From owner-freebsd-alpha Thu Oct 8 08:47:37 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id IAA20643 for freebsd-alpha-outgoing; Thu, 8 Oct 1998 08:47:37 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from gateway.sequent.com (gateway.sequent.com [138.95.18.1]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id IAA20594 for ; Thu, 8 Oct 1998 08:47:17 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from seifert@sequent.com) Received: from eng4.sequent.com (eng4.sequent.com [138.95.7.64]) by gateway.sequent.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id IAA04866 for ; Thu, 8 Oct 1998 08:47:00 -0700 (PDT) Received: from localhost (seifert@localhost) by eng4.sequent.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id IAA12163 for ; Thu, 8 Oct 1998 08:46:59 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199810081546.IAA12163@eng4.sequent.com> X-Authentication-Warning: eng4.sequent.com: seifert@localhost didn't use HELO protocol To: alpha@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: SRM/ARC/AlphaBIOS/MILO Date: Thu, 08 Oct 98 08:46:58 PDT From: David Seifert Sender: owner-freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org > > > Why we don't want to use the ARC console, hmm? > > > > Yes- I agree- except that it's possible that SRM will disappear > > for newer board level alpha products. Perhaps a lobbying effort is in order? We need to convince Compaq to provide SRM. I don't know what the sales of small machines running DU, VMS, *BSD and Linux would be, but adding in availability of low cost machines for "tire kicking" before commiting to a large purchase, and the goodwill generated should make it worth their while. I for one don't plan on buying any Alphas that don't have SRM. > Ick. Are there any AlphaBIOS source licencees anywhere? I haven't been able to get SRM sources even though I'm working on the kernel-console interface for Bravo. (Or does ARC/Alphabios come from Micros**t?) > I'm > specifically thinking about whether it'd be feasible to commission some > work on it to a) produce a documented interface subset for all us > suckers to use, and/or b) make it more server-friendly. The Alpha AXP Architecture Reference Manual has some info. Not sure how much ARC/AlphaBIOS info is in there, I skip over anything that is specific to NT or VMS. ISBN 1-55558-202-8 (3rd edition) 1-55558-145-5 (2nd edition) The MILO approach is more appealing than using ARC/AlphaBIOS, assuming its problems can be fixed. (e.g. add a reset command) Another thing to keep in mind is that ARC/AlphaBIOS only machines will have the NT version of PALcode. Linux has their own PALcode, based on the DU version. -Dave To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-alpha" in the body of the message