On Mon, 7 Jun 2004, Tim & Alethea Larson wrote:

> Smith Family wrote:
>
>> My question, then, is this: what would you consider to be the "best" 
>> (hardware compatibility, speed, etc.) to run NetBSD on?

Quadra 650 - 33Mhz full 68040, no (as yet unimplimented in NetBSD) DMA/IOP 
issues.

> You want a Quadra, basically.  Fastest 68040 chips in Macs were 33MHz (630, 
> 650, 800, 950 models) or 40MHz (840AV).  I've heard that the SCSI driver that 
> NetBSD uses on the AV models is not as well developed though, so you might 
> have slower disk throughput.  (Anybody know if this is still true?)

Avoid the IIfx, Q900, Q950, and Q840AV since they all have Input-Output 
Procesors (IOP) and DMA that is isn't fully supported or not supported at 
all in netbsd.

> Some people swear by the Quadra 605, as it is physically small, even 
> though it has only a 25MHz LC chip.

It's memory controller can also handle a single 128MB 72-pin SIMM.

> When getting a 68040, you probably want a model with a full 68040 chip, not 
> the 68LC040.  The LC variety lacks the math coprocessor (FPU), but can 
> sometimes be upgraded to a full '040 if you know what you're doing.

Know what you're doing = pull the old chip out of the socket (flat head 
screwdriver to gently lift up the sides first is all you need) and push in 
a new one.

> The reason is that the NetBSD build for FPU-less machines is still a bit 
> experimental.
>
> 68040 rocks 68030 about 2:1 speedwise, BTW.  That said, some of the '030 
> machines are still nice.  The IIci has nice expansion possibilities. The 
> SE/30 is my personal favorite, even though it is at the low end of speed 
> (only 16MHz...but some other 16MHz models are slower for other design 
> reasons)

Other reasons = SE/30 has a 32-bit bus, Apple halved the bus in most other 
machines (like the Classic II and much of the LC series) to 16-bit.  Also 
the SE/30 has a PDS slot which can accept accelerators, and some SE/30s 
had socketed CPUs where you could insert some (rare) 32Mhz 68030 
accelerator cards without using up the PDS slot.

> it can accept up to 128MB RAM (!) and large SCSI drives.
>
> If you get a 68030, you probably want a model that has a 68882 math processor 
> (or find a way to add one), for the same reason as above.
>
> I wouldn't consider a 68020 machine (I think there's only one model that's 
> supported anyway), and the 68000 machines will not run NetBSD.

--
Nathan Raymond