Date: Tue, 11 Mar 1997 10:31:46 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> To: msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au (Michael Smith) Cc: kim@tinker.com, freebsd-platforms@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FAQ? Message-ID: <199703111731.KAA25504@phaeton.artisoft.com> In-Reply-To: <199703110518.PAA13793@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> from "Michael Smith" at Mar 11, 97 03:48:11 pm
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> > > ... If you're > > >talking about porting FreeBSD _to_ the PPC, then there's a gang of mad > > >platform porters that are starting to think about what has to be done > > >to make FreeBSD platform-friendly. > > > > How would one contact this band of mad platform porters? > > I think you've picked a fairly good place, actually. There's various > noise about the Alpha coming from Jordan, and some interest in a Mips > port as well. Terry Lambert was working on the PPC code previously; I > understand he was using AIX as a development platform, but had some > problems with documentation suppliers screwing him around. A friend of mine has a lab full of VAX hardware and a lab full of Sun hardware, and a bunch of student who have yet to be told what can't be done by a well-meaning core team member. 8-). I have a DEC Alpha, and I have the code that Jeffrey Hsu had hacked on plus my hacks, so I have a head start on the Alpha. I also have an HP3xx (68040). I also have an MCA machine (PS/2-56?). I also have the PPC loaner machine that I've been working on on and off since recovering from my accident enough to let me sit more than 8 hours a day (which I have to do for my normal job). The PPC machine is booting using modified Linux boot code (binary). It uses PPCBug, not Open Firmware, so it's hardly a port. I also have a number of VM problems I have yet to find. It's a Motorola Ultra 603 system, the same as used in Motorola "PowerStack" systems, and the same as sold by FirePower Systems and Arrow Electronics. I dumped $500 down the toilet trying to get PPCBug documentation out of Arrow (I bought it from them twice, but didn't get it either time). They are the only supplier I can go through because Motorola assigns dealer sales territories. I'm a registered BeBox developer, and I have corresponded in the not so recent past with Gassee about hardware documentation (which is what led to there being enough documentation for a Linux port). But the BeBox itself is a dead platform since Be has quit building them to concentrate on being "NeXT for PPC" after Apple bought NeXT to make themselves "NeXT for PPC". The NetBSD code, at least for the PPC, is the hosted OS approach, and so is somewhat more than unsatisfying, actually, so starting there will help only where the ROM stuff isn't used. And the big difference between FreeBSD and NetBSD is still the VM system. Regards, Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.
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