VMS Help V73 Features, System Management Features, AlphaServer GS Series  *Conan The Librarian (sorry for the slow response - running on an old VAX)

    OpenVMS Version 7.3 provides support for Compaq's AlphaServer
    GS80, GS160 and GS320 systems, which was introduced in OpenVMS
    Version 7.2-1H1, and includes:

    o  OpenVMS support for hard and soft partitions (Galaxy) on
       AlphaServer GS160 and GS320 systems

    o  OpenVMS Resource Affinity Domain (RAD) support for
       applications

    o  CPU Online Replace

1 - Hard and Soft Partitions

    Hard partitioning is a physical separation of computing resources
    by hardware-enforced access barriers. It is impossible to read
    or write across a hard partition boundary. There is no resource
    sharing between hard partitions.

    Soft partitioning is a separation of computing resources by
    software-controlled access barriers. Read and write access across
    a soft partition boundary is controlled by the operating system.
    OpenVMS Galaxy is an implementation of soft partitioning.

    The way customers choose to partition their systems depends on
    their computing environments and application requirements. For
    more information about using hard partitions and OpenVMS Galaxy,
    refer to the OpenVMS Alpha Partitioning and Galaxy Guide.

2 - Resource Affinity Domain (RAD) Support

    OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3 provides non-uniform memory awareness
    (NUMA) in OpenVMS memory management and process scheduling,
    which was introduced in OpenVMS Version 7.2-1H1. This capability
    provides application support for resource affinity domains
    (RADs), to ensure that applications running on a single instance
    of OpenVMS on multiple quad building blocks (QBBs) can execute
    as efficiently as possible in a NUMA environment. A RAD is a
    set of hardware components (CPU, memory, IO) with common access
    characteristics, and corresponds to a QBB in an AlphaServer GS160
    or GS320 system.

    For more information about using the OpenVMS RAD support for
    application features, refer to the OpenVMS Alpha Partitioning and
    Galaxy Guide.