On Tue, Feb 23, 1999 at 01:51:43PM -0500, Dave Cherkus wrote:
> |>                                                      I have trouble
> |> imagining what the hardware difference could be between an ARC machine
> |> and an SRM machine, and if there's no hardware difference, well, then
> |> there's no reason it can't run either.
> 
> I imagine you haven't tried to use Digital's products before.  They can
> and do intentionally cripple machines so they will only boot the ARC
> console.  Since we need the SRM (the ARC boot spec is unpublished, and

AFAICT, *only* by not providing SRM console code for those machines.  I
have never heard a verifiable report from anyone anywhere of an actual
sample of one of the "won't run OSF/1 PALcode" processors which were
allegedly to be produced.

> the ARC doesn't have OSF/1 style PALcode), you can't use BSD on an ARC
> machine.

It is certainly possible to run NetBSD, and SRM, on a PC164LX.  After
loading the SRM console code into it, you may need to use the ARC/AlphaBIOS
menu interface to *switch to* the SRM console code.

Thor