Annotation of www/alpha.html, Revision 1.33
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4: <title>OpenBSD/alpha</title>
1.3 fn 5: <link rev=made href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>
6: <meta name="resource-type" content="document">
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1.16 deraadt 10: <meta name="copyright" content="This document copyright 1996 by OpenBSD.">
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1.19 johns 13: <BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#23238E">
1.3 fn 14:
1.1 deraadt 15: <h2>OpenBSD/alpha</h2>
16:
1.3 fn 17: <hr>
18: <h3><strong>History and Status:</strong></h3>
1.1 deraadt 19:
1.3 fn 20: <p>
1.20 niklas 21: The alpha port was derived from the NetBSD/alpha port written by Chris
22: Demetriou <cgd@netbsd.org>. Unfortunately we cannot track it closely anymore
1.21 niklas 23: as some copyright issues prevent us, check our <a href=policy.html>policy</a>
1.22 deraadt 24: page for details. We are making our own efforts to keep this port modern,
25: which also includes many userland 64 bit problems which we have tracked down
1.29 deraadt 26: and made fixes to. Many of the improvements mentioned below are not found
27: in NetBSD, but you should do your own research to decide which those are.
1.14 niklas 28: <p>
29: Initially the reason for existence of this port was to provide the OpenBSD
30: operating system to alpha users, i.e. no special effort was put in to develop
31: the port in the machine dependent parts. The main thing that got done was to
1.17 niklas 32: ensure that all the tools needed to build a full system was included in the
33: tree, as well as updated with the changes Chris distributed in a separate
34: alpha toolchain package.
1.13 niklas 35: <p>
1.12 niklas 36: Today a lot more developers have got themselves alpha machines and we are
1.23 niklas 37: seeing interest in a more active port. This fact has so far led to:
1.24 niklas 38: <ul>
1.29 deraadt 39: <li>A large-scale attack at fixing remaining 64-bit 'long' vs 'int'
40: problems in the entire userland source tree. Most of these
41: have been fixed, and new 64-bit problems are only rarely found.
1.24 niklas 42: <li>Adaption of the if_ed ethernet driver.
43: <li>Parsing of i386 MBR & disklabels.
1.27 deraadt 44: <li>DDB (kernel debugger) (disassembler, tracebacks, single stepping).
1.24 niklas 45: <li>IDE & ATAPI support.
46: <li>Easy installation via floppy.
1.30 kstailey 47: <li>Fixed VGA workstation console driver. Added "stand-out" (highlight) to it too.
1.24 niklas 48: </ul>
1.23 niklas 49: <h3><strong>Projects (in no particular order):</strong></h3>
1.24 niklas 50: <ul>
51: <li>ISA DMA (enables many common PC peripherals to be used)
52: <li>floppy support (requires ISA DMA).
53: <li>ELF object file format (gives shared libs)
54: </ul>
1.13 niklas 55: <p>
1.12 niklas 56: So far <a href="http://www.appli.se/niklas/">Niklas Hallqvist</a>
57: <a href=mailto:niklas@openbsd.org><niklas@openbsd.org></a> has been
58: keeping the port alive, but with the larger developer community coming up
59: this will hopefully be a more distributively (and better) maintained port.
1.3 fn 60: </p>
1.1 deraadt 61:
1.18 johns 62: <h3><strong>Supported Hardware:</strong></h3>
63: <ul>
64: <li><b>DEC 3000/[3456789]00 series with the following peripherals:</b>
65: <ul>
66: <li> Supported hardware:
67: <ul>
68: <li> Built-in serial ports.
69: <li> Built-in LANCE ethernet.
70: <li> Built-in SCSI chips (53c[f]94), though both may not work at the same time.
71: </ul>
72: <li> Things that may work but haven't been tested:
73: <ul>
74: <li> TurboChannel option slot LANCE (PMAD-A).
75: </ul>
76:
77: <li> Things are *not* supported at this time:
78: <ul>
79: <li> Frame buffers of any type.
80: <li> Other TurboChannel option boards.
81: <li> The ISDN/Audio chip.
82: </ul>
83: </ul>
84:
85: <li><b> AlphaStation {200,250,255,400,500} and AXPpci systems (including the Multia) using the following peripherals:</b>
86: <ul>
87: <li> Supported hardware:
88: <ul>
89: <li> NCR 53c810 SCSI (built-in or PCI board).
90: <li> Built-in ns16550 serial ports.
91: <li> DC21040-based ethernet (built-in or PCI board).
92: <li> DC21140-based PCI ethernet boards.
93: <li> DC21050-based PCI-PCI bridges (though other types of PCI-PCI bridges should work).
94: <li> PCI VGA video boards.
1.33 ! deraadt 95: <li> ISA VGA boards.
1.18 johns 96: <li> DEC ZLXp-E1 (DC21030-based, "TGA") video boards.
97: <li> PCI and ISA NE2000-compatible ethernet cards.
1.25 niklas 98: <li> SMC/WD 8003, 8013, and the SMC "Elite16" ISA ethernet boards.
99: <li> 3Com 3c503 ethernet cards.
1.29 deraadt 100: <li> 3Com 3c5xx/3c9xx ethernet cards.
1.18 johns 101: <li> Keyboard.
102: <li> PS/2-style mice.
1.28 deraadt 103: <li> IDE controllers (including the built-in IDE controller on some machines).
104: <li> Intel Etherexpress Pro/100B cards.
1.31 dgregor 105: <li> Cyclades ISA multiport serial cards.
1.32 deraadt 106: <li> Adaptec 2940 based scsi boards.
1.18 johns 107: </ul>
108:
109: <li> Things that may work but haven't been tested:
110: <ul>
111: <li> Built-in parallel ports.
112: <li> ISA ns16x50-family serial port boards.
113: <li> ISA ns16x50 multi-port serial boards.
114: <li> Other NCR 53c8xx SCSI boards.
1.25 niklas 115: <li> The Adaptec 152* SCSI controlller ISA boards.
1.18 johns 116: </ul>
117:
118: <li> Things that are *not* supported at this time:
119: <ul>
120: <li> Sound hardware (including Windows Sound System built-in on some machines).
121: <li> DEC ZLXp-E2 and ZLXp-E3 PCI video boards.
122: <li> The built-in scsi controller on the AlphaStation 600.
1.32 deraadt 123: <li> PCI and ISA boards not listed above.
1.18 johns 124: <li> The floppy drive.
125: </ul>
126: </ul>
127:
128:
129: <li><b>At this time none of the following systems are supported:</b>
130: <ul>
131: <li> DECpc AXP 150 systems (EISA-bus PC-like systems)
132: <li> Alpha "server" systems (other than perhaps the AlphaServer 400, which might be an AlphaStation 400 in disguise).
133: <li> Multiprocessor Alpha systems
134: </ul>
1.4 niklas 135: </ul>
136:
1.15 niklas 137: <h3><strong>Snapshots:</strong></h3>
1.9 graichen 138: <p>
1.18 johns 139: OpenBSD/alpha saw its first proper release in OpenBSD 2.1. Thomas Graichen
1.12 niklas 140: <a href=mailto:graichen@openbsd.org><graichen@openbsd.org></a>
141: has been creating OpenBSD/alpha snapshots from time to time. You may find them
142: on <a href=ftp.html>the usual OpenBSD ftp servers</a>. Please talk to Thomas
143: if you are wondering over installation issues.
1.9 graichen 144: </p>
145:
1.3 fn 146: <hr>
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1.1 deraadt 148: <a href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>www@openbsd.org</a>
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