> Last time this line of topic was brought on the port-mac68k list, I
> kind of got the impression from Joson (Thorpe)'s post that
> NetBSD/powerpc ran on PowerPC systems with OpenFirmware support which
> PCI-PowerMacs do have thus it was possible to run NetBSD/powerpc on a
> PCI-PowerMac (not on the NuBus-PowerMacs that are supported by
> MkLinux).  
 
 Your impression and your thoughts are correct - just some minor nit:
PowerMac's OpenFirmware is different from other (I dont want to name
the others to be "standard") implementations.

 Therefor you cannot boot NetBSD/powerpc on a PowerMac yet . The other
issue left yet is the ELF/aout-stuff, see other mail here.

 BTW, if you are interested into obtaining a Motorola PPC-Board -
be sure you ask for OpenFirmware-ROM.

> I deduced, because device drivers would have to interpret
> OFW ROM each time it does I/O, it would run with some (probably
> significant) performance penalty.

 You are perfectly right. There is penalty. But there is one _major_
advantage to all other implementations: it runs out of the box with
no hurry and need for native device drivers unless you need them 
badly.

> Would anyone care to clarify?

 If you are interested, you can read my first attempt, call it draft,
for the NetBSD/PowerPC-FAQ: "http://beaver.teuto.de/netbsd/"

-- 
Markus Illenseer