Alpha/Linux Wiki

The Alpha XL 233 and 266 are Windows NT workstations with EV4 or EV45 CPUs. They have only the ARC console; an AlphaBIOS was developed for them but never shipped. ¹⁾ The EV5 Alpha XL 300, 366, and 433 are a different design (see XLT).

• 21064 or 21064A at 233 or 266 MHz
• APECS core logic, PCI and ISA, with an Intel 82379AB (SIO) PCI-to-ISA bridge ²⁾; the closely related Avanti machines use an 82378IB or 82378ZB instead, which is how the two are told apart ³⁾
• Memory options of 8 to 128 MiB, each two or four 70 ns 36-bit SIMMs ⁴⁾; machines have been reported with 192 MiB installed ⁵⁾

Linux 6.9 was the last version to support the Alpha XL 233 and 266; Linux 6.10 removed support for processors older than the EV56 (21164A), including the XL kernel platform (CONFIG_ALPHA_XL). ⁶⁾ With only the ARC console, the XL boots Linux through MILO. ⁷⁾

• XL kernels and MILO run on both the XL 233/266 and Avanti systems, but Avanti kernels and MILO do not run correctly on the XL. ⁸⁾ With an Avanti kernel, the XL's floppy drive cannot DMA to all of memory. ⁹⁾
• The integrated Fast SCSI-2 controller ¹⁰⁾ is reported by Linux on an XL 266 as an NCR 53C810 at PCI device 6, ¹¹⁾ which Linux 6.9 supports with the sym53c8xx driver. ¹²⁾
• A Matrox Millennium requires an XL kernel. ¹³⁾

Digital announced the Alpha XL on 3 October 1995 as the Alpha half of a Windows NT personal workstation line alongside the Pentium-based Celebris XL. Both use the same minitower and a processor-independent CPU daughtercard, so that the rest of the machine is common to the Pentium and Alpha models. ¹⁴⁾