Alpha SRM Console for Alpha Microprocessor Motherboards User's Guide

This user guide describes the Alpha SRM Console firmware for Digital Equipment Corporation's Alpha microprocessor motherboards (including AlphaPC 164SX, 164LX, 164, EB164, EB66+, AlphaPC 64, and EB64+ systems) designed to run DIGITAL UNIX and OpenVMS operating systems. Published in September 1997, it targets users who need to bootstrap operating systems and system designers who need to diagnose hardware issues.

The Alpha SRM Console is essential firmware providing:

• Power-up diagnostics and initialization.
• An operator interface.
• Operating system bootstrap and restart capabilities. Its features include an event-driven executive, UNIX-style I/O with various device drivers (SCSI, Ethernet, storage), and a console shell with commands for system management.

The document details how to install and update the Alpha SRM Console firmware:

• Flash ROM updates can be performed from AlphaBIOS setup, Windows NT ARC firmware, Debug Monitor firmware, or the Alpha SRM Console itself.
• UVPROM updates (for EB64+) involve replacing the UVPROM with a pre-programmed one.

It also extensively covers Alpha SRM Console commands used for:

• Basic system operation and configuration: Commands like boot (to load operating systems), set (to modify environment variables), show (to display system info and environment variables), deposit (to write data), examine (to display data), arc (to load Windows NT ARC firmware/AlphaBIOS), and fwupdate (to run firmware update utility).
• Environment variables: These control the system's operational state and pass information between the firmware and OS.
• Configuration utilities: isacfg for configuring Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) option modules, and ewrk3_config for programming DEC EtherWORKS 3 network interface EEPROMs.

Finally, the guide provides comprehensive information on Alpha SRM Console diagnostic commands to test and debug system components, including:

• exer, exer_read, exer_write for device exercising (e.g., disks).
• memexer, memtest for memory diagnostics.
• nettest for network testing.
• sys_exer and test for comprehensive system diagnostics.
• kill_diags to stop diagnostic processes, and show_status to view ongoing diagnostic activities. Diagnostic command behavior can be adjusted using specific environment variables.