On Thu, 21 Nov 1996, Amit Gupta wrote:

> At the time of writing I believe this hasn't happened. One thing which I
> haven't mentioned before : I spoke to Yellowstone at Acorn World 96 and
> hassled them about the RapIDE NDA issue. According to them, there is now
> *no problem at all* with lending the kernel team a RapIDE card and driver
> source code. The only issue is that a lot of the low-level technical
> information on the card isn't written down anywhere ("it's all in their
> heads...") and they need to write some documentation before giving the
> card away - which they haven't got round to doing yet. 

They have been saying they will lend me a card for months, however 
actually obtaining the loan card is proving impossible.
I spoke to them at the show and was promised one the following week.
Still waiting ....

Technical information is required but is not complex. The relevent info 
could
be provided in a single email or phone conversation. Apparently the docs 
have now been done though.

To get an IDE driver going I need the card and the following info

address of IDE driver registers e.g. mod_base + 0x????
address of status/ctl register  e.g. mod_base + 0x????
address of interrupt enable reg e.g. fast_base + 0x????

and a similar set for the secondary IDE interface on the card.

(Not exactly complex information)


> I'm afraid the only solution (I think) is to let it be known that you are
> interested in seeing a RapIDE driver and to then hassle Yellowstone to
> give the kernel team the resources they require.

While it is valid is ask companies about their position of RiscBSD support
I would ask that people refrain from 'hasseling' companies. I have had
complaints that people have 'hasseled' companies asking about support etc.
What is better is just to let companies know that you would like to
see support for their hardware in RiscBSD. That way they are likely to
be helpful to the kernel team and loan us h/w. The impression I have got 
from several quarters (not yellowstone I should point out) is that
they do not like people ringing them asking when they are going to
give RiscBSD a card so we can write a driver etc.

Cheers,
				Mark


Mark Brinicombe				amb@physig.ph.kcl.ac.uk
Research Associate			http://www.ph.kcl.ac.uk/~amb/
Department of Physics			tel: 0171 873 2894
King's College London			fax: 0171 873 2716