Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 10:37:20 +0000 (GMT) From: Doug Rabson <dfr@nlsystems.com> To: Thor Lancelot Simon <tls@rek.tjls.com> Cc: Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com>, freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG, netbsd-alpha@netbsd.org Subject: Re: ARC/AlphaBIOS (164UX boards) .. was: Re: horrible hack / SRM Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.01.9901231035530.59627-100000@herring.nlsystems.com> In-Reply-To: <19990123015811.A17699@rek.tjls.com>
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On Sat, 23 Jan 1999, Thor Lancelot Simon wrote: > On Fri, Jan 22, 1999 at 11:10:34PM +0000, Terry Lambert wrote: > > > > > 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... > > > > > > > > I guess what I am not understanding is why this level of work needs to > > > > be done? Cannot MILO be altered to also work with FreeBSD? I can see > > > > many advantages in sharing sourcecode for this matter, even though it > > > > is from 'the other camp' so to speak... > > > > > > Milo requires the Linux kernel sources to build. I would also prefer a > > > non-gpl solution to the bootstrap. > > > > Not to mention that Milo replaces the microcode with something other > > than SRM and other than ARC, etc, and as a result is constantly > > playing catch-up with new boards. > > You're missing the point. SRM, too, requires "constantly playing catch-up > with new boards". The cheap new boards don't have SRM *because Compaq > wasn't willing to pay anyone to port it, or their vendors weren't > willing to license it and then pay someone to port it. > > The do-it-yourself SRM kit costs a whopping $75. In fact, it's what > MILO is (partially) based on. > > > Someone should approach Compaq about SRM, now that DEC is no longer > > anally trying to keep everything $120 more expensive than running > > NT for some sill ass reason... > > Why bother? A cook-your-own SRM kit is $75, MILO is free, but you still > have to port either one of them to every new board just like you'd have > to port a PC's BIOS -- they do very analogous things. > > Unfortunately, the PALcode in the SRM kit is quite old, doesn't work with > many newer boards, and is known to be rather buggy, but the MILO folks > have updated it (obviously). The question is where on *earth* to get > the PALcode source MILO's built from. According to my information, the palcode source in the milo distribution is what is built. There will also be an update to the EBSDK to include the latest platforms soon. -- 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
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