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ALR Quad6 board with processors

4

4Run4Fun

Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2009
Messages
22
Location
Anderson, SC
This may not excatly qualify as vintage, but I have a working ALR Quad6 Mother board with 4 Pentium Pro processors installed. I also have a SIMM card containing 64MB of tested RAM.

If you are not familiar with these items, they were manufactured in the mid 1990s by Advanced Logic Research and for a while held the record as the fastest commerical servers money could buy.

Its 4-way SMP, and that has a coolness factor thats hard to match. The CPUs are Pentium Pro 200/256K all stepping codes match. The RAM is 60ns Fast Page with Parity. I will add some pictures in the next day or so.

Warning - this board is big, and non-standard. I have seen people custom fit them in exceptionally large tower cases, but it will take the biggest one you can find -trust me!

I have all the drivers and utilites to go with it.

If anyone is interested, I will happily entertain all offers. These items are tested and they DO WORK FINE.

Thanks,

Ryan
 
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NeXT said:
You got a photograph of this?
if I can easily mod in an AT or ATX power supply I'm actually rather tempted.

EDIT: Wait, This is it, correct?
Click to expand...

I tried your embeded link, but it didn't work. I will have a photo posted of both the board and the card w/memory very soon. I found an image on the internet and have attached it.
 

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Here are the photos everyone wanted to see. I forgot to mention that I have two (2) memory risers that go with the board, and if you buy it, you can have them both. I know the photos are not that large, but thats the maximum allowable upload size. If you need to see them larger, I can email the pics directly to you.

I wanted to also mention that other than hacking a power supply to operate this board ( which a pinout doagram can easily be found online ), it is otherwise VERY compatible with regular hardware. It accepts PS2 mouse and keyboard, standard PCI and ISA cards, and I successfully installed WIndows 2000 Advanced Server on the first try with all processors recognized and functioning. I would, however recommend an aftermarket IDE and floppy controller as the onboard ones are painfully slow.

If you are willing to spend the money, I can put you in touch with a company that still sells the original cases that house these beasts, complete with redundant, load-sharing power supplies, 13 drive bays, a touch screen LCD panel, something to the tune of 12 fans, and more.

If you were to see the board operating, you'd be impressed. It has 4 activity LEDs on the motherboard - one for each processor, they dance a pretty light show!
 

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Too bad the "Pentium II Overdrive" doesn't work in more-than-two socket systems. I have a box of 'em, and I'd love to throw them in this beasty. (The Pentium II Overdrive was a 333 MHz Pentium II processor with full-speed L2 cache crammed into the Pentium Pro's Socket 8. So it was basically a Pentium Pro at 66% faster clock speed than the fastest released 'true' PPro, plus MMX. The mainstream Pentium II processors used a half-speed L2 cache.)

edit: Ah, taking a look at the pictures, it needs the old-style plug-in VRMs. I don't have any of those lying around, so this board wouldn't do me a lot of good. (Not to mention the lack of proper chassis.)
 
There are several threads around the internet of folks successfully operating the 'Overdrive' CPUs in both this machine and the 6x6, so I believe you might be in luck on that one. The BIOS allows a lot of multiplier modification and customization. As far as the VRMs, you are right, they are required, but when I bought a set last time on Ebay, they were less than $6 a piece and have worked flawlessly for about 6 years now. Low demand has led to people basically giving them away.

Surely someone out there would enjoy a SETI or FOLDING machine of this uniqueness!

VRMs for $6

Article where PPro Overdrives work in this system (read the last paragragh)
 
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One more thought though. Even if you're not interested in this board setup, I would love to try the Overdrives myself in my other Quad6 system as I have read they work beautifully. Do you have a set of 4 with stepping codes matching?

Thanks,

Ryan
 
I have 2 PPro 333 overdrives on an Intel PR440FX with 1GB EDO ECC ram running for a decade 24/7, very reliable hardware.

If you are going to run the real PPro try to get the black ones with 1MB cache.
 
I know. I have 4 of the 1MB cache PPros running in my other Quad6 setup. They were the main server at my company for years. I just thought it would be cool to try four of the Overdrives for myself, as I have read several places that it can be done.

I guess no one is interested in this setup, so I'll just shelve it. Its really a shame as I already have a functioning Quad6 so this board and processor combo won't see any action.

One more chance for anyone....

Let me know if you have something you'd consider trading...

Some things I currently seek (but not limited to trade for these only) :

Indus GT for Commodore 64
MSD SD-2 for Commodore
PEB for TI-994/a
1581 Disk Drive
18-40u server chassis
 
If the deal for the complete 6X6 server falls through in the far future I'm still willing to fall back onto this deal though it would be nice if it was a complete system.
 
NeXT said:
If the deal for the complete 6X6 server falls through in the far future I'm still willing to fall back onto this deal though it would be nice if it was a complete system.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I didn't realize you had a pending deal on a 6x6.

Really the only thing you'd need to make this system complete are VRMs ($6 each), CPU fans (socket 8), and you'd have to hack together your own PSU, but again, the pinouts are readily avaialble.

I still have contact with a dude that can sell you the original case with dual PSUs intact. Its pricey, but it makes all the difference.
 
Guys,

I still have this in the closet. It is still waiting for a new owner! I'd like $100 for the board with processors. I am also considering selling the full Quad6 setup, as I have not turned it on in YEARS now. It weighs a TON - but you cannot deny the coolness. If there is any interest in either, let me know, please.

Thanks,
 
That's a seriously awesome system. Do you have pictures of the thing anywhere? I'm not sure how much more the system would be worth than the board but as you said shipping sorta sucks. I would still think it'd be one to keep together though (but I'm bad about never wanting to part things out).
 
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