Date: Sat, 4 Dec 1999 17:16:27 -0800 (PST) From: Matthew Jacob <mjacob@feral.com> To: Mike Smith <msmith@FreeBSD.ORG> Cc: Andrew Reilly <reilly@zeta.org.au>, alpha@FreeBSD.ORG, port-alpha@netbsd.org Subject: Re: Q: Compaq, *BSD and 'Linux-only' AlphaBIOS (fwd) Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9912041710190.368-100000@semuta.feral.com> In-Reply-To: <199912050105.RAA05534@mass.cdrom.com>
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> > The *BSD reliance on the SRM seems to basically limit the Alpha > > purchase choices to Compaq. I.e., not Samsung/AlphaProcessor. > > This is currently correct. It is, however, erroneous to think that > either a) we're not aware of this, or b) we're somehow indifferent or > inactive on the subject. I know for a fact that the folks on the FreeBSD > side of the fence have been pursuing every avenue we've come across, and > I hardly expect the NetBSD people have been any less active. There are > simply some very substantial obstacles currently in the way of a > breakthrough. The SRM vs. AlphaBios/ARC issues are a phantom. *BSD has a long way to go to fully support the SRM capapble machines before worrying about platforms which don't have SRM. This is a sideshow. I would have said it was more critical if Tru64 died, but much to &my& surprise it was NT-Alpha that walked the plank, not DUh (now Tru64). Given that Tru64 is very successfully selling on the leading new Dompaq platforms (and depends on SRM), I rather doubt *BSD will get all that left behind because we've not gotten ARC/AlphaBios yet. If somebody wants to continue doing ARC/AlphaBios- that'd be great, but even better for *BSD (all of *BSD) would be making sure that Tru64 binaries like Oracle and so on can be successfully run- and that support for AdvFS gets into *BSD happens. Those two items would generate considerably more interest in *BSD on Alphas than ARC/AlphaBios support. -matt p.s.: note that I very carefully am saying *BSD here- all of the *BSD systems would benefit in coordinating on this. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-alpha" in the body of the message
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