OpenBSD/pica
OpenBSD/pica
History and Status:
The early history is not very clear. Apparently the first work was
done by CMU as part of their Mach project. The initial hardware was
the DEC R2000/R3000-based Decstations. This code was later used by
both the Sprite and BSD groups. The 4.4BSD code, known as the `pmax'
port, was made freely available in mid '93. It was merged into the
NetBSD tree by a variety of people, but has never been very stable,
reliable, or complete. Compiler toolkit problems have plagued the
port because the standard a.out executable format is an imperfect
match to the MIPS architecture.
Per Fogelstrom became familiar with the code after porting it to a
home-built IDT R3081 based board. Subsequently he added R4400 support
when porting it to the MIPS R4400 Acer PICA board. Willowglen
Singapore purchased a second PICA board for Theo de Raadt so that he
could improve the port for use as a development system for an internal
project. Since then Theo and Per have gotten ethernet and a few other
small projects working.
The Acer PICA is a dead platform. Acer no longer makes the machine,
but even worse the machines are very rare. The main reason to work on
this port is because there are a multitude of other MIPS-based
machines -- eventually this code will be useful on another machine.
The people working the most on OpenBSD/pica currently consists of
Per Fogelstrom, and Theo de Raadt. Of course others are very welcome!
Where to get it?
Send mail to Theo de Raadt.
www@openbsd.org