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Annotation of www/pica.html, Revision 1.5

1.4       fn          1: <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC  "-//IETF//DTD HTML Strict//EN">
                      2: <html>
1.1       deraadt     3: <head>
                      4: <title>OpenBSD/pica</title>
1.4       fn          5: <base href=http://www.openbsd.org/>
                      6: <link rev=made href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>
                      7: <meta name="resource-type" content="document">
                      8: <meta name="description" content="the OpenBSD/pica page">
                      9: <meta name="keywords" content="openbsd,pica">
                     10: <meta name="distribution" content="global">
                     11: <meta name="copyright" content="This document copyright 1996 by OpenBSD, Inc.">
                     12: </head>
                     13:
                     14: <body>
                     15:
1.1       deraadt    16: <h2>OpenBSD/pica</h2>
                     17:
1.4       fn         18: <hr>
                     19: <h3><strong>History and Status:</strong></h3>
1.1       deraadt    20:
1.4       fn         21: <p>
1.1       deraadt    22: The early history is not very clear. Apparently the first work was
                     23: done by CMU as part of their Mach project.  The initial hardware was
                     24: the DEC R2000/R3000-based Decstations.  This code was later used by
                     25: both the Sprite and BSD groups.  The 4.4BSD code, known as the `pmax'
                     26: port, was made freely available in mid '93.  It was merged into the
                     27: NetBSD tree by a variety of people, but has never been very stable,
                     28: reliable, or complete.  Compiler toolkit problems have plagued the
                     29: port because the standard a.out executable format is an imperfect
                     30: match to the MIPS architecture.
1.4       fn         31: </p>
1.1       deraadt    32:
1.4       fn         33: <p>
1.1       deraadt    34: Per Fogelstrom became familiar with the code after porting it to a
                     35: home-built IDT R3081 based board.  Subsequently he added R4400 support
                     36: when porting it to the MIPS R4400 Acer PICA board.  Willowglen
                     37: Singapore purchased a second PICA board for Theo de Raadt so that he
                     38: could improve the port for use as a development system for an internal
1.4       fn         39: project.  Since then Theo and Per have had ethernet and a few other
1.1       deraadt    40: small projects working.
1.4       fn         41: </p>
1.1       deraadt    42:
                     43: <p>
                     44: The Acer PICA is a dead platform.  Acer no longer makes the machine,
                     45: but even worse the machines are very rare.  The main reason to work on
                     46: this port is because there are a multitude of other MIPS-based
1.5     ! deraadt    47: machines -- eventually (very soon) this code will be useful on another
        !            48: machine.
1.4       fn         49: </p>
1.1       deraadt    50:
                     51: <p>
                     52: The people working the most on OpenBSD/pica currently consists of
1.4       fn         53: Per Fogelstrom, and Theo de Raadt. Of course, others are very welcome!
                     54: </p>
                     55:
1.5     ! deraadt    56: <p>
        !            57: Recent developments:
        !            58: <ul>
        !            59: <li>ELF shared libraries throughout
        !            60: <li>ELF executables that page in, unlike NetBSD where they are
        !            61:     read into memory.
        !            62: <li>Almost native build. Very soon all the utilities needed will be in the
        !            63:     source tree.
        !            64: <li>nlist() function that understands a.out, ELF, or ecoff binaries.
        !            65: <li>The kvm utilities work.
        !            66: </ul>
        !            67: </p>
        !            68:
1.4       fn         69: <hr>
                     70: <h3><strong>Where to get it?</strong></h3>
1.1       deraadt    71:
1.5     ! deraadt    72: Snapshots are available at:<p>
        !            73:
        !            74: <ul>
        !            75: <li><a href=ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/pica>
        !            76: ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/pica</a><br>
        !            77: located at Rutgers University, eastern USA.
        !            78: <!-- davem@openbsd.org -->
        !            79: <li><a href=ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/pica>
        !            80: ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/pica</a><br>
        !            81: located in France.
        !            82: <!-- ftpmaint@ftp.ibp.fr -->
        !            83: <li><a href=ftp://hal.cs.umr.edu/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/pica>
        !            84: ftp://hal.cs.umr.edu/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/pica</a><br>
        !            85: located in University of Missouri-Rolla, mid-western USA.
        !            86: <!-- johns@cs.umr.edu -->
        !            87: </ul>
        !            88: You should also read the <a href=snapshots.html>
        !            89: general description about OpenBSD snapshots</a>.
        !            90: </p>
        !            91:
1.1       deraadt    92: <p>
1.2       deraadt    93: Send mail to <a href=mailto:deraadt@theos.com>Theo de Raadt</a> and
                     94: <a href=mailto:pefo@openbsd.org>Per Fogelstrom</a>.
1.4       fn         95: </p>
1.1       deraadt    96:
1.4       fn         97: <hr>
                     98: <a href=/><img src=icons/back.gif border=0 alt=OpenBSD></a>
1.1       deraadt    99: <a href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>www@openbsd.org</a>
1.4       fn        100: <br>
1.5     ! deraadt   101: <small>$OpenBSD: pica.html,v 1.4 1996/05/20 23:17:32 fn Exp $</small>
1.4       fn        102:
                    103: </body>
                    104: </html>