www/arc.html

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<!doctype html>
<html lang=en id=platform>
<meta charset=utf-8>
<title>OpenBSD/arc</title>
<meta name="description" content="the OpenBSD/arc page">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="openbsd.css">
<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.openbsd.org/arc.html">
<h2 id=OpenBSD>
<a href="index.html">
<i>Open</i><b>BSD</b></a>
arc
</h2>
<hr>
<table><tr><td>
<p>
OpenBSD/arc used to run on the machines compatible with the <i>Advanced RISC
Computing</i> specification, known as ARC machines, based on MIPS processors
and initially designed to run Microsoft Windows NT.
Such machines included the long dead Acer PICA, as well other machines
manufactured by other companies such as MIPS, Deskstation, NEC, and Olivetti.
<p>
The ARC specification is extinct, and no new ARC BIOS machines for MIPS are
likely to ever be manufactured.
Microsoft has stopped supporting MIPS platforms after NT 4.0.
OpenBSD/arc used to provide a good alternative to NT!
<p>
<strong>The OpenBSD/arc port was discontinued after the 2.3 release.</strong>
</table>
<hr>
<h3 id="history"><strong>History:</strong></h3>
<p>
The early history of this port is not very clear. Apparently the first work was
done by CMU as part of their Mach project. The initial hardware was the DEC
R2000/R3000-based DECstations. This code was later used by both the Sprite and
BSD groups. The 4.4BSD code, known as the <i><a href="pmax.html">pmax</a></i>
port, was made freely available in mid 1993. It was merged into the
NetBSD tree by a variety of people, but took several years to really become
stable and mature, mainly because of compiler toolchain problems.
<p>
Per Fogelstr&ouml;m became familiar with the code after porting it to a
home-built IDT R3081 based board. Subsequently he added R4400 support
when porting it to the MIPS R4400 Acer PICA board. Willowglen
Singapore purchased a second PICA board for Theo de Raadt so that he
could improve the port for use as a development system for an internal
project. Since then Theo, Per and others have completed the port.
<p>
As a result, the code has been modified to make it more versatile, and
eventually support a larger range of ARC machines. Unfortunately the death
of this platform, as well as the lack of general availability of this hardware,
eventually turned people away from working on this port. Eventually, it was
decided to stop supporting it and remove the code from the tree.
<hr>
<h3 id="hardware"><strong>Supported hardware:</strong></h3>
<h4>Supported models</h4>
<ul>
<li>Acer Pica (150MHz R4400PC, ISA, with on-board ethernet, SCSI, video,
and serial)
<li>Deskstation Tyne (133MHz R4600, ISA and VLB)
<li>Deskstation rPC44 (100MHz R4400PC, EISA bus)
<li>Algorithmics R4000/R5000/R10000 evaluation boards
<li>Algorithmics P-4032 and P-5064 boards
<li>NEC RiscStation
</ul>
<h4>Supported peripherals</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>Video</strong>
<ul>
<li>Built-in S3 VGA graphics adapter (PICA) (with XFree86 support)
<li>Standard VGA graphics adapter (rPC44, Tyne)
</ul>
<li><strong>Keyboard</strong>
<ul>
<li>Standard PC compatible keyboard
</ul>
<li><strong>Pointing device</strong>
<ul>
<li>PS2 mouse (PICA)
<li>Serial mouse (rPC44, Tyne)
</ul>
<li><strong>Serial ports</strong>
<ul>
<li>On-board serial ports (PICA) (can not be used as a serial console)
<li>ISA serial ports controllers
</ul>
<li><strong>Parallel ports</strong>
<ul>
<li>On-board parallel port (PICA)
<li>ISA parallel ports controllers
</ul>
<li><strong>Floppy drive</strong>
<ul>
<li>ISA Floppy controller (PICA)
</ul>
<li><strong>Ethernet</strong>
<ul>
<li>on-board SONIC ethernet controller (PICA)
<li>3Com Etherlink boards
<li>NE2000 compatible ISA boards
</ul>
<li><strong>SCSI Controllers</strong>
<ul>
<li>on-board NCR53C96 SCSI controller (PICA)
<li>VLB Buslogic BT-440C/445C
<li>ISA Buslogic BT-545 SCSI controller (rPC44)
</ul>
<li><strong>IDE Controllers</strong>
<ul>
<li>ISA Western-Digital compatible IDE controllers<br>
<small>(bootable only on Deskstation systems)</small>
</ul>
<li><strong>Miscellaneous devices</strong>
<ul>
<li>Joystick on ISA bus
<li>PCI bus on Algorithmics P-4032 and P-5064 boards
</ul>
</ul>
<hr>
<h3 id="install">
<strong>Getting and installing OpenBSD/arc:</strong>
</h3>
The last supported OpenBSD/arc release was
<a href="23.html">OpenBSD 2.3</a>.
It is not available on ftp sites anymore, but it was available on CD.