At 12:11 PM -0800 12/17/02, Bryan Vyhmeister wrote:
>On Tuesday, December 17, 2002, at 11:34 AM, Allen Briggs wrote:
>
>>On Tue, Dec 17, 2002 at 11:31:28AM -0800, Henry B. Hotz wrote:
>>>No, it shouldn't, comparatively.  But booting it might be, again
>>>comparatively.
>>
>>It actually should be pretty easy to boot, I'd think.
>
>That's what I would think too but since I have not done much 
>programming at this point I am not sure how to go about it. I am 
>learning C right now so that I can work on this but I know it is 
>quite a daunting task for being a first major project. I have 
>received some excellent suggestions as to where to look for 
>information and I have ordered some books that should help but I am 
>still going to need to learn much more about powerpc assembly and 
>that type of thing.

If you need to learn both C and powerpc assembly then you have a bit 
of a job ahead of you.

>It seems like most of the code is already in NetBSD to deal with 
>most everything at least partially except for possibly the North 
>bridge chipset (Articia S), the IBM 750CXe G3 processor, and the 
>PPCBoot booting mechanism.

Don't know about Articia S, but some kind of Northbridge is supported.

>I would really like to see this board and future versions work so 
>that there is a low cost powerpc solution for those that would like 
>to use the powerpc platform for NetBSD in the form of servers or 
>other systems at a reduced cost compared to buying new Apple 
>hardware. The advantage is that this board is much more open than 
>Apple's designs.

I would like to see affordable alternatives to Apple hardware for 
PowerPC systems too.  I could also wish the board were as fast as 
"new Apple hardware", but that's life.

>Any suggestions? I am willing to do what it takes to get this 
>working but it will take me longer than many of you because I have 
>little to no experience at this type of thing.

You'll need a real working NetBSD machine to do cross-development on. 
Might be useful for it to be a powerpc as well so I'd recommend a 
PowerMac 7500 with a 604 (or G3 or G4) upgrade and the original Apple 
Hi Resolution RGB monitor.  The former should be under $200 and the 
latter around $20 if you can find it.  (The shipping on the monitor 
may be more than the monitor.)

People like Allen Briggs know loads more than I do about this, but 
for booting it might work to just can the appropriate Open Firmware 
device tree into ppcboot and hand it off to the macppc port. 
Probably not that simple in practice since the relevant device 
drivers may not *all* be in macppc and they may make OF calls during 
the setup process.
-- 
The opinions expressed in this message are mine,
not those of Caltech, JPL, NASA, or the US Government.
Henry.B.Hotz@jpl.nasa.gov, or hbhotz@oxy.edu