Score:5, Offtopic

So, I just got my latest acquisition, an IBM PC Server 500 System/390, running.

Here's what I used - some things linked, some things not.

Software and PC Server tools:
PC Server 500 Reference Disk (I had one with the machine, so I didn't bother looking for a good copy)
IBM SCSI-2 Fast/Wide Streaming RAID Option Disks (disk 1 for setting up the arrays, disk 2 isn't needed)
P/390 drivers - PCSERVER_S390_V25_PGM*.DSK - also, the LIC disk is useful
P/390 microcode - I wouldn't normally link this, but it's utterly useless if you don't have a P/390, and if you have a P/390, you're entitled to it. It's in the DISK7 folder. Fixpacks are available on the same page as well, but I'll download those later.
OS/2 Warp 4.52 Convenience Pack 2 Client (getting that is your own problem)
VM/ESA 2.4.0 ADCD (that's also your own problem)
UNZIP for OS/2
Personal Communications TCP/IP Entry Level 4.1 - IBM's free TN3270 and TN5250 client

Tools on other systems:
Virtual Floppy Disk 2.1 (for mounting floppy images on Windows)
WinImage (for manipulating floppy images on Windows)
Windows Virtual PC (if you've got Windows 7 Pro, you can get it easily from Windows Update, IIRC)
dd (in any good *nix)
EMT4WIN (for extracting IBM LOADDSK format images)

First thing I did, once I got all the cards reseated, replaced the CMOS battery, and reseated some drives, was firing up the Reference Disk.

Once that was done, I started configuring the RAIDs, and trying to get drives going. I couldn't get the biggest drives going, but that's OK.

Once I got the drives going, and fought with the CD-ROM for a while and got it going, I installed OS/2. That required that I write the OS/2 floppy images (did it from within a VM on OS/2,) and then add the DAC960.ADD and DAC960.SNP from OS/2 to them, so the SCSI controller would be recognized.

Once OS/2 was installed, I wrote out the P/390 disk images, and installed that software. (Hint: while there may be disk1 through disk6 folders in that microcode zip, don't use them.) I decided to grab the LIC disk, and merge it with the contents of the disk7 folder, and renamed the volume to P390 DIAG, which was needed to install the Licensed Internal Code, or the microcode.

At that point, I decided the best approach would be, while I had that disk in the drive, to go ahead and run the P/390 diagnostics. They passed:


With that success, it was time to install Personal Communications/3270 TCP/IP Entry Level, IBM's free TN3270 client, which would be used as the console for the mainframe. Unzipped all of those files into a folder, and ran the installer, and now I had one more piece of the puzzle.

Finally, to install VM/ESA. I ended up having to copy some files over the network (for some reason, it wasn't reading the CD,) but it otherwise installed fine.

Not much left to do... just fire up PC/3270, connect to localhost port 7490, and IPL P390.





And that's how you get a circa-1995 micro-mainframe running.

Problems are that the third bay of drives aren't set up properly yet, the graphics output gets very dim as it's running (you can see in the IPL images that I've had to enhance the contrast a lot,) and I don't have a driver for the Olicom 10/100 Ethernet card. Other than that, it seems to be pretty good to go.

...because of the R51e.

The R51e is the first ThinkPad since the Acer-designed and manufactured i series to use a non-Intel chipset.

The i series systems used primarily ALi (Acer Labs) chipsets. However, the R51e uses chipsets by a different company whose name begins with an A and ends with an I. That's right, ATi's Xpress 200M is used in the R51e.

So, you're asking, what's the big deal?

Well, it's simple. This creates whole new possibilities for the X33.

Let's go over the X33's possible configurations:

An update of the X32, as a laptop with discrete graphics - i915PM, ATi Mobility Radeon X300
An update of the X32, as a laptop with updated, but not discrete, graphics - i915GM
And, the new possibility, an update of the X32, as a laptop with updated, and much better, yet still integrated graphics - ATi Xpress 200M.

Before this happened, I thought the third wouldn't happen until pigs were flying their little sub-2.5lb 10.4" ThinkPad S40s into Hell, carrying winter coats. Then again, weirder things HAVE happened this year... Apple switching to Intel, Apple releasing a multi-button mouse, Slashdot updating to CSS, IBM selling out to Lenovo, and Opera removing the ads...

I had thought that Lenovo would either give the option, releasing both an integrated graphics AND a discrete graphics model, or just release the integrated graphics model (remember, there's a little dislike of the X3, as it draws sales away from both the T4 and the X4.) Also, a discrete model would consume more power, which was already a concern with the i915 northbridge.

I can't get power consumption figures on the ATi RX200M, but I'd hazard a guess that it's lower than an i915PM + ATi MRX300.

Comparing the i915G and the ATi RX200 (non-mobile), the ATi chipset is slightly slower than the Intel chipset in ordinary work. However, in 3D work, it takes the GMA900 to the cleaners. Granted, it's on a par with the GMA950 (except there's a couple games it plays that the GMA950 can't), but there aren't any GMA950s for the P-M yet.

So, I would be totally unsurprised if Lenovo releases the X33 with an ATi Radeon Xpress 200M.

Well, looks like the X3 series isn't going to be cut, after all:

Originally posted by abaxter on the NotebookReview.com Forums:

By the way, Lenovo sent an email back to me and said the IBM X30 series (X30, X31, X32 ...) will never have APS installed, don't ask me why, they say they will keep updating the series and not kill it but that it will never have APS. It must just not be compatible with their design approach for this model, or it's a way for them to differentiate the X40 series.

(my emphasis)

The X32 may well be cut, seeing as tabook (IBM's master listing of their models) is listing far fewer X32s, but it looks like there's going to be an X33 to take its place.