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<hr>

OpenBSD/aviion is an experimental port of OpenBSD to the Motorola 88100- and

OpenBSD/aviion is a port of OpenBSD to the Motorola 88100- and

88110-based AViiON systems manufactured by Data General.

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In September 2003, Chris Tribo published some excerpts of the technical

documentation for the AViiON series 400. Having a look at it, it was obvious

documentation for the AViiON series 400. From a cursory glance at it, it was

these systems were built upon a modified MVME188 design, already supported by

obvious these systems were built upon a modified MVME188 design, which was

<a href="mvme88k.html">OpenBSD/mvme88k</a>, but there was no interest in working

already supported by <a href="mvme88k.html">OpenBSD/mvme88k</a>, but there

on AViiON support at that time.

was no interest in AViiON support at that time.

Then, late April 2006, enough boredom convinced Miod Vallat to start a port,

even though he did not have access to any AViiON hardware, as a challenge. In two

even though he did not have access to any AViiON hardware, as a challenge.

weeks, thanks to the help of Chris Tribo, a model 410 was running multiuser (but

In two weeks, thanks to the help of Chris Tribo, a model 410 was running

diskless) - a proof that this effort was worth continuing inside the OpenBSD

multiuser (but diskless) - a proof that this effort was worth continuing

tree. And work continues..

inside the OpenBSD tree.

Work on the port has continued since then, adding support for the 4600/530

family, as well as multiprocessor support. The port was left staging until

the effort to switch all m88k ports towards the ELF binary file format and

shared library paid off, from autumn 2012 to winter 2013.

The port eventually became self-hosting on a dual-processor 4600 model in

october 2013, with the first working (i.e. recognized by the PROM) boot blocks.

And work continues...

<hr>

<h3>Current status:</h3>

All supported models (or with similar designs) should run multi-user (some of

them do not support the onboard SCSI controller yet and need to run diskless),

them do not support booting from the onboard SCSI controller yet and need to

and currently limited to serial console. There isn't any disk bootloader yet,

boot from a DG/UX setup or run diskless), and currently limited to serial

so the kernel has to be netbooted.

console.

<hr>

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</h3>

<ul>

<li>Disk bootloader.

<li>AIC-6250 (on-board SCSI on series 400) support in the disk bootloader.

<li>On-board SCSI support on series 400 and compatible models.

<li>DMA support for the AIC-6250 SCSI controller.

<li>Keyboard and video support.

<li>Keyboard and video support (and an X server).

<li>Test on as many different models as possible.

</ul>

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<li>100, 200, 300, 400, 3000, 4000 and 4300 series

These are the machines initially targetted by this port.

Their design is close to the well-known MVME188 design, with different on-board

devices; at the moment only the on-board serial ports and ethernet are

devices; at the moment, there is no support for the on-board SCSI controller

supported.

in the boot blocks, athough the on-board SCSI controller is supported by the

kernel.

The only models tested so far are models 410 and 4300, but all the models in

this series should work.

this series should work.

Multiprocessor systems are not supported.

<li>4600 and 530 series

These machines are slightly different from the above series, but not too much,

and documentation is available.

Both the on-board SCSI controller and the on-board network interface are

supported, but there are no disk boot blocks yet.

supported, and these systems are able to boot from disk.

Multiprocessor systems are supported.

</ul>

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