Annotation of www/arc.html, Revision 1.27
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7: <meta name="description" content="the OpenBSD/arc page">
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1.21 deraadt 10: <meta name="copyright" content="This document copyright 1996 by OpenBSD.">
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1.23 johns 13: <BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#23238E">
1.1 deraadt 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
1.26 pefo 23: the DEC R2000/R3000-based DECstations. This code was later used by
1.1 deraadt 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
1.26 pefo 45: like MIPS, DeskStation, NEC, Olivetti. These machines were known as
1.1 deraadt 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.
1.24 todd 49: OpenBSD/arc provides a good alternative to NT, especially now that no more OS
1.27 ! imp 50: updates for NT MIPS will happen. Deskstation has gone out of business,
! 51: so there will be no more ARC MIPS machines from them.
1.1 deraadt 52: </p>
53:
54: <p>
55: As a result, the code has been modified to make it more versatile, and
56: eventually it should support a larger whole range of ARC machines.
57: Hopefully a port will result that can run on the full range of MIPS
1.2 deraadt 58: processors: R3000, R4000, R4400, R46x0, R5000, and R10000.
1.1 deraadt 59: </p>
60:
61: <p>
1.22 johns 62: <h3>Currently the port supports the following:</h3>
1.12 deraadt 63: <ul>
64: <li>Acer Pica: 150MHz R4400PC, ISA, with onboard ethernet, scsi, video,
65: and serial.
66: <li>Deskstation Tyne: 133MHz R4600, ISA and VLB.
1.16 imp 67: <li>Deskstation rPC44: 100MHz R4400PC, EISA bus.
1.26 pefo 68: <li><a href=http://www.algor.co.uk>Algorithmics</a> R4000/R5000/R10000 evaluation board
1.12 deraadt 69: </ul>
1.11 deraadt 70: </p>
1.22 johns 71:
72: <p>
73: <h3>Supported devices include:</h3>
74: <ul>
75: <li> graphics:
76: <ul>
1.24 todd 77: <li> built-in S3 VGA graphics adapter on PICA.
1.22 johns 78: <li> Standard VGA graphics adapter on rPC44 and Tyne.
79: <li> Note that X11R6 currently supports only S3 boards.
80: </ul>
81:
82: <li> keyboard:
83: <ul>
84: <li> Standard PC compatible keyboard with optionally driver softloaded keymaps.
85: </ul>
86:
87: <li> mouse:
88: <ul>
89: <li> PS2 mouse on PICA
90: <li> Serial mouse on /dev/tty00 on rPC44 and Tyne.
91: </ul>
92:
93: <li> serial ports:
94: <ul>
95: <li> on-board tty00 and tty01 (PICA. can not yet be used as console)
96: <li> ISA tty00 and tty01 on systems without serial ports on the motherboard (Tyne).
97: <li> ISA tty02 and tty03 on all ISA capable systems.
98: </ul>
99:
100: <li> parallel ports:
101: <ul>
102: <li> parallel ports is supported on-board (PICA) or on ISA (rPC44 and Tyne).
103: </ul>
104:
105: <li> floppy:
106: <ul>
107: <li> floppy is supported on PICA only.
108: </ul>
109:
110: <li> ethernet:
111: <ul>
112: <li> on-board SONIC ethernet controller (PICA only)
113: <li> 3Com Etherlink boards (All ISA capable systems)
114: <li> NE2000 compatible ISA boards.
115: </ul>
116:
117: <li> SCSI:
118: <ul>
119: <li> on-board NCR53C96 SCSI controller (PICA)
120: <li> VLB "Buslogic BT-440C/445C" SCSI controller.
121: </ul>
122:
123: <li> IDE:
124: <ul>
125: <li> IDE disks via wd driver on ISA bus. Bootable only on Deskstation systems.
126: </ul>
127: </ul>
128: </p>
129:
1.17 deraadt 130: <p>
1.22 johns 131: <h3>The following ports are also being worked on:</h3>
1.17 deraadt 132: <ul>
1.26 pefo 133: <li>Algorithmics P-4032 and P-5064 boards.
1.17 deraadt 134: </ul>
135: </p>
1.11 deraadt 136:
137: <p>
1.1 deraadt 138: The people working the most on OpenBSD/arc currently consists of
1.13 deraadt 139: Per Fogelström, Theo de Raadt, Niklas Hallqvist, Warner Losh,
140: and a few others. Of course, others are very welcome!
1.1 deraadt 141: </p>
142:
143: <p>
1.22 johns 144: <h3>Recent developments:</h3>
1.1 deraadt 145: <ul>
146: <li>ELF shared libraries throughout
147: <li>ELF executables that page in, unlike NetBSD where they are
148: read into memory.
149: <li>nlist() function that understands a.out, ELF, or ecoff binaries.
150: <li>The kvm utilities work.
1.11 deraadt 151: <li>ISA bus support on the Pica.
152: <li>ISA and VLB support on the Tyne.
1.18 imp 153: <li>ISA bus support on the rPC44.
154: <li>gdb works.
1.19 imp 155: <li>Completely native build.
1.26 pefo 156: <p>
157: <li>PCI bus support on Algorithmics P-4032 and P-5064 boards.
158: <li>Support for <a href=http://www.qedinc.com>QED</a> RM52x0 processors. (R5000 derivates).
159: <li>Kernel DDB functional.
1.1 deraadt 160: </ul>
161: </p>
162:
1.14 deraadt 163: <p>
1.27 ! imp 164: The ARC port is complete, including everything you can expect
1.14 deraadt 165: on any OpenBSD port.
166: </p>
167:
1.1 deraadt 168: <hr>
1.4 deraadt 169: <p>
1.8 deraadt 170: <a href=ftp.html>Snapshots are made available from time to time.</a>
1.1 deraadt 171:
172: <p>
173: Send mail to <a href=mailto:deraadt@theos.com>Theo de Raadt</a> and
1.9 niklas 174: <a href=mailto:pefo@openbsd.org>Per Fogelström</a>.
1.1 deraadt 175: </p>
176:
177: <hr>
1.7 deraadt 178: <a href=plat.html><img src=back.gif border=0 alt=OpenBSD></a>
1.1 deraadt 179: <a href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>www@openbsd.org</a>
180: <br>
1.27 ! imp 181: <small>$OpenBSD: arc.html,v 1.26 1998/03/17 11:47:23 pefo Exp $</small>
1.1 deraadt 182:
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