Date: Mon, 4 Mar 1996 14:52:53 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> To: dwalton@psiint.com (Dave Walton) Cc: terry@lambert.org, steveb@tor.mcd.mot.com, questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: PowerPC Port? Message-ID: <199603042152.OAA06738@phaeton.artisoft.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.A32.3.91.960304132523.46108E-100000@vv.psiint.com> from "Dave Walton" at Mar 4, 96 01:28:17 pm
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> > > I just recently have become familiar with FreeBSD. Do you know if anyone > > > out there has tried to do a PowerPC port? > > > > Yes. I have a port in progress. > > For another option, check out http://www.tenon.com > MachTen is a bit more pricey than FreeBSD, but it's available now. > > >From their page: > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > MachTen is a BSD UNIX and Mach implementation for Apple Macintosh > computers. MachTen runs on all Macs, from PowerBooks to Classics to > Quadras to PowerMacs. > > Tenon Intersystems also produces a high performance X Window software > package for MachTen, including an X server, MIT clients, and Motif > toolkit. > > Hundreds of public domain applications have been ported to MachTen and > are available on the MachTen Ported Applications CD. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) He's from Motorolla, so he's probably using Motorolla hardware. 8-). 2) MachTen is not a native application; that is, it requires the MacOS ROMs and makes ROM calls to implement its drivers. Despite recent gains, Apple Mac ROMs are predominantly not currently reentrant. That is, the ROM-based drivers and interfaces are ill-suited to use in a preemptively multitasking OS, since a resource block will result in a spin in a ROM routine rather than scheduling a wakeup and context switching to another process. Note also that only the 68k version of MachTen support memory protection in hardware. These (and other) reasons are why those of us who are interested in non-Intel commodity hardware keep screaming at Apple to document their hardware. Realize that the recent Linux announcement for Apple PowerMac is based on a Linux Single Server for OSF Mach, not a native Linux port of the drivers. Note further that there is not an intent to release OSF Mach sources, only the Linux Single Server sources -- so the hardware will remain undocumented. The *is* another non-OSF Mach port in progress, but it is far from complete. This port *will* document the hardware. By the time this happens, I suspect that the Apple hardware it documents will no longer be "interesting" (just like the Linux and NetBSD Mac 68k ports document the 68k Mac hardware, but few people actually care, and no one buys a new 68k Mac just to run the code). All in all, the Motorolla hardware is more interesting anyway. Regards, Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199603042152.OAA06738>