Re: Current EFIKA status?

[Matt Sealey <matt%genesi-usa.com@localhost>]

Aymeric Vincent wrote:
>        Hi,
>
> Frank Wille <frank%phoenix.owl.de@localhost> writes:
>
> > I just found out that "aymeric" implemented a working powerpc/powerpc/rtas.c
> > in January! Should be useful for all OF-based architectures, by just
> > adding it to the config-file.
>
> Indeed. Nice someone noticed. ;-)
> It's very basic for now: you can just get the time of day, but the
> rest should be easy to add (reset, power off, for example).
>
> > I wonder what the status of his Efika port is?
>
> I reported at that time on this list, and I had -current running with
> root over ethernet except that there is a big timeout on every read
> from the network through openfirmware, which makes it very slow to
> boot to multiuser.

At the end of the day, what NetBSD needs to do is use as much of the
device tree and RTAS and the firmware interface as it possibly can,
then hand off the rest to native drivers.

Most of the very lowest level functionality is reliable. However,
this does not include interrupt controllers or other niceties of
a modern architecture - Open Firmware cannot service interrupts
simply due to overall design. This means ethernet is polled (ouch)
and disk access is a royal pain in the ass.

> BTW, I started to read the doc of the BestComm and started the
> infrastructure in the source tree that you mentioned, but:
>
> . I am in Poland for one year and couldn't bring the Efika with me
> . I saw on Genesi's website that they dropped the Efika and would use
> a different Freescale chip. Not sure if it has BestComm or not, I
> couldn't find any doc. It's kind of boring to port NetBSD to
> machines which don't ship anymore.

The MPC5121e is just an MPC5200B with a hell of a lot more functionality.
It has BestComm :)

> Unless Genesi wants to send me an Efika to Poland ;-), I can't
> progress much during one year.

We aren't ditching the Efika or the MPC5200B, but we are making some
subtle changes to the current design, and producing a new model next
year, along with one based on the new chip. You'll see the Efika 5200B
as part of a few consumer electronics products before you see the 5121e
on your desk..

--
Matt Sealey <matt%genesi-usa.com@localhost>
Genesi, Manager, Developer Relations