Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1999 21:05:18 +0100 (MET) From: Martin Heller <heller@informatik.uni-freiburg.de> To: Doug Rabson <dfr@nlsystems.com> Cc: Brandon Gillespie <brandon@roguetrader.com>, freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: RE:M$ PE-format ..was: ARC/AlphaBIOS (164UX boards) .. was: Re: Message-ID: <Pine.GS4.4.02A.9901222054540.14279-100000@joyce.informatik.uni-freiburg.de> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.01.9901221242380.59627-100000@herring.nlsystems.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Fri, 22 Jan 1999, Doug Rabson wrote: > On Thu, 21 Jan 1999, Brandon Gillespie wrote: > > > Andrew Gallatin <gallatin@cs.duke.edu> wrote: > > > And this is going to become a much bigger issue once all the 164lx > > > boards sell out, as vendors are claiming they will. Samsung's 164lx > > > replacement, the 164ux, apparently works only with AlphaBios. From > > > what I've read, DEC's new low-end 164RX board will lack SRM support as > > > well. > > > > My company is engineering an alpha computer/sales division, for doing > > online sales. I have been encouraged by the FreeBSD port effort, as I > > much prefer FreeBSD to linux, but it looks as if we are going to be > > using the UX board for our mainstay. Infact, we do not really have > > much choice, if we buy from Samsung (aka Alpha Processors Inc/API). > > They have the 164UX/BX available in the 2MB and 4MB, and they will > > soon also have another board which uses daughter boards to provide > > dual CPU capability--I believe it is 164UX based as well. Any other > > board which they have produced in the past have reached the end of > > their life, and they will NOT be producing any more. Some people may > > still have a few stocked, but that is it. > > > > The problem is, of course, that these motherboards ONLY seem to > > support the AlphaBIOS. I'm still digging trying to find the SRM, but > > I cannot. On API's site they even list the firmware as simply being > > AlphaBIOS, and the ONLY OSes they list as being able to run on it are > > NT and Linux (note the lack of Digital Unix, *sigh*). > > > > Also, I'm just getting into this so I appologize if I offend anybody > > ;) But why not join camps and try to fork MILO to work with FreeBSD, > > but basing off the same code base it seems it'd be easier to keep up > > to date for BOTH camps... However, I suspect this effort (ARC boot) > > is further along than I realize, so I shall desist :) > > > > As it stands, our default OS when the site rolls out in a month will > > be Linux, with NT as an option. I would _love_ to have FreeBSD as an > > option (even if it still needs maturing :) > > > > And to end...after having evaluated the boards I must say they are > > very nice. Onboard everything--UW2 scsi, IDE and 10/100 NIC. And > > cheap too (Alpha prices have really dropped all across the board... > > finally :) > Stefan Esser is working on AlphaBIOS booting at the moment but it is very > early days. We are still at the stage of reverse-engineering the M$ > executable format... Well there is a port of gcc-2.7.2 + binutils-2.8?? (cygwin-b19) for Alpha/NT. I think it's at ftp://ftp.guiduck.com . There is also a port for OpenNT/alpha with sources - I should have 'em somewhere on DAT or CD-ROM if you can't find it. MARTIN ------------------------- heller@informatik.uni-freiburg.de mheller@rhrk.uni-kl.de mheller@acm.org > > -- > Doug Rabson Mail: dfr@nlsystems.com > Nonlinear Systems Ltd. Phone: +44 181 442 9037 > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-alpha" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-alpha" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?Pine.GS4.4.02A.9901222054540.14279-100000>