Annotation of www/arc.html, Revision 1.21
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3: <head>
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">
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1.21 ! deraadt 10: <meta name="copyright" content="This document copyright 1996 by OpenBSD.">
1.1 deraadt 11: </head>
12:
13: <body>
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
1.20 imp 38: project. Since then Theo, Per and others have completed the port.
1.1 deraadt 39: </p>
40:
41: <p>
42: The Acer PICA is a dead platform. Acer no longer makes the machine,
43: but even worse the machines are very rare. But the Acer PICA was just
44: one of a whole family of similar machines built by other companies
45: like MIPS, Deskstation, NEC, Olivetti. These machines were known as
46: ARC machines, built according to the "Advanced RISC Computing" specification.
1.15 imp 47: No new ARC BIOS machines for MIPS will likely be manufactured.
48: Microsoft has announced that it will no longer support MIPS after NT 4.0.
49: OpenBSD/arc provides a good alterantive to NT, especially now that no more OS
50: updates for NT MIPS will happen.
1.1 deraadt 51: </p>
52:
53: <p>
54: As a result, the code has been modified to make it more versatile, and
55: eventually it should support a larger whole range of ARC machines.
56: Hopefully a port will result that can run on the full range of MIPS
1.2 deraadt 57: processors: R3000, R4000, R4400, R46x0, R5000, and R10000.
1.1 deraadt 58: </p>
59:
60: <p>
1.12 deraadt 61: Currently the port supports the following:
62: <ul>
63: <li>Acer Pica: 150MHz R4400PC, ISA, with onboard ethernet, scsi, video,
64: and serial.
65: <li>Deskstation Tyne: 133MHz R4600, ISA and VLB.
1.16 imp 66: <li>Deskstation rPC44: 100MHz R4400PC, EISA bus.
1.12 deraadt 67: </ul>
1.11 deraadt 68: </p>
1.17 deraadt 69: <p>
70: The following ports are also being worked on:
71: <ul>
72: <li>NKK Aquarious R4700 PCI machine.
73: <li>A Willowglen R3081 ARC-lookalike board used as an embedded system.
74: </ul>
75: </p>
1.11 deraadt 76:
77: <p>
1.1 deraadt 78: The people working the most on OpenBSD/arc currently consists of
1.13 deraadt 79: Per Fogelström, Theo de Raadt, Niklas Hallqvist, Warner Losh,
80: and a few others. Of course, others are very welcome!
1.1 deraadt 81: </p>
82:
83: <p>
84: Recent developments:
85: <ul>
86: <li>ELF shared libraries throughout
87: <li>ELF executables that page in, unlike NetBSD where they are
88: read into memory.
89: <li>nlist() function that understands a.out, ELF, or ecoff binaries.
90: <li>The kvm utilities work.
1.11 deraadt 91: <li>ISA bus support on the Pica.
92: <li>ISA and VLB support on the Tyne.
1.18 imp 93: <li>ISA bus support on the rPC44.
94: <li>gdb works.
1.19 imp 95: <li>Completely native build.
1.1 deraadt 96: </ul>
97: </p>
98:
1.14 deraadt 99: <p>
100: The ARC port is complete, including basically everything you can expect
101: on any OpenBSD port.
102: </p>
103:
1.1 deraadt 104: <hr>
1.4 deraadt 105: <p>
1.8 deraadt 106: <a href=ftp.html>Snapshots are made available from time to time.</a>
1.1 deraadt 107:
108: <p>
109: Send mail to <a href=mailto:deraadt@theos.com>Theo de Raadt</a> and
1.9 niklas 110: <a href=mailto:pefo@openbsd.org>Per Fogelström</a>.
1.1 deraadt 111: </p>
112:
113: <hr>
1.7 deraadt 114: <a href=plat.html><img src=back.gif border=0 alt=OpenBSD></a>
1.1 deraadt 115: <a href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>www@openbsd.org</a>
116: <br>
1.21 ! deraadt 117: <small>$OpenBSD: arc.html,v 1.20 1996/12/19 22:39:02 imp Exp $</small>
1.1 deraadt 118:
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120: </html>