  What version of OpenVMS do I need? 
 The Question is:
 
Is there any way (supported or not) to get
VMS V5.4 running on a VAX 4000-500?
 
 The Answer is :
 
  As you are likely aware from the table of minimum versions for
  supported platforms -- a table referenced in the OpenVMS FAQ,
  in the section entitled "What version of OpenVMS do I need?"
  -- and also obviously by your own experimentation, support for
  this particular VAX system was added in an OpenVMS VAX release
  after the release which you attempted to bootstrap.
 
  Support for an arbitary VAX or Alpha platform involves adding
  support for the host processor, the errors that can arise, the
  format of the interrupts, and details of the system and I/O
  configuration.  The effort is non-trivial, in other words.
  (If the VAX platform does closely emulate an earlier supported
  platform, then this support effort is obviously reduced.)
 
  While support for this platform could theoretically be backported
  (an event which is exceedingly unlikely), that effort would be
  roughly equivilent to patching the version number of a more
  current release back to V5.4.  If you wish to entertain the use
  of V1.0 or V5.4 or V10.0 on this platform, details on setting an
  arbitary release version string are included in the OpenVMS FAQ
  section "Changing the OpenVMS Version Number?".  (This version
  hackery is, of course, roughly as unsupported as the use of V5.4
  would be on this platform -- though the latter hackery is
  admittedly rather likely to function than the former.)
 
 Answer written or last revised on  18-MAR-2002 
