old rs6000 44p 170, Aix 5.2 - what can i do with it?
 

hello together,

i just found an old rs6000 44p 170, Aix 5.2 ..
password is valid.. and known..

any idea what i could do with it, other then give to trash?

how can i:
check for hardware size, memory size, processor infos?
tried with smitty.. not found any info.

are there upgrades available, which os is possible to be installed other then 5.2 on that rather old machine?

thx for help.
bernd_

I don't know about newer AIX but there are Debian ports for other hardware (i.e. non-Intel) platforms.

This page shows 44P can use the Debian CHRP port.

I actually have one of those under my desk at work but it hasn't been turned on in quite a while... Unfortunately they don't support anything newer than AIX 5.3 so your upgrade options are quite limited. If you have more of a Linux background you could try a distro that runs on IBM Power (ppc64) and could probably run something fairly modern.

IIRC that model has up to 450MHz processor and 1-2GB RAM, so you could also just buy a Raspberry Pi 3 :)

To look at the hardware you can use:

Yeah, I'd probably put Linux on it, AIX kinda sucks IMHO.

Hello and welcome to LQ.

It may have been a good unix box in 2000 but finding and running some linux on that goofy Power3 system may not be worth the headache.

https://distrowatch.com/search.php?architecture=powerpc is some ideas that may or may not pan out.

Getting the diag floppies from some place would be a start.

Doubt you'll find any AIX copies but maybe on bid sites.

Should be possible to bypass the old security model.

Any Power8 systems under your desk? :)

It should be basically a PowerPC, so there should be plenty of distros available meant for old Macs, wouldn't they work?