Date: Sat, 24 Apr 1999 15:28:12 +0100 (BST) From: Doug Rabson <dfr@nlsystems.com> To: Rich Payne <rdp@talisman.alphalinux.org> Cc: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@zippy.cdrom.com>, Alpha List <alpha@freebsd.org>, "Daniel J. Frasnelli" <dfrasnel@csee.wvu.edu>, Stefan Esser <se@freebsd.org>, Stefan.Esser@o-tel-o.de Subject: Re: your mail Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9904241522530.28665-100000@herring.nlsystems.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.10.9904240806560.32246-100000@talisman.mv.com>
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On Sat, 24 Apr 1999, Rich Payne wrote: > > I am confused. I have come fairly good documentation for AlphaBIOS > > (basically the mips ARC docs and a couple of files listing alpha function > > numbers). I found this by following links from the source to linload.exe > > which lives at ftp://ftp.europe.digital.com/pub/DEC/Linux-Alpha/linload/. > > I already have enough information on Digital's AlphaBIOS firmware to build > > test programs which work. > > Yup, the original MIPS spec is available, I even put it up on > ftp.alphalinux.org for people to get access to. > > > The particular problem which I have with the Samsung board is that its > > firmware is not AlphaBIOS but instead is a modified ARC style system. I > > need information on what specific differences the Samsung firmware > > programming interface has compared to Digital's AlphaBIOS firmware. My > > test programs which work on AlphaBIOS do not work with the Samsung > > firmware. I believe that Linux also needs a specially modified version of > > their loader for this board. > > Which Samsung board? It was the UX board as far as I know. > > > Why on earth didn't Samsung just use AlphaBIOS. It is bizarre that they > > felt the need to invent their own firmware and even managed to change the > > api so that it is incompatible. > > Samsung does use AlphaBIOS. Are you talking about the UX board? The UX was > not designed by Samsung. It was designed by DeskStation. Samsung just > produces > the board now. As far as I know the ARCS BIOS is used in the UX and only > the UX, and I don't think there are any plans for it to go on any boards, > unless DeskStation decides to design another. > > The specially modified loader you are talking about is ldmilo.exe (instead > of linload.exe). I don't know if the source is available for that, > presumably DeskStation still holds the copyright. So it would be best to > take it up with them. Since I wasn't the person trying to get things working on this board (it was Stefan Esser <se@freebsd.org>), I don't know exactly what the firmware looks like. According to Stefan, it had a completely different look and feel from AlphaBIOS though. I believe that Stefan contacted both Samsung and DeskStation to try to get programming information with no luck. I think Samsung asked for an NDA and I'm not sure if DeskStation even replied. Stefan would know for sure; since I don't think he reads this list, I have Cc'ed him. -- Doug Rabson Mail: dfr@nlsystems.com Nonlinear Systems Ltd. Phone: +44 181 442 9037 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-alpha" in the body of the message
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