From owner-freebsd-hackers Sun Aug 29 16:43:21 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from atlrel2.hp.com (atlrel2.hp.com [156.153.255.202]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D868B14C3B for ; Sun, 29 Aug 1999 16:43:15 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from darrylo@sr.hp.com) Received: from postal.sr.hp.com (root@postal.sr.hp.com [15.4.46.173]) by atlrel2.hp.com (8.8.6 (PHNE_17135)/8.8.5tis) with ESMTP id TAA12737 for ; Sun, 29 Aug 1999 19:41:53 -0400 (EDT) Received: from mina.sr.hp.com (root@mina.sr.hp.com [15.4.42.247]) by postal.sr.hp.com with ESMTP (8.8.6 (PHNE_17190)/8.7.3 TIS 5.0) id QAA19187 for ; Sun, 29 Aug 1999 16:41:49 -0700 (PDT) Received: from localhost (darrylo@mina.sr.hp.com [15.4.42.247]) by mina.sr.hp.com with ESMTP (8.8.6 (PHNE_17135)/8.7.3 TIS 5.0) id QAA07935 for ; Sun, 29 Aug 1999 16:42:19 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199908292342.QAA07935@mina.sr.hp.com> To: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Intel Merced FreeBSD??? Intel? - NOT Reply-To: Darryl Okahata In-reply-to: Your message of "Fri, 27 Aug 1999 17:48:02 CDT." Mime-Version: 1.0 (generated by tm-edit 7.108) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1999 16:42:19 -0700 From: Darryl Okahata Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG "Jay West" wrote: > The merced executes PA-RISC instructions natively. It also executes x86 > instructions natively. If the chip you get doesn't do one or the other, it's > because that section has been lobotomized for marketing/contract reasons due > to where you get the chip from. The section is still on the silicon > though... As a side comment, note that there is more than one "Merced Linux port" (it'll be interesting to see how they merge the efforts, if at all). There's the VA/Intel port, and there's a lesser-known one from HP Labs (it's been demo'd at the HP booth at recent Linux trade shows). From the secondhand info I've heard, it may be further ahead than the VA/Intel one. Back in February, I did see a very early version boot on some laptop running a Merced simulator. At the time, it wasn't very functional, being able to do ps, ls, and not much else, but I was surprised at how fast the simulator ran on the laptop (I think the boot sequence took a couple of minutes, but I didn't do any actual timings). However, that was six months ago, and quite a bit has supposedly been done since then. I've heard that it's "almost usable" (whatever this means). -- Darryl Okahata darrylo@sr.hp.com DISCLAIMER: this message is the author's personal opinion and does not constitute the support, opinion, or policy of Hewlett-Packard, or of the little green men that have been following him all day. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message