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Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!noc.near.net!uunet!mcsun!sun4nl!philapd!apdnews!spoetnix.idca.tds.philips.nl!wilko From: wilko@idca.tds.philips.nl (Wilko Bulte) Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.development Subject: Re: EISA CONFIG (was: AHA1742) Message-ID: <wilko.742810333@spoetnix.idca.tds.philips.nl> Date: 16 Jul 93 08:12:13 GMT References: <21gt98$kuk@obelix.uni-muenster.de> <1993Jul13.172743.15441@fcom.cc.utah.edu> <wilko.742661051@spoetnix.idca.tds.philips.nl> <1993Jul14.195756.10450@fcom.cc.utah.edu> Sender: news@idca.tds.philips.nl Lines: 67 terry@cs.weber.edu (A Wizard of Earth C) writes: >In article <wilko.742661051@spoetnix.idca.tds.philips.nl> wilko@idca.tds.philips.nl (Wilko Bulte) writes: >>terry@cs.weber.edu (A Wizard of Earth C) writes: >>>In this same vein, isn't it about time that we got some EISA configuration >>>code ported to something other than DOS? >[ ... ] >>There is one snag: the config info is written into the EISA config CMOS >OK, assuming this is the case: >1) How does cf.exe do it? There is only one company cranking these > programs out, with everyone OEMing the exact same code (if not the > exact same vesion of the code), it seems. For instance the EISA > config on my machine, a Compaq machine, and a Dell machine all > had *exactly* the same config utility. cf.exe calls the system BIOS. See the EISA spec, an extensive part of it is devoted to the config issues. >2) We're a protected mode OS; there's no way to do BIOS calls without > a *lot* of work, and 32 bit calls will be more difficult (potentially > impossible in fact). So the BIOS argument is irrelevant. Is NOT irrelevant. The BIOS stuff ensures a consistent interface to the world, the actual format of the EISA CMOS is (to the best of my knowledge) not standardized. So, simply writing the EISA CMOS would require knowledge of EACH machine's layout. >3) What has DEC done for it's EISA-based Alpha PC? I know that DEC Probably wrote their own Alpha version of cf.exe. I could find out5 if you are really interested. We have a guy here that worked on the Alpha PC BIOS & firmware. > has released pricing for everything Alpha based *but* the Alpha PC; > has this been cancelled? I'd hate to think so, since there is As far as I know there is no cancelling of the Alpha PC in the works. > almost a working C compiler and assembler for the chip as a prelude > to porting NetBSD to the Alpha PC, *not* the other Alpha systems > (initially, unless DEC suddenly becomes more willing to cut us > *big* price breaks on the hardware -- or *any* price breaks, for > that matter). On the other hand, there *is* an EISA based R4000 Hey, you warn me if DEC is gonna sell Flamingos for DFl 1500,= ;-) >>My opinion: don't bother, there are better (and less frustrating) things >>to be done. >This is actually an interesting project, even if it is only done for DOS >(but I won't be involved, if that's the only target). I think it would >be cake compared to some of the shared library stuff... now *that's* a >frustrating project. Agreed. Definetely frustrating, but to MY opinion also much more rewarding! Just my $0.02 Wilko -- | / o / / _ Wilko Bulte mail: wilko@idca.tds.philips.nl |/|/ / / /( (_) |d|i|g|i|t|a|l| Equipment Corporation voice: +3155-432062 fax: +3155-432103 DTN: 829 2062 PO Box 245 - 7300 AE Apeldoorn - The Netherlands