*BSD News Article 21584


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From: lund@diku.dk (Henrik Lund)
Subject: Re: NetBSD, FreeBSD or Linux on IBM AMBRA platform?
Message-ID: <1993Sep28.105539.11229@odin.diku.dk>
Sender: lund@rimfaxe.diku.dk
Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 10:55:39 GMT
References: <DWSMITH.93Sep24213809@uncle-sam.llnl.gov> <CDyn2n.Ey2@world.std.com>
Organization: Department of Computer Science, U of Copenhagen
Lines: 43

hd@world.std.com (HD Associates) writes:

>In article <DWSMITH.93Sep24213809@uncle-sam.llnl.gov>,
>David W. Smith <dwsmith@uncle-sam.llnl.gov> wrote:
>>
>> I've just recently read about the new IBM company called AMBRA.
>(...)
>> The first is a 5 slot ISA system with 2 VESA LB slots and built in SCSI
>> and 10BaseT ethnet.

>I'm interested in this unit also, especially if the on board SCSI and
>E-net has a full 32 bit address bus to memory.

>Does anyone know how to get technical documentation from IBM/AMBRA so
>that SCSI and network drivers can be written?

I don' think IBM will tell you about their machines, as an example take
the Micro Channel Bus, Linux won't run on MCA bus machines, because
IBM won't tell "us" how to program it.

This is not to speak badly about IBM, but to warn you that 

the only machines hat aren't 100 % IBM compatible is IBM machines,

and the don' tell YOU about their secrets.

>I'll try to track something down on Monday from IBM, but a contact
>would be great.  I remember a Kafka like experience trying to get
>technical information out of AT&T (aka "We're the Phone Company")  once
>in my past.

>Peter
>-- 
>Peter Dufault               Real Time Machine Control and Simulation
>HD Associates               Voice: 508 433 6936
>hd@world.std.com            Fax:   508 433 5267
>Looking for: Orangey-brown front leather seats or NOS covers for '73 BMW 3.0cs

Have fun, happy linuxing
Henrik Lund
lund@dikudk

All opinions expressed are my own, but if you'd like to share them it's fine.