! 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.
Per Fogelström 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, Per and others have completed the port.
! The Acer PICA is a dead platform. Acer no longer makes the machine, ! but even worse the machines are very rare. But the Acer PICA was just ! one of a whole family of similar machines built by other companies ! like MIPS, Deskstation, NEC, Olivetti. These machines were known as ! ARC machines, built according to the ! ! Advanced RISC Computing specification. ! No new ARC BIOS machines for MIPS will likely be manufactured. ! Microsoft has announced that it will no longer support MIPS after NT 4.0. ! OpenBSD/arc provides a good alternative to NT, especially now that no more OS ! updates for NT MIPS will happen. Deskstation has ceased business operations, ! so there will be no more ARC MIPS machines from them.
! As a result, the code has been modified to make it more versatile, and ! eventually it should support a larger whole range of ARC machines. ! Hopefully a port will result that can run on the full range of MIPS ! processors: R4000, R4xx, R43xx, R4400, R46x0, R4700, R5000, ! R8000 and R10000.
-
!
-
- The people working the most on OpenBSD/arc currently consists of - Per Fogelström, Theo de Raadt, Niklas Hallqvist, Warner Losh, - and a few others. Of course, others are very welcome! -
- --
- The ARC port is complete, including everything you can expect - on any OpenBSD port. -
-! Snapshots are made available from time to time.
! Send mail to Warner Losh and ! Per Fogelström.
! www@openbsd.org
![[OpenBSD]](images/smalltitle.gif){kind=small}
! !
+ OpenBSD/arc runs on the machines compatible with the Advanced RISC + Computing specification, known as ARC machines, based on MIPS processors + and initially designed to run Microsoft Windows NT. + Such machines include the long dead Acer PICA, as well other machines + manufactured by other companies such as MIPS, Deskstation, NEC, and Olivetti. +
+ ++ The ARC specification is extinct, and no new ARC BIOS machines for MIPS will + likely be manufactured. + Microsoft has announced that it will no longer support MIPS after NT 4.0. + OpenBSD/arc used to provide a good alternative to NT. +
+ ++ The OpenBSD/arc port has been + discontinued after the 2.3 release. +
+ ++ There is currently no one working on bringing this port back to life. + The source code is still available in the CVS Attic, and code can be found in + NetBSD as well. + If you are interested in reviving the arc port, make it work and contact + Per Fogelström and + Warner Losh. +
+ + ++
+ +! The early history of this port 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 1993. It was merged into the ! NetBSD tree by a variety of people, but took several years to really become ! stable and mature, mainly because of compiler toolchain problems.
Per Fogelström 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, Per and others have completed the port.
! As a result, the code has been modified to make it more versatile, and ! eventually support a larger range of ARC machines. Unfortunately the death ! of this platform, as well as the lack of general availability of this hardware, ! eventually turned people away from working on this port. Eventually, it was ! decided to stop supporting it and remove the code from the tree.
+ +!
!
! The last supported OpenBSD/arc release has been ! OpenBSD 2.3. ! It is not available on ftp sites anymore, but it was available on CD.
!