|>                                                      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  Since we need the SRM (the ARC boot spec is unpublished, and
the ARC doesn't have OSF/1 style PALcode), you can't use BSD on an ARC
machine.

Search the archives of this list for the messy history.

PS: You can use Linux on this machine because Digital provides the MILO
binary image that can boot a Linux kernel and it contains the OSF/1 PAL
code as well...

-- 
Dave Cherkus ------- UniMaster, Inc. ------ Contract Software Development
Specialties: UNIX Internals/Kernel TCP/IP Alpha Clusters Performance ISDN
Email: cherkus@UniMaster.COM  When the music's over, turn out the lights!