Annotation of www/sparc.html, Revision 1.7
1.3 fn 1: <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML Strict//EN">
2: <html>
1.1 deraadt 3: <head>
4: <title>OpenBSD/sparc</title>
1.3 fn 5: <base href=http://www.openbsd.org/>
6: <link rev=made href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>
7: <meta name="resource-type" content="document">
8: <meta name="description" content="the OpenBSD/sparc page">
9: <meta name="keywords" content="openbsd,sparc">
10: <meta name="distribution" content="global">
11: <meta name="copyright" content="This document copyright 1996 by OpenBSD, Inc.">
12: </head>
13:
14: <body>
15:
1.1 deraadt 16: <h2>OpenBSD/sparc</h2>
17:
1.3 fn 18: <hr>
19: <h3><strong>History and Status:</strong></h3>
20:
21: <p>
1.1 deraadt 22: The original BSD4.4 port was done by Chris Torek as a contract to
23: LBL. The code was released by Chris in mid-93, and Theo de Raadt
24: worked it into shape for the NetBSD tree. Theo and Markus Wild worked
25: on improving Chris' original SunOS compatibility code into a highly
26: complete and reliable emulation. Chuck Cranor ported the sun4c code to
27: the 8KB pagesized Sun4 architecture, and Theo merged this code in a
28: way that would allow the same kernel and programs to run on either
29: sun4c or sun4 machines (unlike Sun's seperate kernel environments).
30: This last change also required a rewrite of the device configuration
31: code. Just after the NetBSD/sparc 1.0 release, Peter Galbavy wrote an
32: ESP scsi device driver as a replacement for Chris' sparc-specific scsi
33: code, this new driver unfortunately had some problems.
1.3 fn 34: </p>
1.1 deraadt 35:
36: <p>
37: At this point a conflict emerged between Theo and the other people he
38: started the NetBSD project with, and Theo was forced by the core group
39: to resign from NetBSD. After Theo left NetBSD, a few people in the
40: NetBSD group did some other things for the port: Paul Kranenburg
41: ported a floppy driver and started writing support for the 4/400.
42: Chuck spent many long hours working on the ie, xy, xd device drivers.
1.3 fn 43: </p>
1.1 deraadt 44:
45: <p>
46: Theo continued working independently, and made a number of additions:
47: P4 support, flexible boot strategy, a few graphics drivers with help
48: from John Stone, and masses of bug fixes. Many people will be most
49: interested that the ESP scsi driver has been completely replaced by
50: Theo, and that it supports disconnect/reconnect.
1.3 fn 51: </p>
1.1 deraadt 52:
53: <p>
1.7 ! deraadt 54: Work on porting OpenBSD/sparc to the sun4m platform was started by Theo,
! 55: but tendonitis problems with his wrists and the problems with the NetBSD
! 56: core conspired, and he stopped work. Theo passed his initial sun4m work
! 57: to Aaron Brown of Harvard, who was paid out of Margo Seltzer's research
! 58: funds. This initial stuff consisted mostly of a few attempts at building
! 59: pmap structure that could support all 3 MMU types efficiently). Also,
! 60: David Miller of the Sparclinux project got a little bit involved.
! 61: </p>
! 62:
! 63: <p>
! 64: Recently Theo and Jason Downs began merging the NetBSD sparc code back into
! 65: OpenBSD. OpenBSD/sparc is becoming usable again. There are still a few
! 66: OpenBSD/sparc features from older source trees that need to be re-integrated;
! 67: these will likely surface soon.
1.3 fn 68: </p>
1.1 deraadt 69:
70: <p>
71: OpenBSD/sparc can be correctly described as NetBSD/sparc + improvements.
1.3 fn 72: </p>
1.1 deraadt 73:
74: <p>
1.7 ! deraadt 75: The people working the most on OpenBSD/sparc currently consists of
! 76: Theo de Raadt, Jason Downs, and probably Chuck Cranor again now that it
! 77: once again works.
1.6 downsj 78: </p>
79:
80: <p>
1.7 ! deraadt 81: An important note about OpenBSD/sparc is that it is designed so that
! 82: a single kernel can run on *ALL* sparc machines. Whereas SunOS and
! 83: Solaris have always had `kernel architectures', ie. sun4, sun4c, and
! 84: sun4m, the same `GENERIC' OpenBSD kernel will run on all the models.
1.3 fn 85: </p>
86:
87: <hr>
1.1 deraadt 88: <p>
1.5 deraadt 89: <a href=index.html#snapshots>Snapshots are made available from time to time.</a>
1.3 fn 90:
91: <hr>
92: <h3><strong>What hardware is supported?</strong></h3>
1.1 deraadt 93:
94: <h4>OpenBSD/sparc runs on the following classes of machines:</h4>
1.3 fn 95: <ul>
1.1 deraadt 96: <li> sun4c: the SS1, SS1+, IPC, SLC, SS2, IPX, and ELC
97: <li> sun4: the 4/100, 4/200, and 4/300
98: <li> Typically it works on clones of these machines
1.3 fn 99: </ul>
1.1 deraadt 100:
1.3 fn 101: <h4>Supported devices. This list of basically declares that any `stock' sun4c
102: "sparcstation" machine will probably work; for sun4 machines one must be more
103: careful.</h4>
104: <ul>
1.1 deraadt 105: <li> sun4c sbus or on-board cgsix, cgthree, and bwtwo
106: <li> 4/200 on-board bwtwo
107: <li> 4/300 and 4/100 P4 video: bwtwo, cgthree, cgsix. As well, P4 cgeight may work
108: <li> sun4 VME cgtwo, cgthree, cgsix
109: <li> P4 on-board bwtwo, and VME cgtwo card<br>
110: <li> ttya and ttyb serial ports (can be used as console if needed)
111: <li> 4/300 ttyc and ttyc serial ports
112: <li> on-board AMD Lance ethernet
113: <li> sbus AMD Lance ethernet cards
114: <li> on-board Intel 82586 ethernet (ie0 on 4/100 and 4/200)
115: <li> VME Intel 82586 ethernet cards
116: <li> on-board "esp" SCSI controller (sun4c and 4/300)
117: <li> sbus "esp" SCSI controller
118: <li> VME "SUN-3"/"si" SCSI controller (polled mode only, slow)
119: <li> 4/110 "SCSI Weird"/"sw" on-board controller (slow, polled mode)
120: <li> Xylogics 7053 VME/SMD disk controller ("xd")
121: <li> Xylogics 450/451 VME disk controller ("xy")
122: <li> sun4c floppy disk drive
123: <li> sun4c audio
124: <li> sun keyboard and mouse
1.3 fn 125: </ul>
1.1 deraadt 126:
127: <h4>OpenBSD/sparc does *not* run on these machines (yet):</h4>
1.3 fn 128: <ul>
1.1 deraadt 129: <li> 4/400 (lacks support for the I/O cache, and has ethernet problems)
130: <li> sun4m: the 4/600, LC, LX, 4, 5, 10, and 20
131: <li> sun4d: sparc center 1000/2000
132: <li> the new Ultra sparc-64 machines...
133: <li> It does not work on most Solbourne machines, which are quite different.
1.3 fn 134: </ul>
1.1 deraadt 135:
136: <h4>Unsupported Devices. First of all, there are MANY unsupported devices.
137: A comprehensive list can probably not be written.</h4>
1.3 fn 138: <ul>
1.1 deraadt 139: <li> VME mti 16-port serial card
140: <li> VME alm2 16-port serial card
141: <li> VME mcp 4-port serial card (or is it 8 port)
142: <li> VME "sc" SCSI controller
143: <li> VME IPI controller
144: <li> VME cgfive
145: <li> VME cgnine
146: <li> VME GP/GP2 Graphics Processor
147: <li> sbus cgeight 24-bit video card (note: sbus cgeight is quite different from
148: VME cgeight)
1.3 fn 149: </ul>
1.1 deraadt 150:
1.3 fn 151: <hr>
152: <a href=/><img src=icons/back.gif border=0 alt=OpenBSD></a>
1.1 deraadt 153: <a href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>www@openbsd.org</a>
1.3 fn 154: <br>
1.7 ! deraadt 155: <small>$OpenBSD: sparc.html,v 1.6 1996/08/14 04:42:24 downsj Exp $</small>
1.3 fn 156:
157: </body>
158: </html>
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