Development: VAX & Alpha Virtualization Solutions

Migration Specialties has developed a Hardware Virtualization Layer (HVL) designed to facilitate the development and deployment of legacy hardware emulators. Similar to solutions like VMware®, but targeted at older systems, the HVL can support multiple instances of Legacy Virtual Machines (LVM). Our first LVM releases under the HVL framework are a pair of virtual AlphaServer 400s, FreeAXP™ and Avanti™. More virtual Alpha and VAX solutions will follow.

The HVL contains sophisticated technology that simplifies legacy system virtualization, often allowing legacy hardware to be replaced in a matter of days. The HVL allows data centers to consolidate older systems into virtual space on modern hardware without changing the legacy O/S or software applications. It provides immediate benefits in improved reliability, better support options, reduction in support costs, reduction in power consumption, and recovery of floor space. All of these benefits are available without the need to retrain end users or significantly change existing operating procedures.

Migration Specialties developed the HVL for deployment on Windows, Linux, and OpenVMS platforms. Emulators built on top of the HVL allow OpenVMS and Tru64 applications hosted on legacy VAX and Alpha hardware to be moved to modern hardware without change.

FreeAXP™ and Avanti™ are currently in beta. The FreeAXP beta was released to the public on March 18, 2010. Avanti Beta was installed at a customer facility on March 7, 2010 and made available to the general public on June 11, 2010. Production release of both products will be version 2.0. Our follow-on product will be a virtual VAX solution.

Migration Specialties has the support of an international group of organizations, including HP, Intel, Microsoft, Nemonix Engineering, XDelta Limited, Strobe Data, BRUDEN-OSSG, Control-X Limited, Caponier Limited and The SPS Group Inc..

We will post progress updates on this page. Postings are in reverse chronological order with most recent develops listed first.

Benchmarks

These are some quick benchmarks we use to measure performance on FreeAXP™, Avanti™, and real hardware. If you run these benchmarks unaltered, it provides a good basis of comparison between systems.

• PI_TEST.zip
  VMS zip file containing MACRO64$PI source file, PI.EXE executable compiled on VMS 7.3-2, and PI_TEST.COM procedure. The test calculates PI to 40,000 digits and reports the time required in seconds.
  • Note: The PI_TEST.zip file was created using IZIP under VMS. The command used was:
  • $ IZIP "-V" PI_TEST.zip MACRO64$PI.M64 PI.EXE PI_TEST.COM
  • Unzipping the contents of this zip file on a non-VMS system may not produce readable source code. Use the links above to acquire the code on a non-VMS system.
• VUPS.COM
  A VMS DCL procedure that provides an estimate of CPU performance measured in VUPs.
  • Note: This procedure is suitable for single CPU Alpha systems. It does not accurately measure the performance of multi-processor Alpha systems.

Latest Development News

June 30, 2010: Intel Success Story

Intel has list FreeAXP and Avanti in their Intel® Business Exchange Directory.

June 22, 2010: Intel Success Story

Intel has been following and participating in FreeAXP and Avanti development. They have published a nice success story, Keeping Great Legacies Alive, paying homage to Alpha technology and discussing FreeAXP, Avanti, and their use of Intel technology.

June 11, 2010: Draft Virtual Alpha Pricing Guide

Migration Specialties has published a Draft Pricing Guide for its virtual Alpha solutions.

June 11, 2010: Avanti Beta Available for Purchase

Avanti Beta is now available for purchase. While Avanti product quality is good, we have not yet achieved our performance goal for the product. The goal is an average of 55 VUPs performance on our performance test bed. We currently have an internal release averaging 40 VUPs on this platform. Avanti will continue to be listed as a beta product until we hit our performance target. The release of Avanti 2.0 will indicate that our performance goal has been achieved.

Avanti sells with a 90 day product warranty. Avanti Beta purchasers will receive a free warranty extension. Avanti Beta purchaser warranties will extend for 90 days past the release date of Avanti 2.0.

June 11, 2010: FreeAXP™ Downloads Exceed 1500

FreeAXP downloads have exceeded 1,500. special note to thanks to the FreeAXP forum participants, who help us provide a better product and a better user experience. Visit the FreeAXP page for download, documentation, and forum links.

June 11, 2010: Draft Pricing Guide

Migration Specialties has published a Draft Pricing Guide for its virtual Alpha solutions.

June 2, 2010: Avanti™ Progress Report

We're currently focused on improving Avanti performance. FreeAXP has reached the stage where it is a reliable product. This means it is also a useful tool to check the quality of Avanti. We are using FreeAXP as a core component to automate validation of Avanti output as we add performance enhancements. We anticipate another month of work and testing before we issue another major Avanti beta release.

June 3, 2010: FreeAXP™ Public Beta 283

FreeAXP™ Beta 1.0.6.283 is now available. This release provides a 5% - 10% performance improvement and corrects a floating point issue. Downloads have exceeded 1,300. Visit the FreeAXP page for download, documentation, and forum links.

May 19, 2010: Avanti™ License and SPD Posted

The Avanti SPD, License Summary, and License have been posted for review and comments.

May 12, 2010: FreeAXP™ Downloads Exceed 1000

FreeAXP downloads exceeded 1,000 today. User response and feedback continues to be excellent, with both OpenVMS and Tru64 Unix users taking advantage of the product. The addition of support for a second serial port and second NIC have been well received. Visit the FreeAXP page for download, documentation, and forum links.

April 30, 2010: OSF/1 4.0G

We are pleased to add OSF/1 4.0G to our supported Guest OS list for FreeAXP and Avanti.

April 27, 2010: Test Systems and Benchmarks

We have added Test System and Benchmark links to our Development page. The Test System links provide information on the hardware we using in testing. The Benchmark links are programs and procedures we use to measure performance on real VAX and Alpha hardware and our virtual hardware. This information allows our customers to generate meaningful comparison numbers for their host and emulated systems.

April 21, 2010: FreeAXP™ Public Beta 271

FreeAXP™ Beta 1.0.6.271 is now available. This release provides a 10% - 20% performance improvement. It also includes support for the Charon idle loop driver. Visit the FreeAXP page for download, documentation, and forum links.

This is the last planned beta release of FreeAXP. Performance is about where we want it and overall stability seems to be good. The production release will include updates to the Configuration Wizard and User Guide. Future releases will include incremental improvements and bug fixes.

Since releasing FreeAXP Beta to the public we've has over 700 recorded downloads. The response and feedback on FreeAXP have been gratifying. Thank you to all who have actively participated in making FreeAXP a better product.

April 15, 2010: FreeAXP™ Public Beta 269

Just in time to offset tax woes in the USA, FreeAXP™ Beta 1.0.6.269 is now available. This release will gladden your hearts with a 10% performance increase. It also includes support for VMS 6.2, 7.0, and 7.1. We have added a FreeAXP Guest O/S List and a Prior Kits link to the FreeAXP page. Visit the FreeAXP page for download, documentation, and forum links.

April 12, 2010: FreeAXP™ Public Beta Tops 500

We are pleased to report over 500 users have downloaded FreeAXP™ Beta kits. FreeAXP is winning wide acceptance in the OpenVMS and Tru64 user communities. Visit the FreeAXP page for download, documentation, and forum links.

April 10, 2010: AlphaBook

Just for fun, we booted FreeAXP Beta 261 on a netbook powered by an Intel® Atom™ N270 1.6GHz processor and .98GB available RAM running Windows XP Pro x86. While no threat to a GS1280, it does provide the means to carry a running OpenVMS or Tru64 system in a pocketbook.

April 9, 2010: FreeAXP™ Focus on Performance

Our focus over the next few weeks is performance. FreeAXP and Avanti are stable, so it's time to make them faster.

April 5, 2010: FreeAXP™ Public Beta 261

With over 400 documented downloads under our belt, we are pleased to offer FreeAXP™ Beta 1.0.5.261. This release features internal improvements, NIC updates for Tru64 Unix, and the addition of a second virtual NIC to support Tru64 clustering. Visit the FreeAXP page for download, documentation, and forum links. Thanks to everyone that is participating in the FreeAXP forum. We appreciate your support!

March 29, 2010: FreeAXP™ Public Beta 254

FreeAXP™ Beta 1.0.4.254 was released today. This release features internal improvements and the addition of a second virtual serial port. Visit the FreeAXP page for download, documentation, and forum links.

March 25, 2010: FreeAXP™ Public Beta Tops 200

Over 225 users have downloaded the initial FreeAXP™ Public Beta v1.0.4.251. Visit the FreeAXP page for download, documentation, and forum links.

March 22, 2010: FreeAXP™ Public Beta Tops 100

Over 100 users have downloaded the initial FreeAXP™ Public Beta v1.0.4.251. Visit the FreeAXP page for download, documentation, and forum links.

March 18, 2010: FreeAXP™ Public Beta

We are excited to report FreeAXP™ Beta 1.0.4.251 has been released to the general public! Visit the FreeAXP page for download, documentation, and forum links.

March 9, 2010: Avanti Beta in the Field

An Avanti beta is in the field. Avanti was used to replace an existing CHARON-AXP installation. The emulator swap took under four hours on a Sunday. No container file changes or system configuration changes were required to achieve the transition. Monday morning users were none the wiser, their Alpha OpenVMS applications continuing to run just as expected.

March 6, 2010: Tru64 & OpenVMS Builds & Boots

To date, the following Tru64 and OpenVMS versions have been built and booted on FreeAXP.

Older versions of OpenVMS going back to version 6.1H3 will eventually be supported. Versions prior to 7.2 require adding support for an additional feature on the emulated SCSI controller

March 5, 2010: Caponier Joins the Team

Migration Specialties is pleased to add Caponier Ltd. to the list of organizations supporting FreeAXP and Avanti development. John Manger at Caponier, a highly respected Tru64 expert, formerly of HP's European Engineering Services, HP UK's senior Tru64 UNIX Engineer, Tru64 UNIX Security Focus Engineer for Europe (within HP SSRT), and HP UK Education's Senior Tru64 UNIX Trainer, will be utilizing his expertise and experience to ensure top notch Tru64 support on FreeAXP, Avanti, and future products.

February 23, 2010: Availability Manager covers FreeAXP

Availability Manager has no problem tracking a FreeAXP system. FreeAXP shows up as an AlphaServer 400 in the Availability Manager display.

February 12, 2010: MAC Parallels Boot

FreeAXP booted and run on Mac OSX 10.6 in Parallels 5.0 on Windows 7.

February 9, 2010: MAC Boot Camp.

FreeAXP booted and run on a MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo running Windows 7 under Apple Boot Camp.

February 2, 2010: FreeAXP™ Beta 219

FreeAXP™ Beta 219 released to select testers.

January 26, 2010: FreeAXP™ Clustered

FreeAXP™ successfully clustered with real Alpha and Intgrity hardware running OpenVMS 7.3-2 and 8.3.

January 22, 2010: FreeAXP™ Beta 211

FreeAXP™ Beta 211 released to select testers. FreeAXP now supports both 32 and 64-bit Windows O/S.

January 11, 2010: FreeAXP™ Beta 196

FreeAXP™ Beta 196 released to select testers.

January 11, 2010: FreeAXP™ User Guide

The FreeAXP™ User Guide is now available for review.

January 7, 2010: OpenVMS 8.4FT

OpenVMS 8.4 Field Test has been successfully installed and run on FreeAXP and Avanti.

January 1, 2010: Happy New Year!

December 29, 2009: FreeAXP™ Beta Release

The beta of FreeAXP™, a free AlphaServer 400 emulator, is slated for release to select testers January 2, 2010. Details are available in the FreeAXP™ Beta Press Release.

December 15, 2009: Alpha Version Testing

Alpha version testing is progressing nicely on the Alpha emulator. Performance is meeting expectations and no major problems have been uncovered thus far. We anticipate making a beta release announcement soon.

October 12, 2009: Tru64 UNIX Boots

Our focus over the past month has been booting the Tru64 UNIX O/S on the Alpha emulator. We are please to report the following results to date:

• Tru64 installation CD successfully loads and boots.
• Tru64 successfully installs to a virtual disk.
• Tru64 successfully boots and configures on a virtual disk.

September 9, 2009: Physical CD Support

Physical CD support is now working with the Alpha emulator. OpenVMS CD's can be booted, mounted, and read just like on a real Alpha system. The emulator has been supporting CD ISO files for several months.

August 24, 2009: Physical SCSI Support

Physical SCSI support is now working with the Alpha emulator. Disks removed from a genuine legacy Alpha system can be booted on and accessed by the emulator.

August 17, 2009: Emulator Boot Testing

Progress continues with the Alpha Emulator. Since our first boot report in mid-June, the following milestones have been met:

• Boot the installation CD-ROM
• Install VMS onto an emulated disk
• Boot off the emulated disk
• Boot off a restore image of an OpenVMS system disk
• AUTOGEN runs successfully

Development remains on schedule. We anticipate announcing product availability and pricing in Q4, 2009.

June 14, 2009: OpenVMS Booting

Migration Specialties is please to report successful boots of OpenVMS 7.3 and 8.3 on our Alpha AS400 emulator. Successful boots have been conducted using OpenVMS on Integrity and Windows on X86 as host operating systems. We remain on schedule for a Q1 product release. We have representatives attending the OpenVMS Technology Forum this week that can discuss our virtual VAX and Alpha solutions and development plans.

May 11, 2009: AS400 & VAX Testing

Alpha emulator development continues on schedule at Migration Specialties. We are currently test booting OpenVMS on an emulated AS400. Concurrently, we are developing a regression test suite for SimH VAX to further improve the quality and consistency of this open source product. We plan to have representatives at the OpenVMS Technology Forum and hope to see you there.

March 20, 2009: Virtual VAX & Alpha Emulator Base Port to Integrity

Last week, ably assisted by the OpenVMS guru's at HP's porting center in Marlboro, MA, Migration Specialties successfully ported the Virtualization Layer and base Alpha CPU components to OpenVMS running on Integrity. Some interesting issues regarding C++ compiler behavior and p-threads were encountered and overcome during four days of porting and testing. Development is now proceeding in parallel on OpenVMS and Windows.

March 3, 2009: VL Milestone

We have completed development of the emulator environment Virtualization Layer, or VL. The VL supports everything not directly related to the bits, bytes and registers of the emulated hardware. The VL achieves this in a number of ways:

• Hiding the differing characteristics of host operating systems and hardware platforms from the rest of the emulator. This allows the same code to run on OpenVMS and Windows without having to bother about different ways to do threading or hardware access.
• Integrating emulator components that deal with user or host machine interaction. For example, VL communications ports provide the ability to communicate through a telnet session or a physical serial port. This way, this functionality can be shared by any emulated communications port without requiring additional effort, simplifying the emulation environment and providing a more consistent user experience.
• Providing a flexible emulated network infrastructure to emulated network cards.
• Integrating a sophisticated control program that allows a single instance of the emulator to support multiple virtual machines. These machines can be of the same or differing types.
• Providing an extremely flexible method to define hardware configurations in a hierarchical manner, allowing every hardware component to be fully configurable.

Development is now focused on a core Alpha processor that will allow us to generate different emulated Alpha processors (e.g. EV4, EV5) to support different Alpha platforms.