Hi,

> Is anyone actively working on support for the PPC601 processor? I would
> be happy to work on this, if I'm not duplicating someone else's effort.
> I'm waiting on parts, but within a few days I should have two PowerMac
> 7200s to use to get this working.

There's already a lot of code in tree to support the 601, but I think that
people who know better can update all of us as to what remains to be done.
I also have a number of 7200 style machines which would get some use when
NetBSD runs on the 601.

I also have a 601 on a CPU card from a 7500 (I guess) for any developer
which wants to work on 601 support, but doesn't want an additional
machine.

> I also have a PowerMac 8100, which not only has the 601, but also no
> open firmware. Is there any development going on to get NetBSD to boot
> on firmware-less boxes? I'd also be happy to work on this (but one thing
> at a time - gotta get the cpu support first...)

Since the first gen PowerMacs were much more like Quadras than like Open
Firmware machines, it'd be a lot less work to use stuff from mac68k, like
the booter, the hardware driver and NuBus code, and so on. A native booter
for mac68k was never a high priority, so I can see the same being true for
first gen PowerMac.

Didn't someone play around with making the booter load a kernel on PPC and
having it start that kernel?

It's bee a while; maybe we should go look at the mail archives...

John Klos
Sixgirls Computing Labs