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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!nntp.coast.net!news.kei.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in2.uu.net!van-bc!uniserve!usenet From: tom@uniserve.com (Tom Samplonius) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc Subject: Re: NetBSD on stand alone 040-card? Date: 19 Dec 1995 02:08:38 GMT Organization: UNIServe Online Lines: 29 Distribution: world Message-ID: <4b56r6$2ng@atlas.uniserve.com> References: <DJr4G0.B2@icon.pp.se> NNTP-Posting-Host: tapehost.uniserve.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=US-ASCII X-Newsreader: WinVN 0.99.6 In article <DJr4G0.B2@icon.pp.se>, daniel@icon.pp.se says... > >I've been asked to verify the possibility to "port" NetBSD to a 68040-based >data-acquisition card/computer that a friend is planning. The computer-side >of the card is to be kept simple and will at first consist of a 040 (or >040EC), a 68360, 2MB PROM, 16MB RAM, a NCR SCSI-chip (5380/5390 or similar) >and an Ethernet-chip (don't know brand or model, but certainly something >"standard"). This will be linked to the data-acquisition part of the card >(a TI C40-family DSP) through a clever and fast mem-mapped cache of some >sort. I'm no HW-specialist, but this is what I can remember from the >presentation I received. > >How much work would it involve to "port" NetBSD to run diskless on a card >like this (forget SCSI and 68360)? Could the kernel easily be loaded from >PROM and then continue booting from a network (a FreeBSD- or Linux-machine)? > >Could this be done by someone that knows next to nothing about MMU- >programming? Is the source-code easy to grasp and self explanatory? First thing, make sure that Motorola's VME cards won't do what you want. They are a single board 680x0 computer with SCSI, ethernet, and a VME bus connector. NetBSD/OpenBSD already seem to run on them quite well. Tom