Annotation of www/sparc.html, Revision 1.17
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1.1 deraadt 3: <head>
4: <title>OpenBSD/sparc</title>
1.3 fn 5: <link rev=made href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>
6: <meta name="resource-type" content="document">
7: <meta name="description" content="the OpenBSD/sparc page">
8: <meta name="keywords" content="openbsd,sparc">
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1.16 deraadt 10: <meta name="copyright" content="This document copyright 1996 by OpenBSD">
1.3 fn 11: </head>
12:
13: <body>
14:
1.1 deraadt 15: <h2>OpenBSD/sparc</h2>
16:
1.3 fn 17: <hr>
18: <h3><strong>History and Status:</strong></h3>
19:
20: <p>
1.1 deraadt 21: The original BSD4.4 port was done by Chris Torek as a contract to
22: LBL. The code was released by Chris in mid-93, and Theo de Raadt
23: worked it into shape for the NetBSD tree. Theo and Markus Wild worked
24: on improving Chris' original SunOS compatibility code into a highly
25: complete and reliable emulation. Chuck Cranor ported the sun4c code to
26: the 8KB pagesized Sun4 architecture, and Theo merged this code in a
27: way that would allow the same kernel and programs to run on either
28: sun4c or sun4 machines (unlike Sun's seperate kernel environments).
29: This last change also required a rewrite of the device configuration
30: code. Just after the NetBSD/sparc 1.0 release, Peter Galbavy wrote an
31: ESP scsi device driver as a replacement for Chris' sparc-specific scsi
32: code, this new driver unfortunately had some problems.
1.3 fn 33: </p>
1.1 deraadt 34:
35: <p>
36: At this point a conflict emerged between Theo and the other people he
37: started the NetBSD project with, and Theo was forced by the core group
38: to resign from NetBSD. After Theo left NetBSD, a few people in the
39: NetBSD group did some other things for the port: Paul Kranenburg
40: ported a floppy driver and started writing support for the 4/400.
41: Chuck spent many long hours working on the ie, xy, xd device drivers.
1.3 fn 42: </p>
1.1 deraadt 43:
44: <p>
45: Theo continued working independently, and made a number of additions:
46: P4 support, flexible boot strategy, a few graphics drivers with help
47: from John Stone, and masses of bug fixes. Many people will be most
48: interested that the ESP scsi driver has been completely replaced by
49: Theo, and that it supports disconnect/reconnect.
1.3 fn 50: </p>
1.1 deraadt 51:
52: <p>
1.7 deraadt 53: Work on porting OpenBSD/sparc to the sun4m platform was started by Theo,
54: but tendonitis problems with his wrists and the problems with the NetBSD
55: core conspired, and he stopped work. Theo passed his initial sun4m work
56: to Aaron Brown of Harvard, who was paid out of Margo Seltzer's research
57: funds. This initial stuff consisted mostly of a few attempts at building
1.8 deraadt 58: pmap structure that could support all 3 MMU types efficiently. Also,
1.7 deraadt 59: David Miller of the Sparclinux project got a little bit involved.
60: </p>
61:
62: <p>
63: Recently Theo and Jason Downs began merging the NetBSD sparc code back into
64: OpenBSD. OpenBSD/sparc is becoming usable again. There are still a few
65: OpenBSD/sparc features from older source trees that need to be re-integrated;
66: these will likely surface soon.
1.3 fn 67: </p>
1.1 deraadt 68:
69: <p>
1.7 deraadt 70: The people working the most on OpenBSD/sparc currently consists of
71: Theo de Raadt, Jason Downs, and probably Chuck Cranor again now that it
72: once again works.
1.6 downsj 73: </p>
74:
75: <p>
1.7 deraadt 76: An important note about OpenBSD/sparc is that it is designed so that
77: a single kernel can run on *ALL* sparc machines. Whereas SunOS and
1.15 grr 78: Solaris have always had separate `kernel architectures', ie. sun4, sun4c,
79: and sun4m, the same `GENERIC' OpenBSD kernel will run on all the supported
80: models.
81: </p>
82:
83: <p>
84: OpenBSD/sparc can be reasonably described as a continuation of the
85: NetBSD/sparc development with improvements. The current status is
1.17 ! johns 86: somewhere between under development and ready for general use, in that
1.15 grr 87: it does support many of the Sparc based systems and their peripherals,
88: and can be quite reliable depending on the system configuration and
89: usage.
90: </p>
91:
92: <p>
93: Most of the problems are believed to stem from the wide variety of sparc
94: processor and cache implementations along with their undocumented bugs,
95: rather then general kernal problems.
96: Feedback on which models do and do not work reliably is
97: appreciated, particularly with the newer sun4m implementations like the
98: Fujitsu TurboSparc and Ross HyperSparc based systems and upgrades.
99: </p>
100:
101: <p>
1.17 ! johns 102: The installation tools and process as of the 2.1 release are greatly
! 103: improved over previous releases of OpenBSD. OpenBSD/sparc can be installed
! 104: or upgraded via floppy boot images on sun4c and sun4m, miniroot images
! 105: for machines without floppies (and sun4 machines).
1.3 fn 106: </p>
107:
108: <hr>
1.1 deraadt 109: <p>
1.12 deraadt 110: <a href=ftp.html>Snapshots are made available from time to time.</a>
1.3 fn 111:
112: <hr>
113: <h3><strong>What hardware is supported?</strong></h3>
1.1 deraadt 114:
115: <h4>OpenBSD/sparc runs on the following classes of machines:</h4>
1.3 fn 116: <ul>
1.1 deraadt 117: <li> sun4c: the SS1, SS1+, IPC, SLC, SS2, IPX, and ELC
118: <li> sun4: the 4/100, 4/200, and 4/300
1.14 deraadt 119: <li> sun4m machines: at least the LC, LX, 4, 5, 10, and 20. A few cpu
1.17 ! johns 120: combinations do not work reliably, as well as a few odd memory
! 121: configurations.
1.15 grr 122: <li> Typically it works on faithful clones of these machines
1.3 fn 123: </ul>
124: <h4>Supported devices. This list of basically declares that any `stock' sun4c
125: "sparcstation" machine will probably work; for sun4 machines one must be more
126: careful.</h4>
127: <ul>
1.17 ! johns 128: <li> sun4c SBus or on-board cgsix, cgthree, and bwtwo
1.1 deraadt 129: <li> 4/200 on-board bwtwo
1.17 ! johns 130: <li> 4/300 and 4/100 P4 video: bwtwo, cgthree, cgsix, cgeight
1.1 deraadt 131: <li> sun4 VME cgtwo, cgthree, cgsix
132: <li> P4 on-board bwtwo, and VME cgtwo card<br>
133: <li> ttya and ttyb serial ports (can be used as console if needed)
134: <li> 4/300 ttyc and ttyc serial ports
135: <li> on-board AMD Lance ethernet
1.17 ! johns 136: <li> SBus AMD Lance ethernet cards
1.1 deraadt 137: <li> on-board Intel 82586 ethernet (ie0 on 4/100 and 4/200)
138: <li> VME Intel 82586 ethernet cards
1.14 deraadt 139: <li> on-board "esp" SCSI controller (sun4c, sun4m, and 4/300)
1.17 ! johns 140: <li> SBus "esp" SCSI controller
1.1 deraadt 141: <li> VME "SUN-3"/"si" SCSI controller (polled mode only, slow)
142: <li> 4/110 "SCSI Weird"/"sw" on-board controller (slow, polled mode)
143: <li> Xylogics 7053 VME/SMD disk controller ("xd")
144: <li> Xylogics 450/451 VME disk controller ("xy")
145: <li> sun4c floppy disk drive
146: <li> sun4c audio
147: <li> sun keyboard and mouse
1.3 fn 148: </ul>
1.1 deraadt 149:
150: <h4>OpenBSD/sparc does *not* run on these machines (yet):</h4>
1.3 fn 151: <ul>
1.1 deraadt 152: <li> 4/400 (lacks support for the I/O cache, and has ethernet problems)
1.15 grr 153: <li> older sun4m systems with Viking (TMS390Z55) processor modules without
154: external cache chips, aka SuperCache, aka MXCC, aka PAC.
1.14 deraadt 155: <li> the VME sun4m model --4/600
1.1 deraadt 156: <li> sun4d: sparc center 1000/2000
157: <li> the new Ultra sparc-64 machines...
158: <li> It does not work on most Solbourne machines, which are quite different.
1.3 fn 159: </ul>
1.15 grr 160: <p>
161: OpenBSD/Sparc on the 4c/4m machines is criticaly dependent on configuration
162: information returned by the openboot prom. A sparc clone that differs
163: substantially from the Sun model as far as device names and properties will
164: require additional work in this area.
1.1 deraadt 165:
166: <h4>Unsupported Devices. First of all, there are MANY unsupported devices.
167: A comprehensive list can probably not be written.</h4>
1.3 fn 168: <ul>
1.1 deraadt 169: <li> VME mti 16-port serial card
170: <li> VME alm2 16-port serial card
171: <li> VME mcp 4-port serial card (or is it 8 port)
172: <li> VME "sc" SCSI controller
173: <li> VME IPI controller
174: <li> VME cgfive
175: <li> VME cgnine
176: <li> VME GP/GP2 Graphics Processor
1.17 ! johns 177: <li> SBus cgeight 24-bit video card (note: SBus cgeight is quite different from
1.1 deraadt 178: VME cgeight)
1.17 ! johns 179: <li> SBus GS framebuffer (aka cgtwelve)
! 180: <li> SBus GT framebuffer (aka Graphics Tower)
! 181: <li> SS20 SX framebuffer (aka cgfourteen)
! 182: <li> SBus ZX framebuffer (aka Leo)
! 183: <li> SBus cards other than the standard video/scsi/ethernet listed above
1.15 grr 184: <li> On-board Audio and ISDN hardware present on some sun4m systems
185: <li> Multiple Processors/Modules in sun4m systems (OpenBSD will run, but only uses one processor)
1.3 fn 186: </ul>
1.1 deraadt 187:
1.3 fn 188: <hr>
1.11 deraadt 189: <a href=plat.html><img src=back.gif border=0 alt=OpenBSD></a>
1.1 deraadt 190: <a href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>www@openbsd.org</a>
1.3 fn 191: <br>
1.17 ! johns 192: <small>$OpenBSD: sparc.html,v 1.16 1997/04/30 22:18:22 deraadt Exp $</small>
1.3 fn 193:
194: </body>
195: </html>
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