acorn26 arm Acorn Archimedes, A-series and R-series systems 2.0 stable
acorn32 arm Acorn RiscPC/A7000/NC and compatibles 2.0 stable
algor mips Algorithmics MIPS evaluation boards 2.0 stable
alpha alpha Digital Alpha (64-bit) 2.0 stable
amd64 x86_64 Advanced Micro Devices AMD64(tm) 64-bit CPUs 2.0 stable
amiga m68k Commodore Amiga, MacroSystem DraCo 2.0 stable
amigappc powerpc PowerPC-based Amiga boards none exper
arc mips Machines following the Advanced RISC Computing spec 2.0 stable
atari m68k Atari TT030, Falcon, Hades 2.0 stable
bebox powerpc Be Inc's BeBox snap exper
cats arm Chalice Technology's Strong Arm evaluation board 2.0 stable
cesfic m68k CES's FIC8234 VME processor board 2.0 stable
cobalt mips Cobalt Networks' Microservers 2.0 stable
dreamcast sh3 Sega Dreamcast game console 2.0 stable
evbarm arm ARM evaluation boards 2.0 stable
evbmips mips MIPS-based evaluation boards 2.0 stable
evbppc powerpc PowerPC-based evaluation boards 2.0 stable
evbsh3 sh3 Evaluation boards with Hitachi Super-H SH3 and SH4 CPUs 2.0 stable
evbsh5 sh5 Evaluation boards with SuperH SH5 32/64-bit CPU 2.0 stable
hp300 m68k Hewlett-Packard 9000/300 and 400 series 2.0 stable
hp700 hppa Hewlett-Packard 9000/700 series snap exper
hpcarm arm StrongARM based Windows CE PDA machines 2.0 stable
hpcmips mips MIPS based Windows CE PDA machines 2.0 stable
hpcsh sh3 Hitachi SH3 and SH4 based Windows CE PDA machines 2.0 stable
i386 i386 i386 family IBM PCs and clones 2.0 stable
iyonix arm Iyonix ARM pc none exper
luna68k m68k OMRON Tateisi Electric's LUNA series 2.0 stable
mac68k m68k Apple Macintosh 2.0 stable
macppc powerpc Apple Power Macintosh and clones 2.0 stable
mipsco mips Mips family of workstations and servers 2.0 stable
mmeye sh3 Brains' mmEye Multi Media Server 2.0 stable
mvme68k m68k Motorola MVME 68k SBCs 2.0 stable
mvmeppc powerpc Motorola MVME PowerPC SBCs 2.0 stable
netwinder arm StrongARM based NetWinder machines 2.0 stable
news68k m68k Sony's m68k based "NET WORK STATION" series 2.0 stable
newsmips mips Sony's MIPS based "NET WORK STATION" series 2.0 stable
next68k m68k NeXT 68k 'black' hardware 2.0 stable
ofppc powerpc Generic OpenFirmware compliant PowerPC machines 2.0 stable
pc532 ns32k PC532 1.5 stable
playstation2 mips SONY PlayStation 2 snap exper
pmax mips Digital MIPS-based DECstations and DECsystems 2.0 stable
pmppc powerpc Artesyn's PM/PPC board 2.0 stable
prep powerpc PReP (PowerPC Reference Platform) and CHRP machines 2.0 stable
sandpoint powerpc Motorola Sandpoint reference platform 2.0 stable
sbmips mips Broadcom SiByte evaluation boards 2.0 stable
sgimips mips Silicon Graphics' MIPS-based workstations 2.0 stable
shark arm Digital DNARD ("shark") 2.0 stable
sparc sparc Sun SPARC (32-bit) 2.0 stable
sparc64 sparc Sun UltraSPARC (64-bit) 2.0 stable
sun2 m68k Sun 2 2.0 stable
sun3 m68k Sun 3 and 3x 2.0 stable
vax vax Digital VAX 2.0 stable
walnut powerpc IBM 405GP PowerPC "walnut" evaluation board 2.0 stable
x68k m68k Sharp X680x0 series 2.0 stable
xen i386 Xen Virtual Machine Monitor none exper
Ports by CPU architecture (top)
This table contains the same set of ports as in the above list, but ordered by MACHINE_ARCH CPU architecture value (returned by 'uname -p'). Machines of the same MACHINE_ARCH share the same userland binaries (with a few device specific exceptions). Note that both big endian (eb) and little endian (el) MIPS and SH3 ports are supported.
CPU Port
alpha alpha
arm acorn26 acorn32 cats evbarm hpcarm iyonix netwinder shark
hppa hp700
i386 i386 xen
m68010 sun2
m68k amiga atari cesfic hp300 luna68k mac68k mvme68k news68k next68k sun3 x68k
mipseb evbmips (either eb and el) mipsco newsmips sbmips (either eb and el) sgimips
mipsel algor arc cobalt evbmips hpcmips playstation2 pmax sbmips
ns32k pc532
powerpc amigappc bebox evbppc macppc mvmeppc ofppc pmppc prep sandpoint
sh3eb evbsh3 (either eb and el) mmeye
sh3el dreamcast evbsh3 hpcsh
sh5 evbsh5
sparc sparc
sparc64 sparc64 (Can also run sparc binaries)
vax vax
x86_64 amd64 (Can also run i386 binaries)
Experimental ports (exper) (top)
Experimental ports are those marked 'exper' in the above table, and have generally not yet been distributed as part of an official NetBSD release. They are available through the experimental NetBSD-current source distribution and some are additionally available via pre-compiled binary snapshots provided by the port maintainers from time to time.
We encourage you to test experimental ports, but not all of them will provide stable service. Those that are stable and ready will be available in the next currently scheduled release. Look at the individual pages for details, or ask on the port's corresponding mailing list.
Not yet integrated porting efforts
General Information about not yet integrated ports (top)
For ports not listed above, no support is available as formal release or in the mainline experimental source distribution.
In most cases, people porting to a new machine wish to stay unknown to the public. This is a necessity, as answering "me too"-style requests just takes too much time. If you really think you can contribute to porting to a new machine (read: have started already; or know how to do it, but just don't want to duplicate efforts; or know lots about the internals of the machine which are not publicly known) you should contact the core group, who will provide contact to your co-strugglers.
Details about some not yet integrated ports (top)
However, for these machines, more details are available:
*
Apollo DNxxxx Workstations
Pete Hufnagel [email][email protected][/email] is working on a port to the m68k based Apollo workstations. He has most of the information he needs, and is aiming towards initial support for netbooting via a serial console.
*
Connectix VirtualPC
A software emulated Pentium machine running on PowerMAC machines. The University of Melbourne, Department of Computer Science has developed a set of patches for NetBSD/i386 to enable it to run under VirtualPC.
*
NetBSD/pc98
A semi-PC compatible line of computers made by NEC. (Page is in Japanese).
Suggested Ports
ARM (top)
*
Psion 5 series
An ARM7100 based handheld palmtop with 4-16MB of RAM, 640x280 greyscale display, CompactFlash slot, serial, audio, IrDA, and an excellent keyboard. Uses the same series of CPU as NetBSD/arm32.
Contact: <[email protected]>.
*
Precedence NC
ARM7500FE based network computer, primarily sold into schools in the UK. Stephen Borrill has recently lent a machine to a NetBSD developer who is interested in working on a port.
Contact: <[email protected]>.
*
MicroDigital Mico
ARM7500FE based machine with on-board USB and ISA slots. Normally runs RISC OS, so should be able to be supported by NetBSD/arm32.
Contact: <[email protected]>.
*
RiscStation R7500
Yet another ARM7500FE based RISC OS box. Should be no harder than the rest of them to support.
Contact: <[email protected]>.
Motorola M680X0 (top)
*
Q40
The Q40 is a 68040 based successor to the Sinclair QL, with enhanced graphics, storage and peripheral capabilities.
Contact: <[email protected]>.
*
Other 68k based VME boards
Tadpole (with their TP34V), BVM, and Densan produce boards similar to the Motorola mvme68k range. A linux port to the Tadpole and BVM boards is available.
Contact: <[email protected]>.
*
Cisco M68K based routers
One of cisco's previous range of routers were 68030 and 68040 based. An example would be the AGS+, a rackmount multibus system with 16MB of RAM, 2MB flash RAM, serial and multiple ethernet and other interfaces. These can sometimes be found on sites such as ebay for a few hundred dollars.
Contact: <[email protected]>.
*
NCR Tower 32
The Tower 32 is a 68020-based machine from about 1987 that normally runs System V release 3, pretty much straight as it came from AT&T. It's at the slow end of things by today's standard. The specification is probably:
o Stock 68020 VM hardware
o Around 16 meg max of RAM
o QIC-150 tape drive on a dedicated controller
o Two ST-506 system disks
o Multibus-I expansion bus (IEEE-796)
o Optional SCSI
This machine apparently had a custom MMU, not suitable for paged virtual memory.
Hardware docs are likely to be nonexistent, since the machine was built before NCR abandoned the 68000 line for Intel, which in turn was before AT&T bought them out and then spun them off again.
Contact: <[email protected]>.
*
DIAB DS90
(from Iggy Drougge)
m68k machines built throughout the eighties and early nineties, until DIAB was bought by Bull.
The earliest versions are 68000 and 68010 based, but from the DS90/20 on, they're fully 32-bit. There were single-processor as well as SMP machines. The top of the range is believed to have featured four 68040 processors. The native OS is DNIX, a kind of System V or System III with a real-time kernel.
Apart from the m68k processor(s), there is/are VME bus(es), SCSI (believed to be Zilog) and some proprietary bus called DB. There is already support for almost every component spread across the existing NetBSD ports, excluding SMP. The machines themselves are multiuser systems with support for dozens of terminals given the right expansion cards.
Iggy has a DS90/20 workstation which he has kindly made available for anyone who wishes to attempt a port to these machines.
Contact: <[email protected]>.
Motorola PowerPC (top)
*
Apple Nubus powermacs
The early PowerPC Macintosh systems were built along the lines of their earlier mac68k systems: nubus architecture and custom ROMs. The NetBSD/macppc port requires OpenFirmware, which is not available on these systems. MkLinux, an Open Source effort partially funded and engineered by Apple, supports several of these older boxes. Bob Nestor <[email protected]> would be willing to loan his Performa-5320 All-in-One to anyone interested.
Contact: <[email protected]>.
*
Densan
Densan produce a range of PowerPC based VME and CompactPCI systems. These boards share a common system ASIC which mimicks the PCC2 used in Motorola's mvme68k systems.
Contact: <[email protected]>, and [email][email protected][/email].
*
IBM RS/6000 (MCA based)
The pre-PowerPC RS/6000 machines were based on the POWER and POWER2 architecture, with Microchannel (MCA) bus. There is i386 MCA bus code in NetBSD tree now, which would help with the MCA aspect.
Contact: <[email protected]>
Motorola M88K (top)
The Motorola 88000-series microprocessors (88100+88200 and the 88110) were Motorola's RISC processors of the late 1980's and early 1990's. They abandoned the m88k systems to concentrate on the PowerPC with Apple and IBM, but not before several good systems were built around the 88k.
*
Motorola mvme88k
Motorola produced a line of 88k-based VME boards--similar to their 68k cousins that are supported in the mvme68k port. OpenBSD has support for some of these cards.
Contact: <[email protected]>, and Allen Briggs <[email protected]>.
*
DG AViiON
Data General produced a number of AViiON systems, from uniprocessor workstations to multiprocessor servers, based around the 88k architecture. Allen Briggs has one of the dual-processor deskside units (the AV400), but has no documentation.
Contact: <[email protected]>, and Allen Briggs <[email protected]>.
*
OMRON luna88k
One of the earlier 88k systems was the OMRON LUNA-88K, a 4-processor machine used for Mach development at CMU. These purportedly have some documentation, but it's also purported to be in Japanese. These systems are fairly rare.
Contact: <[email protected]>, and Allen Briggs <[email protected]>.
MIPS (top)
*
64-bit MIPS
Many of the existing NetBSD/mips platforms are capable of running 64-bit code. A NetBSD/mips64 port would be similar to NetBSD/alpha with 64-bit longs and pointers and 32-bit ints.
Contact: <[email protected]>.
*
Densan
Densan produce a range of MIPS based VME and CompactPCI systems. These boards share a common system ASIC which mimicks the PCC2 used in Motorola's mvme68k systems.
Contact: <[email protected]>, and <[email protected]>.
*
Tektronics/NCD X-terminals
NCD produced a wide range of X-terminals, including the MIPS R4600 based HMX, HMXpro, and HMXpro24. The HMX and HMXpro were 8bit and the HMXpro24 24bit displays, and all machines had custom ASICs as coprocessors. NCD recently released an RM5200 based successor to the HMXpro24. The biggest obstacle to the port would be obtaining technical information on the machines.
Contact: <[email protected]>.
*
Nintendo 64
Given the progress on the NetBSD/sh3 port to the Sega Dreamcast, another obvious target could be the MIPS R4000 series based Nintendo 64 games console. Games consoles share many interface and resource limitations with embedded and palmtop devices, opening a possibly more serious side to the port.
Contact: <[email protected]>.
Hitachi Super-H (SH3/SH4) (top)
*
Densan
Densan produce a range of SuperH based VME board systems. These boards share a common system ASIC which mimicks the PCC2 used in Motorola's mvme68k systems.
Contact: <[email protected]>, and <[email protected]>.
Intel i386 and above (top)
*
Sun 386i (roadrunner)
Sun's attempt to produce an Intel based workstation. Based on a 20 or 25Mhz 386 CPU plus FPU, 4MB to 16MB RAM, intel 'ie' ethernet, 'cg3' or 'cg5' framebuffer, SCSI, serial, parallel, and several ISA slots. Many drivers could be shared with the sun3 and sparc ports. Ran SunOS 4.0.{1,2,3}.
Contact: <[email protected]>.
*
Nokia 9110 communicator
Cellular modem and personal communicator in one. Reputed to be a based on a pretty standard i486 with 2MB of RAM and a custom keyboard setup. Support for I/O and memory expansion options could make this more interesting, particularly the cellular modem.
Contact: <[email protected]>.
*
Densan
Densan produce a range of x86 based VME and CompactPCI systems. These boards share a common system ASIC which mimicks the PCC2 used in Motorola's mvme68k systems.
Contact: <[email protected]>, and <[email protected]>.
Other (top)
*
DEC PDP-10
NetBSD/pdp10 is a suggested port of NetBSD to the 36bit DEC PDP-10 computers, their clones, and PDP-10 software emulators.
Contact: <[email protected]> [ subscribe | archive ]
*
IBM AS/400
IBM's proprietary minicomputer range. Early models were based on an IBM CISC CPU. Current models have switched across to the Motorola PowerPC. There are some linux folk who have set up a Linux on AS/400 Project with some information, including posts by two IBM engineers as to the lack of hardware support in the CISC processors for several important features needed by a unix-like OS.
Contact: <[email protected]>.
*
IBM S/390
A NetBSD/390 port should be straightforward now that there's a gcc for the 390 available. Besides, it wouldn't even require access to a real machine to start development since the Hercules S/390 emulator is in the package tree.
Contact: <[email protected]> [ subscribe | archive ]
*
IBM PC-RT
An early workstation from IBM, based on the IBM '032' or ROMP CPU. Also known as IBM models 6150, 6151 or 6152. Ran both AIX and a customised version of BSD (called AOS).
Contact: <[email protected]>.
*
Intel i960
There were a few variants of the i960 architecture that included an MMU, but virtually all of the i960 devices shipped, such as X-terminals, printers, and routers, were based on the cheaper non MMU versions.
Contact: <[email protected]>.
*
Intel's IA-64 (Itanium)
Documentation is available via the Intel Itanium Processor Family webpage. Also see FreeBSD's FreeBSD/ia64 project pages for information on FreeBSD's work on porting the Intel's IA-64 to FreeBSD.
Contact : <[email protected]>,
*
NEC V800
Densan produce a V800 based VME board system. This board uses a system ASIC which mimicks the PCC2 used in Motorola's mvme68k systems. The V800 is a RISC chip designed for embedded applications - a port would be something of a challenge.
Contact: <[email protected]>, and <[email protected]>.