From owner-freebsd-platforms Sun Jan 24 07:05:35 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id HAA11740 for freebsd-platforms-outgoing; Sun, 24 Jan 1999 07:05:35 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-platforms@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from bachue.usc.unal.edu.co (bachue.usc.unal.edu.co [168.176.3.20]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id HAA11734 for ; Sun, 24 Jan 1999 07:05:34 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from pfgiffun@bachue.usc.unal.edu.co) Received: from bachue.usc.unal.edu.co ([168.176.3.44]) by bachue.usc.unal.edu.co (Netscape Messaging Server 3.0) with ESMTP id AAA5038 for ; Sun, 24 Jan 1999 10:08:17 +0500 Message-ID: <36AB36F1.E61B2198@bachue.usc.unal.edu.co> Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1999 10:06:25 -0500 From: "Pedro F. Giffuni" Organization: U. Nacional de Colombia X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.05 [en] (X11; U; FreeBSD 2.2.7-RELEASE i386) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: platforms@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Anyone working on a SGI PC? Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-platforms@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org There is a comment in slashdot about Linux supporting the new SGI workstations, but since even M$-Windows works there it shouldn't be difficult to run FreeBSD: _________________ The SGI Visual Workstations 320 and 540 are Intel based SMP (Symmetrical Multiprocessing) workstations with standard PC drivers (serial, parallel, floppy, ethernet, PCI etc.) However, the similarity ends here. These machines are based on a novel UMA (Unified Memory Architecture), an architecture which provides I/O and Graphics performance significantly higher (6 times AGP 2x speed, 12 times PCI-64 speed) than what's available in common PC clones and provides much greater flexibilty (i.e. VRAM is not separate from the main RAM). The booting process isn't standard. The VisWs uses ARC-PROM rather than that ancient BIOS technology, so it doesn't need LILO and you can boot directly from any image file on various devices. The main additions to the Linux kernel consist of code to detect and initialize the SGI Cobalt and Arsenic chipset. Please note that while this enables you to boot Linux on the Visual Workstations, it does not include graphics like X11, not to mention hardware accelerated OpenGL. In other words, there's a lot of work still to be done to make Linux really shine on these machines and use all the power of the hardware. ________________ Further information on: http://visual.sgi.com/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-platforms" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-platforms Sun Jan 24 09:30:59 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id JAA25380 for freebsd-platforms-outgoing; Sun, 24 Jan 1999 09:30:59 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-platforms@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from rover.village.org (rover.village.org [204.144.255.49]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id JAA25374 for ; Sun, 24 Jan 1999 09:30:57 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from imp@village.org) Received: from harmony [10.0.0.6] by rover.village.org with esmtp (Exim 1.71 #1) id 104TMx-0001vD-00; Sun, 24 Jan 1999 10:30:43 -0700 Received: from harmony.village.org (localhost.village.org [127.0.0.1]) by harmony.village.org (8.9.1/8.8.3) with ESMTP id KAA04523; Sun, 24 Jan 1999 10:29:06 -0700 (MST) Message-Id: <199901241729.KAA04523@harmony.village.org> To: "Pedro F. Giffuni" Subject: Re: Anyone working on a SGI PC? Cc: platforms@FreeBSD.ORG In-reply-to: Your message of "Sun, 24 Jan 1999 10:06:25 EST." <36AB36F1.E61B2198@bachue.usc.unal.edu.co> References: <36AB36F1.E61B2198@bachue.usc.unal.edu.co> Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1999 10:29:05 -0700 From: Warner Losh Sender: owner-freebsd-platforms@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org In message <36AB36F1.E61B2198@bachue.usc.unal.edu.co> "Pedro F. Giffuni" writes: : There is a comment in slashdot about Linux supporting the new SGI : workstations, but since even M$-Windows works there it shouldn't be : difficult to run FreeBSD: There has been discussion about this in the linux/mips mailing lists. Turns out that they used mostly PC compatible hardware, but there are a few execptions. The memory subsystem is nonstandard, but that won't impact freebsd. However, the main problem is with the graphics subsystem... That's 90% of the reason I'd want a SGI PC.. Warner To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-platforms" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-platforms Mon Jan 25 11:26:24 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id LAA27287 for freebsd-platforms-outgoing; Mon, 25 Jan 1999 11:26:24 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-platforms@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from bachue.usc.unal.edu.co (bachue.usc.unal.edu.co [168.176.3.20]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id LAA27262 for ; Mon, 25 Jan 1999 11:26:16 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from pfgiffun@bachue.usc.unal.edu.co) Received: from bachue.usc.unal.edu.co ([168.176.3.42]) by bachue.usc.unal.edu.co (Netscape Messaging Server 3.0) with ESMTP id AAA6377; Mon, 25 Jan 1999 14:28:22 +0500 Message-ID: <36AC8A1A.FF8D3010@bachue.usc.unal.edu.co> Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 10:13:30 -0500 From: "Pedro F. Giffuni" Organization: U. Nacional de Colombia X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.05 [en] (X11; U; FreeBSD 2.2.7-RELEASE i386) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Warner Losh CC: platforms@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Anyone working on a SGI PC? References: <36AB36F1.E61B2198@bachue.usc.unal.edu.co> <199901241729.KAA04523@harmony.village.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-platforms@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org I think an XFree86 port will come sooner or later; it seems like there is interest in some SGI engineers to port linux and they'll have to deal with this. Meanwhile, having PicoBSD for this platform would be a good sign :-). It's curious that there's no Irix for this platforms: they sold out to M$ :(. Pedro. Warner Losh wrote: > > In message <36AB36F1.E61B2198@bachue.usc.unal.edu.co> "Pedro > F. Giffuni" writes: > : There is a comment in slashdot about Linux supporting the new SGI > : workstations, but since even M$-Windows works there it shouldn't be > : difficult to run FreeBSD: > > There has been discussion about this in the linux/mips mailing > lists. Turns out that they used mostly PC compatible hardware, but > there are a few execptions. The memory subsystem is nonstandard, but > that won't impact freebsd. However, the main problem is with the > graphics subsystem... That's 90% of the reason I'd want a SGI PC.. > > Warner To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-platforms" in the body of the message