Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 17:04:37 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> To: troyc@sandy.merix.com (Troy Curtiss) Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Be goes FreeBSD :-) Message-ID: <199607250004.RAA20509@phaeton.artisoft.com> In-Reply-To: <troyc-9606212036.AA000118664@sandy> from "Troy Curtiss" at Jul 21, 96 01:36:11 pm
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> As Thomas Graichen wisely stated: > > wow: > > > > graichen@mordillo:~> telnet www.be.com > > Trying 140.174.204.94... > > Connected to www.be.com. > > Escape character is '^]'. > > > > FreeBSD (www.be.com) (ttyp0) > > > > login: > > > > So.... who's gonna port FreeBSD over to the Be-Box, it looks > like they already know who we are :) (Terry??) Check out > http://www.be.com , looks like a really cool chunk of hardware > to do SMP on PPC using BSD ;) I have a developer ID from Be, Inc., and have had email exchanges with Jean Louis Gassee about a BSD port; they are all for it. One of the big issues on the port is cross tools and boot capture; if you are on their "Be Developer News" mailing list, then you have seen the recent posting (1 or 2 weeks ago) to the news list on "how to write boot code". Another big issue that the second 603 is in place of an L2 cache. This means the cache coherency model is MEI instead of MESI. The current SMP work is not sufficiently abstracted from the Intel model to let a port happen. This was really hanging out there based on single processor startup. Unfortunately, no one seems to want to go for a HAL to aid portability in the first place, and an SMP HAL is harder than a UP HAL because you must abstract kernel entrancy interfaces and generalize them. The final big issue is that they are using Apple's object file format for their binaries. There is a Linux port in progress -- you can download the boot disk from the www.linuxppc.com web site. Be has basically agreed to support a port; I just have not had time to follow it up adequately (by buying a machine at the developer discount). My real work has been taking a lot of time lately, and the Motorolla PPC using the PPCBug firmware has been a bear, and I'm comitted to that before any other ports. 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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