for a 500Mhz Alpha in a pc164: aboot.conf: 0:1/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1 cycle=500000000 This sets the correct clock frequency value (and therefore a working udelay(int)). I did not look why it is not set correctly, but without this option, bogomips are wrong by a factor of ca. 7 -> all timings are REALLY wrong. Hope it helps, Andres PS: this therefore fixes the sym53c8xx no-go and makes it possible to actually BOOT ;-)