> 
> That is COOL.
> 
> Do they have kits available?  ;-)
Well, I called DEC about this yesterday.  The person on the phone said that
no further information (other than what is currently on the web site) is
available, but to keep watching them web site and/or call again in about
3 weeks.  I hope it will be possible to purchase one in the near future.
I, for one, would really like to get one to play with even if it meant
paying a somewhat premium price.  Another issues for "stuff DEC is doing
that could be relevant to NetBSD people" is the Alpha 21164PC processor,
which is due to be available in quantity this summer and for which an
ATX-format motherboard will be made available sometime later this year.
Obviously, people will be clamoring to run NetBSD on these puppies, but I
see several possible pitfalls:
1.  The (unconfirmed?) rumor that the 21164PC won't support the superpage
mapping used by the current NetBSD/Alpha VM implementation.
2.  It sounds highly unlikely that DEC will make available SRM console or
Digital Unix PALcode for the 21164PC.

It may be time to rethink a method for making NetBSD/Alpha viable without
SRM console or DU PALcode.  So, I think we ought to figure out (1) what
console services are currently used by NetBSD and (2) what PALcode ops
are currently used.  I don't suspect that the console will be a very major
issue.  I might, if I can find the time, be willing to spearhead an effort
to write PALcode which provides the required functionality for NetBSD...
-ben