Annotation of www/powerpc.html, Revision 1.20
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1.3 fn 14:
1.8 rahnds 15: <h2>OpenBSD/powerpc</h2>
1.1 deraadt 16:
1.3 fn 17: <hr>
1.8 rahnds 18: <h3><strong>Status:</strong></h3>
1.1 deraadt 19:
1.3 fn 20: <p>
1.11 deraadt 21: This is a rather new port. It supports some types of machines with
22: PowerPC processors in them -- <strong>but not all</strong>. Even though
1.17 todd 23: there are standards committees trying to resolve the problem, there are
1.11 deraadt 24: significant differences between various PowerPC computers, even when made
25: by the same vendor! This port will run on some machines, but not on others.
26: Check the list below.
1.12 deraadt 27:
28: <p>
29: To work, a machine MUST have some variety of OpenBoot firmware!
1.11 deraadt 30: <p>
31:
32: As such, this is still rather preliminary and should not be considered
1.20 ! rahnds 33: finished.
! 34: The port is still not fully stable, but is now running well enough that
! 35: is is reasonable to do system development.
! 36: Hopefully, all stablity problem will be worked on and this will
! 37: become a reasonably useable port.
! 38: However, if you have PowerPC hardware we would like to know
1.11 deraadt 39: if it at least boots the install floppy.
40:
41: <p>
42: The following processors are supported: 603, 603e, 604, 604ev.
1.1 deraadt 43:
44: <p>
1.11 deraadt 45: The port does not yet use real device drivers. It uses OpenFirmware
46: for all device driver needs: console, disk, ethernet. It can be
1.20 ! rahnds 47: installed from netboot, floppy and network or cdrom. Netroot
1.11 deraadt 48: support exists, but is untested.
1.20 ! rahnds 49:
! 50: The port has two versions of the kernel, one which only uses openfirmware
! 51: for all devices, and a version that has been coded to support some MCG
! 52: PowerStack and VI series machines.
1.8 rahnds 53: </p>
54:
55: <p>
1.11 deraadt 56: <strong>Known working hardware:</strong>
57: <ul>
58: <li> Motorola machines
59: with OpenFirmware (PPC1bug firmware is known not to work):
1.20 ! rahnds 60: (Machines with 603* processors and some version of Motorola openfirmware are known to not work)
1.8 rahnds 61: <ul>
62: <li>Series E
63: <li>RiscPC
64: <li>Pro2000
65: <li>Pro3000
1.20 ! rahnds 66: <li>Pro4000 (* might not work due to IRQ problem)
! 67: </ul>
! 68: <li> V-I
! 69: <ul>
! 70: <li>Power4e boards.
1.8 rahnds 71: </ul>
1.11 deraadt 72: </ul>
73:
74: <p>
75: <strong>Untested hardware (MAY work -- please mail with results):</strong>
1.8 rahnds 76: <ul>
1.9 rahnds 77: <li> Firepower machines
78: <li> Motorola Net4000
79: <li> Motorola Net6000
1.11 deraadt 80: <ul>
81: <li> None known to work.
1.8 rahnds 82: </ul>
1.11 deraadt 83: </ul>
84:
85: <p>
86: <strong>Machines that DO NOT WORK</strong>.
1.8 rahnds 87: <ul>
1.14 deraadt 88: <li>IBM machines.
1.11 deraadt 89: <li>PPCP class machines.
1.13 deraadt 90: <li>Apple PowerMac systems with a 601 processor or lack OpenFirmware
91: will never work.
1.11 deraadt 92: <li>Apple PowerMac systems with at least a 603 processor and OpenFirmware.
93: The Apple implementation of OpenFirmware does not support loading of ELF
94: executables (like the boot-blocks for this port). This needs a workaround.
1.8 rahnds 95: </ul>
96: </p>
97:
98: <h3><strong>History:</strong></h3>
99:
100: <p>
101: The powerpc specific portions of the kernel came from the NetBSD port
102: by Wolfgang Solfrank. The userland and build tools came from an
1.17 todd 103: independent and incomplete port by Dale Rahn. Hopefully pieces
1.8 rahnds 104: from that other port will be merged, device driver support for
105: interrupts and some real driver support.
106: The conversion to the Wolfgang port was done because it was running
107: multiuser and the other port was still single user out of memory ramdisk
108: (no fully working device drivers).
1.20 ! rahnds 109: <p>
! 110: After that work was done Per Fogelstrom added support for the VI Power4e
! 111: vme board, removing openfirmware device support in the processes. (2.3 release)
! 112: <p>
! 113: For the 2.4 release, support for the openfirmware devices were added back
! 114: in a compatible fashion such that mixed ofw drivers and hardware drivers
! 115: could be supported. After that was finished, the power4e support was adapted
! 116: to work on the MCG PowerStack machines. Dec 21040, and some vga support was
! 117: added, vga cannot be used as console yet, but can be used as a terminal.
! 118: No X servers are supported, but the mechanism to access vga via mmap exists.
1.8 rahnds 119: </p>
120:
121: <p>
122: Contact
123: <a href=mailto:deraadt@theos.com>Theo de Raadt</a> or
1.10 briggs 124: <a href=mailto:rahnds@openbsd.org>Dale Rahn</a> or
1.11 deraadt 125: <a href=mailto:briggs@openbsd.org>Allen Briggs (for Apple hardware)</a>
1.8 rahnds 126: if you are interested in working with other people on this, or need more
1.1 deraadt 127: information.
1.3 fn 128: </p>
1.1 deraadt 129:
1.3 fn 130: <hr>
1.19 pauls 131: <a href=plat.html><img height=24 width=24 src=back.gif border=0 alt=OpenBSD></a>
1.1 deraadt 132: <a href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>www@openbsd.org</a>
1.3 fn 133: <br>
1.20 ! rahnds 134: <small>$OpenBSD: powerpc.html,v 1.19 1998/06/19 15:07:01 pauls Exp $</small>
1.3 fn 135:
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