Annotation of www/arc.html, Revision 1.10
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4: <title>OpenBSD/arc</title>
5: <link rev=made href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>
6: <meta name="resource-type" content="document">
7: <meta name="description" content="the OpenBSD/arc page">
8: <meta name="keywords" content="openbsd,arc">
9: <meta name="distribution" content="global">
10: <meta name="copyright" content="This document copyright 1996 by OpenBSD, Inc.">
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12:
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14:
15: <h2>OpenBSD/arc</h2>
16:
17: <hr>
18: <h3><strong>History and Status:</strong></h3>
19:
20: <p>
21: The early history is not very clear. Apparently the first work was
22: done by CMU as part of their Mach project. The initial hardware was
23: the DEC R2000/R3000-based Decstations. This code was later used by
24: both the Sprite and BSD groups. The 4.4BSD code, known as the `pmax'
25: port, was made freely available in mid '93. It was merged into the
26: NetBSD tree by a variety of people, but has never been very stable,
27: reliable, or complete. Compiler toolkit problems have plagued the
28: port because the standard a.out executable format is an imperfect
29: match to the MIPS architecture.
30: </p>
31:
32: <p>
1.9 niklas 33: Per Fogelström became familiar with the code after porting it to a
1.1 deraadt 34: home-built IDT R3081 based board. Subsequently he added R4400 support
35: when porting it to the MIPS R4400 Acer PICA board. Willowglen
36: Singapore purchased a second PICA board for Theo de Raadt so that he
37: could improve the port for use as a development system for an internal
38: project. Since then Theo and Per have had ethernet and a few other
39: small projects working.
40: </p>
41:
42: <p>
43: The Acer PICA is a dead platform. Acer no longer makes the machine,
44: but even worse the machines are very rare. But the Acer PICA was just
45: one of a whole family of similar machines built by other companies
46: like MIPS, Deskstation, NEC, Olivetti. These machines were known as
47: ARC machines, built according to the "Advanced RISC Computing" specification.
48: </p>
49:
50: <p>
51: As a result, the code has been modified to make it more versatile, and
52: eventually it should support a larger whole range of ARC machines.
53: Hopefully a port will result that can run on the full range of MIPS
1.2 deraadt 54: processors: R3000, R4000, R4400, R46x0, R5000, and R10000.
1.1 deraadt 55: </p>
56:
57: <p>
58: The people working the most on OpenBSD/arc currently consists of
1.9 niklas 59: Per Fogelström, Theo de Raadt, and a few others. Of course, others are
1.1 deraadt 60: very welcome!
61: </p>
62:
63: <p>
64: Recent developments:
65: <ul>
66: <li>ELF shared libraries throughout
67: <li>ELF executables that page in, unlike NetBSD where they are
68: read into memory.
69: <li>Almost native build. Very soon all the utilities needed will be in the
70: source tree.
71: <li>nlist() function that understands a.out, ELF, or ecoff binaries.
72: <li>The kvm utilities work.
1.10 ! deraadt 73: <li>Currently supports the PICA and TYNE machines.
1.1 deraadt 74: </ul>
75: </p>
76:
77: <hr>
1.4 deraadt 78: <p>
1.8 deraadt 79: <a href=ftp.html>Snapshots are made available from time to time.</a>
1.1 deraadt 80:
81: <p>
82: Send mail to <a href=mailto:deraadt@theos.com>Theo de Raadt</a> and
1.9 niklas 83: <a href=mailto:pefo@openbsd.org>Per Fogelström</a>.
1.1 deraadt 84: </p>
85:
86: <hr>
1.7 deraadt 87: <a href=plat.html><img src=back.gif border=0 alt=OpenBSD></a>
1.1 deraadt 88: <a href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>www@openbsd.org</a>
89: <br>
1.10 ! deraadt 90: <small>$OpenBSD: arc.html,v 1.9 1996/09/02 17:58:17 niklas Exp $</small>
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