> I'm confused. Does "bi-endian" mean that /sys/arch mips supports
> either big- or little-endian kernels, configured statically; or does
> it mean support for running big-endian binaries on a machine with a
> little-endian kernel(or vice-versa?)

Since the former is pretty much there, I assumed it was the latter.

> The former is relatively straightforward.  The second is *much* more
> complicated, especially where ``untyped'' data crosses syscall
> boundaries (e.g., ioctl()).  I'm unsure whether simple syscall
> converters can always DTRT there.

ioctl is a pain but then if you treat this like an emulation, you 
only allow the ioctl's you understand.  The real nasty one's are things
like SIOGIFCONF.

> >BTW, did you know that ULTRIX actually run big-endian at the start
> >of MIPS port?
> 
> Are you sure that was really ULTRIX, and not a mangled mipsCo OS?
> Was it driving little-endian bus hardware?

It was really ULTRIX and it was really on a MIPS machine (big ugly
ones the size of small refrigerators and they were white).  I was one
of those lucky folks who actually was in on the port in the early days.
-- 
Matt Thomas               Internet:   matt@3am-software.com
3am Software Foundry      WWW URL:    http://www.3am-software.com/bio/matt.html
Westford, MA              Disclaimer: I disavow all knowledge of this message