From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Sep 3 20:43:38 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id UAA00832 for questions-outgoing; Wed, 3 Sep 1997 20:43:38 -0700 (PDT) Received: from titan.mcit.com (titan.mcit.com [166.37.52.154]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id UAA00822 for ; Wed, 3 Sep 1997 20:43:33 -0700 (PDT) Received: from localhost by titan.mcit.com; (5.65v3.2/1.1.8.2/15Jul97-0255PM) id AA06931; Wed, 3 Sep 1997 21:41:28 -0600 Date: Wed, 3 Sep 1997 21:41:28 -0600 (MDT) From: "Thomas S. Traylor" To: Wes Peters Cc: Doug White , questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: 'uname -m' not alpha? (was Re: 'uname -m' not i586?) In-Reply-To: <199709040204.UAA13569@obie.softweyr.ml.org> Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Wed, 3 Sep 1997, Wes Peters wrote: > Doug White writes: > > The `machine' identifies the architecture under which the kernel is > > designed to run under. Since FreeBSD is designed to run under the Intel > > i386 architecture (386 and compatible processors) it will report 'i386.' > > This is also used to define machine-dependent code in the kernel to > > compile, ie there is a /usr/src/sys/i386 heirarchy. In the future DEC > > Alpha port there will be a machine type `alpha' in addition to `i386.' > > Hmm... Does anyone know what Digital UNIX (nee OSF/1) reports as the > architecture for this machine? I suspect it is probably "axp", and > contend we should probably mimic the DEC system if it's not too big a > change at this point. uname -m returns "alpha"... titan.mcit.com> uname -m alpha titan.mcit.com> uname -a OSF1 titan.mcit.com V4.0 564 alpha Tom > > For those who remember when DEC ruled the world of minicomputers, AXP > has a nice "callback." Rumor has it, when DEC applied for a trademark > on "Alpha" and was told they couldn't trademark it, the "AXP" moniker > was brought up by some of the old-timers on the hardware side. Why > "AXP?" It stands for (according to the scuttlebutt) "Almost eXactly > Prism." I'll leave it up to Bill Pechter to explain what Prism was. > > -- > "Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?" > > Wes Peters Softweyr LLC > http://www.xmission.com/~softweyr softweyr@xmission.com > -- Thomas Traylor Thomas.Traylor@mci.com ttraylor@titan.mcit.com (719) 535-1269