247 lines
10 KiB
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247 lines
10 KiB
Text
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" [
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<!ENTITY base CDATA "..">
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<!ENTITY date "$FreeBSD: www/en/platforms/sparc.sgml,v 1.2 2001/06/06 18:17:10 obrien Exp $">
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<!ENTITY title "FreeBSD/Sparc64 Project">
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<!ENTITY % includes SYSTEM "../includes.sgml"> %includes;]>
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<html>
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&header;
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<p>This page contains information about porting FreeBSD to UltraSPARC
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systems.</p>
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<h3>General Information</h3>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#history">Port History</a></li>
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<li><a href="#status">Port Status</a></li>
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<li><a href="#faq">Port FAQs</a></li>
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<li><a href="mailto:freebsd-sparc@FreeBSD.org">FreeBSD/SPARC mailing
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list</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h3>Source Code</h3>
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<ul>
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<li><a
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href="http://people.FreeBSD.org/~obrien/freebsd-sparc/src-981023.tar.gz">src-981023.tar.gz</a>
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- early boot code (sun4u)</li>
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</ul>
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<h3>Documentation and White Papers</h3>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="http://www.sun.com/microelectronics/manuals/">Sun
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Microelectronics Manuals</a></li>
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<li><a href="http://playground.sun.com/pub/1275/home.html">Open
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Firmware Home Page (Sun)</a></li>
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<li><a
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href="http://www.UNIX-systems.org/version2/whatsnew/datasize.html">Data
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Size Neutrality</a></li>
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<li><a
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href="http://www.UNIX-systems.org/version2/whatsnew/lp64_wp.html">Why
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LP64?</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h3>Other Links of Interest</h3>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="http://www.geog.ubc.ca/s_linux.html">Linux for SPARC
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Processors</a></li>
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<li><a
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href="http://www.NetBSD.org/Ports/sparc/">NetBSD/SPARC</a></li>
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<li><a
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href="http://www.OpenBSD.org/sparc.html">OpenBSD/SPARC</a></li>
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<li><a href="http://www.firmworks.com/">FirmWorks</a></li>
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</ul>
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<hr noshade>
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<h3><a name="history">Port History</a></h3>
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<p>The FreeBSD/Sparc64 platform port was initiated by Jason Evans in 1997.
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Originally, the port was backed by Sun Microelectronics, but they
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have since backed out. This is quite interesting, given <a
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href="http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/1999-12/sunflash.991214.1.html">this
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press release</a> from Sun, which announces that RedHat Linux 6.1
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can now be purchased and shipped with a new UltraSPARC server or
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workstation. Sun joined Linux International in May 1998, shortly
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after Jason announced that he would no longer be working on the port
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in an official capacity. Jordan Hubbard, the FreeBSD release
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engineer, responded to <a
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href="http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=0+0+archive/1998/freebsd-sparc/19980405.freebsd-sparc">Jason's
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post</a> suggesting that somebody needed to take the reins.</p>
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<p>FreeBSD/Sparc64 didn't die, however disheartening the news of Sun's
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retreat was. The mailing list did go on hiatus for a while while
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several people working on coding. Late in October 1998, a source
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code tarball was made available.</p>
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<p>Paolo Di Francesco was the next "father" of the port. Paolo
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attempted, for the first time in the history of the port, to
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organize information, developers, and tasks into a structure that
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can only be known as project management. If not for the 98-99
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holiday season and a few overspoken individuals on the mailing list,
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Paolo would have continued on. During his tenure, a number of
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people stepped up to work on the older Sun SPARC architectures.
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This did cause a slight chasm in the project, and many of the more
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qualified individuals were on the side of the UltraSPARC family of
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machines. Luckily, this didn't end up a period of quiet on the
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mailing list, as Telecom Italia provided us with a list keep-alive.
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A glitch in their system caused one of Paolo's posts to keep coming
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back and back and back and back... This repeat post continued well
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into 1999, when the list did once again become mostly silent.</p>
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<p>This brings us up-to-date. David O'Brien had been itching for a
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long time to start work on the port, but was waiting for some sort
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of direction. As the months dragged on into 2000, he decided that
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nobody was going to accept the challenge if he didn't. As to the
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port status, nothing much has changed since the early boot code
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release of October 1998. The rest of the port history is best
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expressed by Jason Evans, and can be found <a
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href="#status">here</a>.</p>
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<hr noshade>
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<h3><a name="status">Port Status</a></h3>
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<blockquote>
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<p><i>While reading this, keep in mind it is from 1997 or 1998.
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This information is pulled from the original FAQ, written by Jason
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Evans.</i></p>
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</blockquote>
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<p>The Sparc64 platform port is in it's infancy. We've done a good bit of
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research into what needs to be done in order to make FreeBSD/Sparc64 a
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reality, but the vast majority of the work has yet to be done.</p>
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<p>Here's a short history of what led up to this porting effort. Sun
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Microelectronics (SME) is the part of Sun that makes
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microprocessors. Up until now, SMCC (the part of Sun that makes
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workstations) has been the overwhelmingly primary customer of SME.
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SME naturally wants to expand its sales, and to do that, they need
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to sell CPUs to people outside of Sun. FreeBSD is perceived as
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being a way of accomplishing this.</p>
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<p>To understand why Sun could fund a FreeBSD port, which would seem
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to conflict with Sun's Solaris offerings, you need to realize that
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Sun is broken up into separate business units that often
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<strong>compete</strong> with each other. The Solaris people at Sun
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may not like having a FreeBSD port to compete with, but their power
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to prevent it is somewhat diminished due to the business model. Of
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course, if the FreeBSD port were a major threat, SMI (the main Sun
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umbrella company) would put a stop to it. However, this is
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unlikely, since FreeBSD mostly meets the needs of a different market
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sector than Solaris. Solaris does wonderful things on big MP
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servers. FreeBSD is fast and lean for small servers. It is also
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useful for certain types of embedded applications, which is actually
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the main reason SME is interested in seeing a port of FreeBSD to
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UltraSPARC.</p>
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<p>A while back, SME approached the FreeBSD core team and offered
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monetary compensation of some nature (I don't know the details) in
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exchange for an official UltraSPARC port. The core team turned down
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this offer. Once again, I don't know details, but one of the main
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statements made (actually somewhat inferred) by Jordan Hubbard was
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that SME's offer was not of major interest since to be of long term
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use to FreeBSD, such a proposal would need to include support for a
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number of years from someone internal to Sun.</p>
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<p>Jordan's statement makes a great deal of sense. I've traced down
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documentation in preparation for this port that people external to
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Sun would have had a difficult, perhaps impossible time procuring.
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Without such access, it is very difficult to make continual progress
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on such a project.</p>
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<p>Now it's time to mingle some of my background into this narrative.
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I started working at SME in September of 1997. During my first
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week, I caught wind of the negotiations SME was making with the core
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team. I expressed extreme interest in working on the project.
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Through a bit of persistence (and the failure of the proposal made
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by SME), I was given permission to begin work on the port.</p>
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<p>My other duties at SME include finding information for software
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vendors who are porting their OSes/RTOSes to the UltraSPARC. This
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puts me in a good position to gather hardware information pertinent
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to the FreeBSD port.</p>
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<p>So here's the catch. I have access to documentation, a machine to
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develop on, but very little low-level OS or hardware experience. I
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learn quickly, but I've got a lot to learn. Already several people
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have been able to help me grasp concepts that are key to porting
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FreeBSD, but there is much, much more to learn.</p>
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<p>So, I can use the following types of help (not exclusively, of
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course:</p>
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<ol>
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<li>Answer my questions about kernel and hardware details. For
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example, I have documentation on the MMU, but have never actually
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dealt with one, so John Dyson has volunteered to get me through
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the rough spots having to do with memory management, as well as
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discussing design issues due to the difference in nature between
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PCs and Suns.</li>
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<li>Actually write code.</li>
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<li>Various administrative things, such as a web page, bug tracking,
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FAQ, etc.</li>
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<li>Whatever you can do to help.</li>
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</ol>
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<hr noshade>
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<h3><a name="faq">Frequently Asked Questions</a></h3>
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<ol>
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<li><a href="#1">What happened to the old FAQ?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#2">What is the status of the port?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#3">What machines will FreeBSD/Sparc64 run on?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#4">Does FreeBSD/Sparc64 support device X?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#5">Will FreeBSD/Sparc64 run Solaris/SunOS binaries?</a></li>
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</ol>
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<h4><a name="1">What happened to the old FAQ?</a></h4>
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<p>It's right <a
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href="http://people.FreeBSD.org/~obrien/freebsd-sparc/oldfaq.html">here</a>.
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The old FAQ is SME-centeric, and sun4u-specific. These traits do
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not reflect the current state of the port, since SME has pulled
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their official support from the port and the majority of the
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development equipment now consists of older Sun SPARC hardware.
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Furthermore, there haven't been a lot of frequently asked questions
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of late. Most of the items in the old FAQ date back to before the
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mailing list was being archived.</p>
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<h4><a name="2">What is the status of the port?</a></h4>
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<p>While we're in the early stages, and to help keep people interested
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in the porting effort, you can view the <a href="#status">status</a>
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online.</p>
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<h4><a name="3">What machines will FreeBSD/Sparc64 run on?</a></h4>
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<p>Currently? None. The port is a long way away from running on
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anything. We have plans to support every machine we can. It is
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safe to assume that FreeBSD/Sparc64 will run on at least all PCI / IDE
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based workstations. </p>
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<h4><a name="4">Does FreeBSD/Sparc64 support device X?</a></h4>
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<p>See <a href="#3">question #3</a>.</p>
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<h4><a name="5">Will FreeBSD/Sparc64 run Solaris/SunOS binaries?</a></h4>
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<p>It is reasonable to say that FreeBSD/Sparc64 will provide some
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Solaris/SunOS emulation. It is too early in the life of the port to
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answer this any more specifically.</p>
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&footer;
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</html>
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