> 
>> But...  While searching for a solution, I managed to lay my hands on
>> an SBUS Sun 8-port serial + parallel card, which identifies itself to
>> the kernel as
>> 
>> SUNW,bpp    for the parallel, and
>> SUNW,spif   for the serial
>> 
>> It seems there isn't a NetBSD driver for this (although there is an OpenBSD
>> one apparently.)
>> 
> i have one of these cards.  i have the beginnings of a driver for it.  i
> was not aware of support for the spif in openbsd.  are you sure it isn't
> just the bpp support?

Just had a dig through the OpenBSD source, and it looks like it supports
the 'spif' interface but not yet the parallel port (judging by the CVS
comments, anyway.)

Looking at the code and comparing with the NetBSD magma code suggests that
porting it over shouldn't be a herculean task.

Only worry is that the nascent bpp support in the spif driver might cause
arguments with the independent bpp driver.  Given that the kernel
seems to happily identify them as independent devices, I'd be inclined
to just rip out the bpp stuff when porting over & let the 'real' bpp
driver deal with it!

>> So, more questions <grin>.  Does anyone have a driver 'under construction'
>> for one of these beasties?
> 
> the bpp driver in NetBSD is currently in the process of being fixed.. i
> am working with der mouse to get his changes to make it at least work
> into the master system, and it should be done soon.  i can send you a
> patch for this, if you want to try the parallel port.  it is send-only,
> not bi-directional (as hardware supports.)

If a patch is available, I'd be delighted; it'll mean I can make sure the
two drivers don't conflict apart from anything.

> i can provide pointers (or copies if the pointers are stale) to most of
> the docs needed for the stif card.  there are some points i was never
> able to work out about the sbus interface which is why i stopped working
> on the driver.  i can send you my code as-is separately if you wish.

I'll make a start porting the OpenBSD driver this weekend - I guess I'd
better start brushing up on KNF!  Any documentation/code which you have
easily to hand I would appreciate - it's usually easier porting stuff
if you have some idea of what it should be doing ;-).


Cheers,
Tim.

-- 
Tim Walls