Annotation of www/sparc.html, Revision 1.27
1.3 fn 1: <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML Strict//EN">
2: <html>
1.1 deraadt 3: <head>
1.25 johns 4: <title>OpenBSD/sparc</title>
1.3 fn 5: <link rev=made href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>
6: <meta name="resource-type" content="document">
1.25 johns 7: <meta name="description" content="the OpenBSD/sparc page">
1.3 fn 8: <meta name="keywords" content="openbsd,sparc">
9: <meta name="distribution" content="global">
1.16 deraadt 10: <meta name="copyright" content="This document copyright 1996 by OpenBSD">
1.3 fn 11: </head>
12:
1.20 johns 13: <BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#23238E">
1.3 fn 14:
1.25 johns 15: <h2>OpenBSD/sparc</h2>
1.1 deraadt 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
1.25 johns 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
1.1 deraadt 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>
1.25 johns 53: Work on porting OpenBSD/sparc to the sun4m platform was started by Theo,
1.7 deraadt 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,
1.25 johns 59: David Miller of the Sparclinux project got a little bit involved.
1.7 deraadt 60: </p>
61:
62: <p>
1.27 ! downsj 63: Theo and Jason Downs merged the NetBSD sparc code back into OpenBSD, making
! 64: OpenBSD/sparc usable again. There are still a few OpenBSD/sparc features
! 65: from older source trees that need to be re-integrated; these will likely
! 66: surface soon.
1.3 fn 67: </p>
1.1 deraadt 68:
69: <p>
1.25 johns 70: The people working the most on OpenBSD/sparc are Jason Downs, George Robbins,
1.27 ! downsj 71: and John Stone.
1.6 downsj 72: </p>
73:
74: <p>
1.25 johns 75: An important note about OpenBSD/sparc is that it is designed so that
1.26 downsj 76: a single kernel can run on <b>ALL</b><sup>(1)</sup> sparc machines. Whereas
77: SunOS and Solaris have always had separate `kernel architectures', ie. sun4,
78: sun4c, and sun4m, the same `GENERIC' OpenBSD kernel will run on all the
79: supported models.
1.15 grr 80: </p>
81:
82: <p>
1.25 johns 83: OpenBSD/sparc can be reasonably described as a continuation of the
84: NetBSD/sparc development with improvements. The current status is
1.17 johns 85: somewhere between under development and ready for general use, in that
1.15 grr 86: it does support many of the Sparc based systems and their peripherals,
87: and can be quite reliable depending on the system configuration and
88: usage.
89: </p>
90:
91: <p>
1.25 johns 92: Most of the problems are believed to stem from the wide variety of sparc
1.15 grr 93: processor and cache implementations along with their undocumented bugs,
1.24 johns 94: rather then general kernel problems.
1.15 grr 95: Feedback on which models do and do not work reliably is
96: appreciated, particularly with the newer sun4m implementations like the
97: Fujitsu TurboSparc and Ross HyperSparc based systems and upgrades.
98: </p>
99:
100: <p>
1.17 johns 101: The installation tools and process as of the 2.1 release are greatly
1.25 johns 102: improved over previous releases of OpenBSD. OpenBSD/sparc can be installed
1.17 johns 103: or upgraded via floppy boot images on sun4c and sun4m, miniroot images
104: for machines without floppies (and sun4 machines).
1.3 fn 105: </p>
106:
107: <hr>
1.1 deraadt 108: <p>
1.22 johns 109: <ul>
110: <li><a href=ftp.html>Snapshots are made available from time to time.</a>
1.25 johns 111: <li><a href=ftp://ftp2.usa.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/2.1/sparc/INSTALL.sparc>Installation information for the 2.1 release of OpenBSD/sparc</a>
1.22 johns 112: </ul>
113: </p>
1.3 fn 114:
1.22 johns 115: <p>
1.3 fn 116: <hr>
117: <h3><strong>What hardware is supported?</strong></h3>
1.1 deraadt 118:
1.25 johns 119: <h4>OpenBSD/sparc runs on the following classes of machines:</h4>
1.3 fn 120: <ul>
1.19 johns 121: <li> sun4: 4/100, 4/200, and 4/300
122: <li> sun4c: SS1, SS1+, IPC, SLC, SS2, IPX, and ELC
123: <li> sun4m: at least the LC, LX, 4, 5, 10, and 20. A few cpu
1.17 johns 124: combinations do not work reliably, as well as a few odd memory
125: configurations.
1.15 grr 126: <li> Typically it works on faithful clones of these machines
1.3 fn 127: </ul>
128: <h4>Supported devices. This list of basically declares that any `stock' sun4c
129: "sparcstation" machine will probably work; for sun4 machines one must be more
130: careful.</h4>
131: <ul>
1.19 johns 132: <li> Sun keyboard and mouse
133:
134: <li> Floppy drives:
135: <ul>
1.26 downsj 136: <li> sun4c and sun4m floppy disk drive
1.19 johns 137: </ul>
138:
139: <li> Serial ports:
140: <ul>
141: <li> ttya and ttyb on-board serial ports (can be used as console if needed)
142: <li> 4/300 ttyc and ttyd on-board serial ports
143: </ul>
144:
145:
146: <li> Audio support:
147: <ul>
148: <li> sun4c on-board audio
149: </ul>
150:
151: <li> Framebuffers:
152: <ul>
153: <li>SBus or sun4c on-board video:
154: <ul>
155: <li>bwtwo - black and white
156: <li>cgthree - 8-bit color, unaccelerated
1.26 downsj 157: <li>cgsix - 8-bit color, accelerated (GX, GX+, TGX, TGX+) Should probably work with most faithful emulations/clones of SBus cgsix.
1.19 johns 158: </ul>
159:
160: <li> 4/200 on-board bwtwo
161:
162: <li> P4 video (4/100 and 4/300):
163: <ul>
164: <li> bwtwo - black and white
165: <li> cgthree - 8-bit color, unaccelerated
166: <li> cgfour - 8-bit color, 1-bit overlay, unaccelerated
167: <li> cgsix - 8-bit color, accelerated
168: <li> cgeight - 24-bit color, 1-bit overlay, unaccelerated
169: </ul>
170:
171: <li> VME video (sun4):
172: <ul>
173: <li> cgtwo - black and white
174: <li> cgthree - 8-bit color, unaccelerated
175: <li> cgsix - 8-bit color, accelerated
176: </ul>
177: </ul>
178:
179: <li> Ethernet adapters:
180: <ul>
181: <li> on-board AMD Lance ethernet
182: <li> SBus AMD Lance ethernet cards
183: <li> on-board Intel 82586 ethernet (ie0 on 4/100 and 4/200)
184: <li> VME Intel 82586 ethernet cards
185: </ul>
186:
187: <li> SCSI controllers:
188: <ul>
189: <li> on-board "esp" SCSI controller (sun4c, sun4m, and 4/300)
190: <li> SBus "esp" SCSI controller
191: <li> VME "SUN-3"/"si" SCSI controller (polled mode only, slow)
192: <li> 4/110 "SCSI Weird"/"sw" on-board controller (slow, polled mode)
193: </ul>
194:
195: <li> SMD and other disk controllers
196: <ul>
197: <li> Xylogics 7053 VME/SMD disk controller ("xd")
198: <li> Xylogics 450/451 VME disk controller ("xy")
199: </ul>
200:
1.3 fn 201: </ul>
1.1 deraadt 202:
1.25 johns 203: <h4>OpenBSD/sparc does *not* run on these machines (yet):</h4>
1.3 fn 204: <ul>
1.19 johns 205: <li> sun4: 4/400 (lacks support for the I/O cache, and has ethernet problems)
206: <li> sun4m: older systems with Viking (TMS390Z55) processor modules without external cache chips, aka SuperCache, aka MXCC, aka PAC.
207: <li> sun4m: model 4/600 -- uses auxio registers, sun4m VME, I/O cache?
208: <li> sun4d: SPARC Server 1000, SPARC Center 2000 -- XD-Bus vs. M-Bus, MP issues.
209: <li> sun4u: UltraSPARC 64-bit machines.
1.1 deraadt 210: <li> It does not work on most Solbourne machines, which are quite different.
1.3 fn 211: </ul>
1.19 johns 212:
1.15 grr 213: <p>
214: OpenBSD/Sparc on the 4c/4m machines is criticaly dependent on configuration
1.25 johns 215: information returned by the openboot prom. A sparc clone that differs
1.15 grr 216: substantially from the Sun model as far as device names and properties will
217: require additional work in this area.
1.1 deraadt 218:
219: <h4>Unsupported Devices. First of all, there are MANY unsupported devices.
220: A comprehensive list can probably not be written.</h4>
1.3 fn 221: <ul>
1.19 johns 222: <li> Serial Cards:
223: <ul>
224: <li> VME mti 16-port serial card
225: <li> VME alm2 16-port serial card
226: <li> VME mcp 4-port serial card (or is it 8 port)
227: </ul>
228:
229: <li>Disk Controllers:
230: <ul>
231: <li> VME "sc" SCSI controller
232: <li> VME IPI controller
233: </ul>
234:
235: <li> Framebuffers:
236: <ul>
237: <li> VME cgfive, 8-bit color, 1-bit overlay, double-buffered, unaccelerated without GP/GP2
238: <li> VME cgnine, 24-bit color, 1-bit overlay, double-buffered, unaccelerated without GP/GP2
239: <li> VME GP/GP2 Graphics Processor (drives a cgfive or cgnine)
240: <li> SBus cgeight 24-bit color, unaccelerated (note: SBus cgeight is quite different from VME/P4 cgeight)
241: <li> SBus GS, 24-bit color, 8-bit color, overlay planes, double-buffered, 3-D acceleration (aka cgtwelve)
242: <li> SBus GT, 24-bit color, 8-bit color, overlay planes, double-buffered, 3-D acceleration (aka Graphics Tower)
243: <li> SS20 SX, 24-bit color, 8-bit color, overlay planes, potentially double-buffered, accelerated (aka cgfourteen)
244: <li> SBus ZX, 24-bit color, 8-bit color, overlay planes, double-buffered, 3-D acceleration (aka Leo)
245: </ul>
246:
1.17 johns 247: <li> SBus cards other than the standard video/scsi/ethernet listed above
1.15 grr 248: <li> On-board Audio and ISDN hardware present on some sun4m systems
1.18 johns 249: <li> sun4m floppies (OpenBSD can boot/install from them though)
1.15 grr 250: <li> Multiple Processors/Modules in sun4m systems (OpenBSD will run, but only uses one processor)
1.3 fn 251: </ul>
1.1 deraadt 252:
1.3 fn 253: <hr>
1.25 johns 254: <h3>OpenBSD/sparc Projects:</h3>
1.21 johns 255: <ul>
256: <li>Improve sun4m stability.
257: <li>Merge in useful NetBSD work.
258: <li>Start work on device drivers for unsupported framebuffers.
1.25 johns 259: <li>Bring back OpenBSD/sparc features from older code.
1.21 johns 260: </ul>
261:
262: <hr>
1.26 downsj 263: <p>
264: <sup>(1) sun4u ("Ultra") would probably not conform to this model, and have
265: it's own kernel port.</sup>
266: </p>
267: <hr>
268:
1.11 deraadt 269: <a href=plat.html><img src=back.gif border=0 alt=OpenBSD></a>
1.1 deraadt 270: <a href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>www@openbsd.org</a>
1.3 fn 271: <br>
1.27 ! downsj 272: <small>$OpenBSD: sparc.html,v 1.26 1997/06/25 19:11:48 downsj Exp $</small>
1.3 fn 273:
274: </body>
275: </html>
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