From owner-freebsd-alpha Fri Oct 9 16:04:30 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id QAA14140 for freebsd-alpha-outgoing; Fri, 9 Oct 1998 16:04:30 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from mail.netbsd.org (homeworld.cygnus.com [205.180.83.70]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id QAA14043 for ; Fri, 9 Oct 1998 16:04:17 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from cgd@netbsd.org) Received: (qmail 21350 invoked by uid 1000); 9 Oct 1998 23:03:31 -0000 To: Terry Lambert Cc: tls@rek.tjls.com, alpha@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: interesting quote from http://cnls.lanl.gov/avalon/FAQ.html#A1end References: <199810092134.OAA27092@usr01.primenet.com> From: cgd@netbsd.org (Chris G. Demetriou) Date: 09 Oct 1998 16:03:31 -0700 In-Reply-To: Terry Lambert's message of Fri, 9 Oct 1998 21:34:21 +0000 (GMT) Message-ID: <87ww695oe4.fsf@netbsd1.cygnus.com> Lines: 31 X-Mailer: Gnus v5.5/Emacs 20.2 Sender: owner-freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Terry Lambert writes: > I realize that this would require some substantial code changes to > things like the platform specific VM code; but the payback is the > ability to run on all the Alpha hardware out there. All the new alpha hardware, maybe. There exist systems (now old, but some still perform pretty well) for which no ARC ever was (or really could be 8-) made. Also, there's the issue of the limitations that the NT PALcode leaves you with. e.g. 32-bit process address space. Also, since the user-land PAL ops for things like syscalls and related stuff aren't necessarily compatible (not sure), you might not even be able to run other UNIX-ish systems' binaries (even disregarding address space issues). Also, "things like" the VM code includes an awful lot more than the VM code. If you want a PC... buy a PC. If you want an Alpha, with all of its benefits, you want either OSF or VMS PALcode. cgd -- Chris Demetriou - cgd@netbsd.org - http://www.netbsd.org/People/Pages/cgd.html Disclaimer: Not speaking for NetBSD, just expressing my own opinion. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-alpha" in the body of the message