Date: Wed, 10 May 95 12:15:03 MDT From: terry@cs.weber.edu (Terry Lambert) To: arquint@inf.ethz.ch (Caspar Arquint) Cc: questions@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Ports of FreeBSD Message-ID: <9505101815.AA26114@cs.weber.edu> In-Reply-To: <199505100820.KAA04889@tau.inf.ethz.ch> from "Caspar Arquint" at May 10, 95 10:20:18 am
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> I wonder what the intention about porting of FreeBSD is. > Currently there are only 386/486's supported - right? > Is there maybe an intention like "FreeBSD only supports 386/486" ? > > Or are there any other plans to support Pentium or even to port > to PowerPC? Sure FreeBSD will already run on a Pentium machine but > this CPU has some more feature than a 486 or even a 386 has, which > if supported by the OS directly may make a machine even more faster...;-) If you can get the hardware documentation for the PowerPC machines out of Apple, or you can convince IBM to open their *warehouses* full of PCI based PC class PPC machines that they haven't got WARP running on to their satisfaction (and pry hardware docs out of them), or if you can find a third party that builds a board such that the total system is in the $2000-$3000 range (like the IBM and Apple systems) and get docs from them... then I will buy a machine the same business day that I get the documentation, I will pay FedEx charges to get it to me as fast as possible on top of the default charges, and I will start work the day the machine arrives. I've had copies of the PReP standard since the 2nd day after it was available up to the point where Apple decided they could make more money in a closed hardware market and threw PReP out the window in favor of CHRP (which is about as useful as a documented hardware standard as POSIX is as an ABI). Call it starting work 4 days after I get the docs (same day if it's Apple; they have dealers here in town with machines in stock), call it booting for single user mode in 1 man-month (1-2 elapsed months; I have a day job and other "outside" interests). It is absolutely imperitive that the documentation include an available ethernet option -- I expect the first stage of the port to be diskless, since it's less work. Other options include Alpha, which is very near my price point these days, PCMCIA work (there are several laptops at 800x600, but they are way above my price point for VGA resoloution -- I'd go $4000 for a 1024x768, though), and any usable SMP box up to $4000 (most of the Intel PCI implementations suck too badly to buy one of those right now -- I'd buy a 2 processer Sun box used for that, but fat chance that you could find one that cheap). When it comes to spending my own money, I want to be at the bleeding edge or I won't spend it. I had one of the first EISA boxes in Utah, and back in my University days, the University had the first MicroVAX II, the first IBM PC, the first IBM PC/XT, and the first NeXT machines in Utah (the CS department at Weber currently owns the 8th production Apple Lisa in the world). Less interesting is the hardware that NetBSD already runs on (someone's already "been there, done that"). I'd do a FreeBSD port for any of that hardware (with credit to the NetBSD sources involved in big glowing letters) if loaned equipment, and I'd maintain the thing if given the equipment. 8-). Terry Lambert terry@cs.weber.edu --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.
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