  PWS Personal Workstation -a series? 
 The Question is:
 
Can you run OpenVMS on a DEC PWS 500a that has an EIDE CDROM, Qlogic SCSI
 controller and DEC SCSI hard drive?
 
System has latest firmware and the bios can be changed to Alphabios, SRM True64
 and SRM OpenVMS.
 
Thank you,
Tony Asleson
 
 
 The Answer is :
 
  There is no support for OpenVMS on this or any other member of the
  Personal Workstation -a (PWS-a) series, as previously referenced
  here and as is mentioned in the OpenVMS Frequently Asked Questions
  (FAQ).
 
  Again, the PWS-a series is not supported.
 
  No member of the Personal Workstation -a series is supported.
 
  OpenVMS is not supported on any Microsoft Windows NT (only) Alpha
  platform.
 
  No so-called whitebox Alpha system is supported by OpenVMS.
 
  The PWS -au series is supported by OpenVMS.
 
  There is no official nor sanctioned mechanism to convert a Personal
  Workstation -a system into an -au series system.
 
  For further information and the official list of supported platforms,
  please see the Software Product Description (SPD) for OpenVMS.
 
  As with any unsupported configuration, you might or might not be
  able to get OpenVMS to bootstrap and operate in the configuration,
  and (assuming it bootstraps) OpenVMS might or might not be stable,
  and specific OpenVMS features might or might not operate as expected.
 
  As with any supported or unsupported Alpha platform, use of the
  latest SRM console firmware is recommended.
 
  The OpenVMS FAQ also has discussions of ATA (IDE) CD-ROM device
  bootstraps that are applicable to various members of the Personal
  Workstation series platforms.  Search the text-format version of
  the OpenVMS FAQ for the string Cypress for details on this.
 
 Answer written or last revised on  25-FEB-2003 
