Re: Antwort: Re: blizzppc.device and NetBSD 1.3.2

["Rasmus Wiman" <rasmus%ebox.tninet.se@localhost>]

>Do you really thing it is that easy? If it were the NetBSD people would be

No, I didn't. I asked the question because I wanted to know why it wasn't that
easy. 

>1.) The toolchain (gcc, as, ld, etc.) shipped with NetBSD Amiga knows how
>    to create a.out m68k binaries. It doesn't know anything about other
>    CPUs or file formats (PPC uses ELF).

Since a PPCP (or whatever that platform is called) port is in the works, the
tools (some of them at least) should already be there. But this was one part I
wasn't sure of. I have been thinking of compiling an i386 kernel the day I
have a HCN (Home Computer Network, I just love inventing silly TLA:s ;) )
instead of downloading everything. Now I realise it just won't work.

>2.) Even if it would now it wouldn't help because as the Amiga kernel
>    sources are really CPU specific, a small part of them is even written
>    in assembler.

Is everything CPU specific, or is most of it "just" machine specific? 

>To really get NetBSD running on a PPC board you will need to create a
>*complete* new NetBSD port - call it "amippc" - based on the generic
>PPC architecture.

How different is a PPC Amiga from a normal one? Is it just an Amiga with a
totally different CPU (I know how the PPC instruction set looks like, I once
read the 601 reference manual briefly when I saw it in a library) or is it to
be considered a completely new machine? 

>Afterwards you'll have to rework all the Zorro II/III drivers to be machine
>indepent because the CPUs are quite different.

I thought some of the work was already done, but that may be wrong. My thought
was that the main thing that changes is anything written in assembler or MMU
dependent, and C functions called with explicitly registerized parameters. Of
course, things that rely on the CPU for timing would have to be rewritten, but
I was unsure if anyone had wriiten such code on the Amiga since F/A 18
Interceptor. ;)

>And of course you'll need a complete new NetBSD loader for AmigaOS.

Of course.

                        Rasmus  Wiman
                      --=============--
                   THE LAST SURFER IN HELL

rasmus%ebox.tninet.se@localhost (Preferred)
razz%lysator.liu.se@localhost (also possible)
http://www.lysator.liu.se/~razz
http://user.tninet.se/~iyu219n