From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Aug 12 20:31:34 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id UAA01163 for freebsd-questions-outgoing; Wed, 12 Aug 1998 20:31:34 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from lemieux.hockey.net (lemieux.hockey.net [209.98.94.246]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id UAA01136 for ; Wed, 12 Aug 1998 20:31:28 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from orpheus@lemieux.hockey.net) Received: from localhost (orpheus@localhost) by lemieux.hockey.net (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id WAA26652; Wed, 12 Aug 1998 22:36:16 -0500 Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1998 22:36:14 -0500 (CDT) From: Jeffrey Dunitz To: Doug White cc: Jacob Barde , freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: IBM PS/x (MCA) arch. In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Wed, 12 Aug 1998, Doug White wrote: > > On Mon, 10 Aug 1998, Jacob Barde wrote: > > > Presently I am looking to install a unix-clone OS on an 486 IBM > > PS/ValuePoint. Now, I already know that FreeBSD does not support it right > > now. > > I was wondering if anyone knew of any free (or nearly free) unix-like OSs > > that did support the MCA that IBM used. Linux (Redhat5.1) already bit the > > dust. > > > > appreciate it, > > I highly doubt it. IBM watned money for the MCA spec and no open OS was > going to pay money for it. Besides, that is legacy hardware and MCA is > dead. MCA is hardly dead. Unless I'm mistaken, there are still current RS/6000 MCA boards--graphics, net, scsi, etc... Anyway, the best source I can point anyone to about MCA linux is: http://www.net/~calemon/linux.html Which has several links to other pages. I've never tried to run it, though I've always wanted to get a souped-up PS/2 55sx or something and try it. As I understand it, a lot of MCA cards look the same to the system as certain ISA cards--that is, there is an MCA version of the WD8013 ethernet card, and it's software-compatible, lives in the same memory addresses, etc. There's an MCA version of the 1542 SCSI card, the sound blaster, and a number of other common cards. These are supported more or less natively. There are small hacks to the kernel that were done to make MCA card initialization/but arbitration work right or something. Seems like hacking this into freebsd wouldn't be a big deal. No, I'm not going to try it. :) Sorry this was sorta off-topic, but I found it interesting. I think MCA is kinda cool. > > Doug White | University of Oregon > Internet: dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu | Residence Networking Assistant > http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~dwhite | Computer Science Major > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message > =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Jeffrey Dunitz | Current Job: | orpheus@avalon.net BOFH Emeritus, Avalon Networks | Information Services | Iowa City, IA http://www.avalon.net/~orpheus | Cray Research/SGI | (319) 339-8268 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message