAC960 volumes. ¹²⁸⁾

• QLogic: the AlphaPC 164LX errata note "Compatibility problems … between the AlphaPC 164LX motherboard and QLogic SCSI controller chips (ISP1020 and ISP1040)." ¹²⁹⁾
• Adaptec: the 2940UW and 39160 worked in 2004 tests. ¹³⁰⁾ The KZPEA must have its bus termination jumpers installed, or the console may hang. ¹³¹⁾
• IDE: the AlphaPC 164 uses a CMD646 for onboard IDE. ¹³²⁾ An add-in PCI controller, such as one using a CMD649 or Promise chip, is an alternative to weak onboard IDE. ¹³³⁾

The DE450's chip is the DC21041. ¹³⁴⁾ The DE600 is based on the Intel 82557, 82558, or 82559, and works with the EV6 consoles and some EV56 consoles, such as those of the LX164 and SX164. ¹³⁵⁾ The defxx driver supports the DEFEA and DEFPA. ¹³⁶⁾ The de4x5 driver was removed in Linux 5.19. ¹³⁷⁾

At 100 Mbit/s, the 21142 and 21143 sometimes need boot arguments to force the tulip driver to use a specific media type. ¹³⁸⁾ Digital recommended against DE500 auto-negotiation when the network speed is known, because it can delay booting considerably. ¹³⁹⁾ The SRM console is particular about third-party Tulip cards. ¹⁴⁰⁾

Other cards reported to work include NE2000 clones, ¹⁴¹⁾ the RTL8139, ¹⁴²⁾ the RTL8169, ¹⁴³⁾ and the DEGPA-SA with the acenic driver. ¹⁴⁴⁾

• The Miata has a built-in ES1888, which is compatible with the Sound Blaster Pro. ¹⁴⁵⁾ Under ALSA it works with snd-sb8. ¹⁴⁶⁾
• The M-Audio Revolution 7.1 works on the XP1000 and PWS 600au. ¹⁴⁷⁾
• The SB Live cannot address Miata's DMA window (see DMA Addressing).

Onboard USB is not recommended; an add-in card is the better option. ¹⁴⁸⁾ VIA USB controllers in particular have problems on Alpha, ¹⁴⁹⁾ and USB cards for Alpha should use an NEC controller. ¹⁵⁰⁾

Drivers that access registers in bus memory need porting to Alpha. ¹⁵¹⁾

Digital's own serial options included the DigiBoard-based CXI01 multiport cards and the PBXDA PCI 4, 8, and 16-port asynchronous adapters. ^{152) 153)}

Digital's PC-style keyboards were the LK411 and the LK471 (for Windows NT and UNIX), and the LK461 had the OpenVMS layout. ¹⁵⁴⁾ The SRM console switches to the serial console if the keyboard is unplugged, ¹⁵⁵⁾ and is more selective about keyboards than AlphaBIOS. ¹⁵⁶⁾ On the ES40, removing the mouse at the SRM console stops the keyboard from responding until the mouse is plugged back in. ¹⁵⁷⁾ The EV7 systems use USB keyboards and mice. ¹⁵⁸⁾

The following sources conflict with each other or with the account given above. They are listed here for further investigation.

• KZPBA chip
  • AlphaServer 4100/4000 Firmware Release Notes, V6.0, September 2001, p. 3-4: "KZPBA (PCI Qlogic ISP1020 16b FWD SCSI)"
  • Compaq DPW Enhanced a-Series & au-Series, Systems and Options Catalog, September 2000, p. 6: "SN-KZPBA-CA Q-Logic 1040B Wide UltraSCSI adapter"
• KZPSA chips
  • "RE: KZPSA driver?", Christopher C. Northrop, axp-list, 5 Nov 2001: "KZPSA is actualy A Mylex DAC960"
  • "Re: KZPSA driver?", Island Computers, axp-list, 5 Nov 2001: "The KZPSA is a Qlogic based High Voltage Wide Differential card"
  • Peter Rival and Barry Roberts (cited above) say it is neither.
• Name of the S3 Trio64 PowerStorm
  • "Re: TGA2 (aka PBXGB-AA or 3D30)", Jay Estabrook, axp-list, 19 Aug 1997: "3D20 S3 Trio64"
  • "Re: Rawhide problems: TGA2 and SMP crash", Jay Estabrook, axp-list, 25 Oct 2002: "3D10 S3 Trio64 (NT only)"
• Linux support for the Radeon 7500 on EV7 systems
  • HP AlphaServer ES47 Tower QuickSpecs, November 2003, p. 15, lists the Radeon 7500 as a Red Hat Linux 7.2 supported option.
  • HP AlphaServer ES47/ES80 QuickSpecs, July 2007, p. 46, does not mark it as supported on Linux.

See also the Systems and Options Catalogs listed on the Operating Systems page, with option part numbers.