Annotation of www/arc.html, Revision 1.32
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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
1.28 imp 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
1.30 imp 50: updates for NT MIPS will happen. Deskstation has said it will never make
51: another MIPS based machine, so there will be no more ARC MIPS machines from
52: them.
1.1 deraadt 53: </p>
54:
55: <p>
56: As a result, the code has been modified to make it more versatile, and
57: eventually it should support a larger whole range of ARC machines.
58: Hopefully a port will result that can run on the full range of MIPS
1.30 imp 59: processors: R3000, R4000, R4xx, R43xx, R4400, R46x0, R4700, R5000,
60: R8000 and R10000.
1.1 deraadt 61: </p>
62:
63: <p>
1.22 johns 64: <h3>Currently the port supports the following:</h3>
1.12 deraadt 65: <ul>
66: <li>Acer Pica: 150MHz R4400PC, ISA, with onboard ethernet, scsi, video,
67: and serial.
1.32 ! imp 68: <li><a href="http://www.deskstation.com">Deskstation</a>
1.30 imp 69: Tyne: 133MHz R4600, ISA and VLB.
1.32 ! imp 70: <li><a href="http://www.deskstation.com">Deskstation</a>
1.30 imp 71: rPC44: 100MHz R4400PC, EISA bus.
1.26 pefo 72: <li><a href=http://www.algor.co.uk>Algorithmics</a> R4000/R5000/R10000 evaluation board
1.12 deraadt 73: </ul>
1.11 deraadt 74: </p>
1.22 johns 75:
76: <p>
77: <h3>Supported devices include:</h3>
78: <ul>
79: <li> graphics:
80: <ul>
1.24 todd 81: <li> built-in S3 VGA graphics adapter on PICA.
1.22 johns 82: <li> Standard VGA graphics adapter on rPC44 and Tyne.
83: <li> Note that X11R6 currently supports only S3 boards.
84: </ul>
85:
86: <li> keyboard:
87: <ul>
88: <li> Standard PC compatible keyboard with optionally driver softloaded keymaps.
89: </ul>
90:
91: <li> mouse:
92: <ul>
93: <li> PS2 mouse on PICA
94: <li> Serial mouse on /dev/tty00 on rPC44 and Tyne.
95: </ul>
96:
97: <li> serial ports:
98: <ul>
99: <li> on-board tty00 and tty01 (PICA. can not yet be used as console)
100: <li> ISA tty00 and tty01 on systems without serial ports on the motherboard (Tyne).
101: <li> ISA tty02 and tty03 on all ISA capable systems.
102: </ul>
103:
104: <li> parallel ports:
105: <ul>
106: <li> parallel ports is supported on-board (PICA) or on ISA (rPC44 and Tyne).
107: </ul>
108:
109: <li> floppy:
110: <ul>
111: <li> floppy is supported on PICA only.
112: </ul>
113:
114: <li> ethernet:
115: <ul>
116: <li> on-board SONIC ethernet controller (PICA only)
117: <li> 3Com Etherlink boards (All ISA capable systems)
118: <li> NE2000 compatible ISA boards.
119: </ul>
120:
121: <li> SCSI:
122: <ul>
123: <li> on-board NCR53C96 SCSI controller (PICA)
124: <li> VLB "Buslogic BT-440C/445C" SCSI controller.
125: </ul>
126:
127: <li> IDE:
128: <ul>
129: <li> IDE disks via wd driver on ISA bus. Bootable only on Deskstation systems.
130: </ul>
1.30 imp 131:
132: <li> Misc:
133: <ul>
134: <li> Joystick on ISA bus.
135: </ul>
1.22 johns 136: </ul>
137: </p>
138:
1.17 deraadt 139: <p>
1.22 johns 140: <h3>The following ports are also being worked on:</h3>
1.17 deraadt 141: <ul>
1.26 pefo 142: <li>Algorithmics P-4032 and P-5064 boards.
1.30 imp 143: <li>NEC Vr41xx based WinCE machines.
1.17 deraadt 144: </ul>
145: </p>
1.11 deraadt 146:
147: <p>
1.1 deraadt 148: The people working the most on OpenBSD/arc currently consists of
1.13 deraadt 149: Per Fogelström, Theo de Raadt, Niklas Hallqvist, Warner Losh,
150: and a few others. Of course, others are very welcome!
1.1 deraadt 151: </p>
152:
153: <p>
1.22 johns 154: <h3>Recent developments:</h3>
1.1 deraadt 155: <ul>
1.26 pefo 156: <li>PCI bus support on Algorithmics P-4032 and P-5064 boards.
157: <li>Support for <a href=http://www.qedinc.com>QED</a> RM52x0 processors. (R5000 derivates).
158: <li>Kernel DDB functional.
1.1 deraadt 159: </ul>
160: </p>
161:
1.14 deraadt 162: <p>
1.27 imp 163: The ARC port is complete, including everything you can expect
1.14 deraadt 164: on any OpenBSD port.
165: </p>
166:
1.1 deraadt 167: <hr>
1.4 deraadt 168: <p>
1.8 deraadt 169: <a href=ftp.html>Snapshots are made available from time to time.</a>
1.1 deraadt 170:
171: <p>
1.30 imp 172: Send mail to <a href=mailto:imp@openbsd.org>Warner Losh</a> and
1.9 niklas 173: <a href=mailto:pefo@openbsd.org>Per Fogelström</a>.
1.1 deraadt 174: </p>
175:
176: <hr>
1.29 pauls 177: <a href=plat.html><img height=24 width=24 src=back.gif border=0 alt=OpenBSD></a>
1.1 deraadt 178: <a href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>www@openbsd.org</a>
179: <br>
1.32 ! imp 180: <small>$OpenBSD: arc.html,v 1.31 1999/02/16 04:02:43 imp Exp $</small>
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