[BACK]Return to pica.html CVS log [TXT][DIR] Up to [local] / www
File: [local] / www / Attic / pica.html (download) (as text)

Revision 1.5, Tue Jun 11 08:13:48 1996 UTC (27 years, 11 months ago) by deraadt
Branch: MAIN
Changes since 1.4: +36 -2 lines 

tell a bit more

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC  "-//IETF//DTD HTML Strict//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>OpenBSD/pica</title>
<base href=http://www.openbsd.org/>
<link rev=made href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>
<meta name="resource-type" content="document">
<meta name="description" content="the OpenBSD/pica page">
<meta name="keywords" content="openbsd,pica">
<meta name="distribution" content="global">
<meta name="copyright" content="This document copyright 1996 by OpenBSD, Inc.">
</head>

<body>

<h2>OpenBSD/pica</h2>

<hr>
<h3><strong>History and Status:</strong></h3>

<p>
The early history is not very clear. Apparently the first work was
done by CMU as part of their Mach project.  The initial hardware was
the DEC R2000/R3000-based Decstations.  This code was later used by
both the Sprite and BSD groups.  The 4.4BSD code, known as the `pmax'
port, was made freely available in mid '93.  It was merged into the
NetBSD tree by a variety of people, but has never been very stable,
reliable, or complete.  Compiler toolkit problems have plagued the
port because the standard a.out executable format is an imperfect
match to the MIPS architecture.
</p>

<p>
Per Fogelstrom became familiar with the code after porting it to a
home-built IDT R3081 based board.  Subsequently he added R4400 support
when porting it to the MIPS R4400 Acer PICA board.  Willowglen
Singapore purchased a second PICA board for Theo de Raadt so that he
could improve the port for use as a development system for an internal
project.  Since then Theo and Per have had ethernet and a few other
small projects working.
</p>

<p>
The Acer PICA is a dead platform.  Acer no longer makes the machine,
but even worse the machines are very rare.  The main reason to work on
this port is because there are a multitude of other MIPS-based
machines -- eventually (very soon) this code will be useful on another
machine.
</p>

<p>
The people working the most on OpenBSD/pica currently consists of
Per Fogelstrom, and Theo de Raadt. Of course, others are very welcome!
</p>

<p>
Recent developments:
<ul>
<li>ELF shared libraries throughout
<li>ELF executables that page in, unlike NetBSD where they are
    read into memory.
<li>Almost native build. Very soon all the utilities needed will be in the
    source tree.
<li>nlist() function that understands a.out, ELF, or ecoff binaries.
<li>The kvm utilities work.
</ul>
</p>

<hr>
<h3><strong>Where to get it?</strong></h3>

Snapshots are available at:<p>

<ul>
<li><a href=ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/pica>
ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/pica</a><br>
located at Rutgers University, eastern USA.
<!-- davem@openbsd.org -->
<li><a href=ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/pica>
ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/pica</a><br>
located in France.
<!-- ftpmaint@ftp.ibp.fr -->
<li><a href=ftp://hal.cs.umr.edu/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/pica>
ftp://hal.cs.umr.edu/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/pica</a><br>
located in University of Missouri-Rolla, mid-western USA.
<!-- johns@cs.umr.edu -->
</ul>
You should also read the <a href=snapshots.html>
general description about OpenBSD snapshots</a>.
</p>

<p>
Send mail to <a href=mailto:deraadt@theos.com>Theo de Raadt</a> and
<a href=mailto:pefo@openbsd.org>Per Fogelstrom</a>.
</p>

<hr>
<a href=/><img src=icons/back.gif border=0 alt=OpenBSD></a> 
<a href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>www@openbsd.org</a>
<br>
<small>$OpenBSD: pica.html,v 1.5 1996/06/11 08:13:48 deraadt Exp $</small>

</body>
</html>