===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsrepo/anoncvs/cvs/www/mvme88k.html,v
retrieving revision 1.88
retrieving revision 1.89
diff -u -r1.88 -r1.89
--- www/mvme88k.html	2013/01/20 23:15:57	1.88
+++ www/mvme88k.html	2013/01/24 23:38:54	1.89
@@ -51,17 +51,29 @@
 <p>
 The Motorola 88k processor is said to be the best RISC processor ever 
 devised.  Its simplicity and elegance combine to make the mvme88k a 
-hearty, robust platform. 
+hearty, robust platform.
 
 <p>
-Nivas Madhur started the initial mvme88k port for the MVME187 card, but
-has since moved on to another employer.  
-The port was brought in the OpenBSD tree by Dale Rahn, but he did not
-have enough time to work on it.
-Steve Murphree, Jr. eventually completed the port to the MVME187 in
-November 1998.
+Unfortunately, the first generation designs (88100) made use of companion chips
+for cache and virtual memory management, making hardware designs painfully
+complex (and expensive, at that time).  The second generation (88110) addressed
+this issue, but was plagued with reliability issue.  Eventually, Motorola
+seized the opportunity to drop the 88000 line in favour of the PowerPC as soon
+as possible, although some parts of the 88110 still exist in the PowerPC family
+processors today.
 
 <p>
+Nivas Madhur started the initial mvme88k port for the MVME187 card, building
+upon the CMU Mach code running on the 88100-based Omron Luna88k systems.
+However, he moved on to another employer before his work was ready to be
+imported into the OpenBSD source tree.
+
+<p>
+This integration work was completed by Dale Rahn, but he did not have enough
+time to continue working on the port.  Steve Murphree, Jr., stepped up, and
+eventually completed the port to the MVME187 in November 1998.
+
+<p>
 Unfortunately, at the same time, a compiler upgrade from gcc 2.8.1 to
 egcs exposed a lot of problems in the mvme88k support in gcc, which
 could not be fixed in time for mvme88k to be a supported OpenBSD 2.5
@@ -92,6 +104,12 @@
 obscure bugs which eventually got tracked down to a processor errata,
 fixed for good in april 2010.
 
+<p>
+The long-awaited switch from the a.out binary format to ELF happened after the
+5.2 release, with a compiler upgrade to gcc 3.3.6.  This work paved the way
+for ELF shared libraries support, which are currently being worked on, with the
+hope to be ready and reliable in time for the forthcoming 5.3 release.
+
 <hr>
 <a name="status"></a>
 <h3><font color="#0000e0"><strong>Current status:</strong></font></h3>
@@ -238,10 +256,12 @@
 881x0-based hardware is even more rare, this section is here to satisfy the
 well-founded curiosity about the mvme88k hardware.
 
+<!-- 
 <p>
 A comprehensive reference about the m88k processor and the various designs
 built upon it is being gathered by Paul Weissmann at
 <a href="http://badabada.org/">badabada</a>.
+-->
 
 <a name="pics"></a>
 <p>
@@ -335,7 +355,7 @@
 <br>
 <small><a href="mailto:www@openbsd.org">www@openbsd.org</a></small>
 <br>
-<small>$OpenBSD: mvme88k.html,v 1.88 2013/01/20 23:15:57 miod Exp $</small>
+<small>$OpenBSD: mvme88k.html,v 1.89 2013/01/24 23:38:54 miod Exp $</small>
 
 </body>
 </html>