Interesting piece of hardware. Sells for about 100 bucks on ebay. Has 2 PCMCIA slots side by side instead of on top of each other. The AlphaMultia was also known as the Universal Desktop. The one pictured is 166MHz processor, a 266MHz version, and 100MHz Pentium-based version were also availble, built in nic, runs BSD, Linux, DecUnix/Tru64, VMS, Windows NT4 and Windows 2000 Release Candidate 1 (MS cut off Alpha Support after RC1). It uses the Alpha AXP architeture. Seems like a really nice box for a node.
If you are looking to buy one, beware of a few things:
- It uses 72pin True Parity Fast-Page-Mode (FPM, not EDO!) memory which can be expensive to buy if you don't have some lying around.
[Lately, 72pin has collapsed to lower prices see http://www.pricewatch.com ]
Most of the cases do not have an external SCSI connector and there is only enough room inside for 1 Hard Drive, so unless you build your own SCSI connector for an Ext. CD-ROM, the only way to install is over a Network. (You can get a SCSI 50-pin Berg to 50 pin Honda adaptor that will bolt right on to the back of the machine. Blackbox, and others, have them. Something like this:
- You can put a 2.5" notebook IDE drive into the Multia as I did. Works great and leaves room for PCI NIC (I have 4 NICs in my multia firewall box, one of them WLAN). (Keep in mind that the internal hard drive must use a 44pin notebook connector)
The Multia's had a large batch that had one defective component (I think it was a transistor) that will likely go bad if it has not been replaced. [Note: this was a 74F623 octal bus transceiver. It wasn't bad per se; just runs hot. Modern CMOS replacements from DigiKey use much less power.] The replacement part is fairly cheap and relatively easy to solder into place. (See Multia Heat Death)
- The Video Card is TGA and not VGA, if you plan on installing BSD on your multia make sure you have a serial cable or serial Terminal around because that is the only way to get a console on BSD. NT and Linux should both support the TGA graphics adapter.
They run HOT! Running them with the case off upright (on it's side) tends to be the best method I've found. On the 166MHz system I have, the CPU uses passive cooling, and can burn you if you don't watch it. Installing a small fan directly on the heatsink does work wonders. (Otherwise, I've heard that others have had success with putting larger fans in place of the one that's there. At least cut the thermistor off of the PSU fan, which provides airflow to the whole case... Also, consider the "fan modification" -- fan replacement project, actually -- which is burried somewhere in the NetBSD site, I believe. My fan was replaced in a similar manner, and it works fine so far, with the case on.) (See My Multia doubles as a space heater)
- Don't think a 166MHz Alpha will be as fast a Pentium 166MHz. I don't think they have any onboard cache, so they can be a real dog. [I have to disagree with this bullet. The Alpha may do less on a per-instruction basis, since it's a RISC design. On the other hand, the Alpha architecture is very efficient, and you may find a speed difference in the other direction sometimes.]
NetBSD Note:
VMS:
Despite what you may have heard, VMS should work on these. You'll need an SRM firmware update, and a special disk to tell VMS about the Multia. These are available on the web, or you can get them on certain CDs from DEC. DJE Systems has a good explanation of just how to do this here.
This is unsupported. Serial ports don't work, PCMCIA (supported in VMS because of the Alphabook) doesn't work because the Multia and Alphabook use different PCMCIA chipsets. X11 ("DECWindows"), networking, and other stuff seems to work OK, but I've never heard of anyone using an IDE drive with it. You'll need SCSI for VMS.
What about that riser board?:
As far as I can figure out, there are two different risers, maybe more, that came with the Multia. I know certainly, since it's the one I have, that there was a riser with a 50-pin SCSI connector on it. There are also blank spots on this riser for mini IDE and a full PCI slot. I assume these are included together on a second riser board.
**Update: Having one such riser card, the small "mini IDE" connector on the riser is actually the mini SCSI for an internal SCSI drive (count 'em - 50 pins.) The mini IDE connector is on the mainboard just below where the hard disk mount is located and should be present on any Multia.
If you have the SCSI riser, don't try to pull the cable off 
I was going to replace it with a cable that supported two devices, but it's actually soldered into the riser. The plan now (to avoid soldering so much) is to get a scsi "extension cable" for it.
**Update: If you have the riser with the mini SCSI connector, the cable going to the external SCSI connector on the rear panel is a connector and can be unplugged. If you're not planning on using the scsi interface, unplug this connector and remove the riser card to improve air circulation. You could then install a PCI-slot fan for much improved ventilation.
The floppy connector, and a single mini IDE connector are integrated onto the mainboard.
Q: I've heard rumour of the floppy being a scsi device, is this true?
A: I've heard this too. The slim "laptop" floppy drive uses a 26-pin flat cable. My Multia with RH7.3 (2.4.9-32) says this:
- Jul 19 14:31:49 multi kernel: Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 2.88M Jul 19 14:31:49 multi kernel: FDC 0 is a National Semiconductor PC87306
...so it's a normal floppy. (Note 2.88M refers to the controller, not the actual drive. It is just a 1.44MB).
