Annotation of www/arc.html, Revision 1.3
1.1 deraadt 1: <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML Strict//EN">
2: <html>
3: <head>
4: <title>OpenBSD/arc</title>
5: <base href=http://www.openbsd.org/>
6: <link rev=made href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>
7: <meta name="resource-type" content="document">
8: <meta name="description" content="the OpenBSD/arc page">
9: <meta name="keywords" content="openbsd,arc">
10: <meta name="distribution" content="global">
11: <meta name="copyright" content="This document copyright 1996 by OpenBSD, Inc.">
12: </head>
13:
14: <body>
15:
16: <h2>OpenBSD/arc</h2>
17:
18: <hr>
19: <h3><strong>History and Status:</strong></h3>
20:
21: <p>
22: The early history is not very clear. Apparently the first work was
23: done by CMU as part of their Mach project. The initial hardware was
24: the DEC R2000/R3000-based Decstations. This code was later used by
25: both the Sprite and BSD groups. The 4.4BSD code, known as the `pmax'
26: port, was made freely available in mid '93. It was merged into the
27: NetBSD tree by a variety of people, but has never been very stable,
28: reliable, or complete. Compiler toolkit problems have plagued the
29: port because the standard a.out executable format is an imperfect
30: match to the MIPS architecture.
31: </p>
32:
33: <p>
34: Per Fogelstrom became familiar with the code after porting it to a
35: home-built IDT R3081 based board. Subsequently he added R4400 support
36: when porting it to the MIPS R4400 Acer PICA board. Willowglen
37: Singapore purchased a second PICA board for Theo de Raadt so that he
38: could improve the port for use as a development system for an internal
39: project. Since then Theo and Per have had ethernet and a few other
40: small projects working.
41: </p>
42:
43: <p>
44: The Acer PICA is a dead platform. Acer no longer makes the machine,
45: but even worse the machines are very rare. But the Acer PICA was just
46: one of a whole family of similar machines built by other companies
47: like MIPS, Deskstation, NEC, Olivetti. These machines were known as
48: ARC machines, built according to the "Advanced RISC Computing" specification.
49: </p>
50:
51: <p>
52: As a result, the code has been modified to make it more versatile, and
53: eventually it should support a larger whole range of ARC machines.
54: Hopefully a port will result that can run on the full range of MIPS
1.2 deraadt 55: processors: R3000, R4000, R4400, R46x0, R5000, and R10000.
1.1 deraadt 56: </p>
57:
58: <p>
59: The people working the most on OpenBSD/arc currently consists of
60: Per Fogelstrom, Theo de Raadt, and a few others. Of course, others are
61: very welcome!
62: </p>
63:
64: <p>
65: Recent developments:
66: <ul>
67: <li>ELF shared libraries throughout
68: <li>ELF executables that page in, unlike NetBSD where they are
69: read into memory.
70: <li>Almost native build. Very soon all the utilities needed will be in the
71: source tree.
72: <li>nlist() function that understands a.out, ELF, or ecoff binaries.
73: <li>The kvm utilities work.
74: </ul>
75: </p>
76:
77: <hr>
78: <h3><strong>Where to get it?</strong></h3>
79:
80: Old pica Snapshots are available at:<p>
81:
82: <ul>
83: <li><a href=ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/pica>
84: ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/pica</a><br>
85: located at Rutgers University, eastern USA.
86: <!-- davem@openbsd.org -->
87: <li><a href=ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/pica>
88: ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/pica</a><br>
89: located in France.
90: <!-- ftpmaint@ftp.ibp.fr -->
1.3 ! deraadt 91: <li><a href=ftp://hal.heuris.com/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/pica>
! 92: ftp://hal.heuris.com/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/pica</a><br>
! 93: located in mid-western USA.
! 94: <!-- johns@heuris.com -->
1.1 deraadt 95: </ul>
96: You should also read the <a href=snapshots.html>
97: general description about OpenBSD snapshots</a>.
98: </p>
99:
100: <p>
101: Send mail to <a href=mailto:deraadt@theos.com>Theo de Raadt</a> and
102: <a href=mailto:pefo@openbsd.org>Per Fogelstrom</a>.
103: </p>
104:
105: <hr>
106: <a href=/><img src=icons/back.gif border=0 alt=OpenBSD></a>
107: <a href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>www@openbsd.org</a>
108: <br>
1.3 ! deraadt 109: <small>$OpenBSD: arc.html,v 1.2 1996/07/05 22:15:01 deraadt Exp $</small>
1.1 deraadt 110:
111: </body>
112: </html>