> On Mon, May 07, 2001 at 03:12:59PM -0400, Chris Tribo wrote:
> > 	I got a list of the systems we have: three 8500's, one 4120, one
> > 310, and one 500.
> 
> Nifty.
> 
> > 	Here's some interesting info for some opening thoughts:
> > / $ size dgux
> > size: dgux: Warning - internal conversion of COFF file to ELF
> > 2574024 + 511540 + 0 = 3085564
> 
> Interesting.  I wonder if the BSS size is a side-effect of the
> conversion, or if they've simply eliminated uninitialized data
> in the kernel...

It's not impossible to make a kernel without uninitialised data, just
annoying...  With the right linker flags, it should be easy enough, I'd
think.  When we have a linker ;-)

> > / $ file dgux
> > dgux:           88Open BCS pure executable not stripped
> 
> That's not too unexpected.  However, it makes me wonder if the ROM
> will boot an ELF kernel...

I've noticed this before.  I suspect it is the case that the PROM will only
boot BCS (which is a lot older than ELF and COFF, after all) and that we
might need to write a converter from ELF to BCS.  

> > 	Hopefully I'll get a chance to open up one or two of our systems
> > and take inventory of what chipsets are in each model, and 
> start to build
> > a PROM version table.
> 
> That would be cool.  Send me any info you can gather.  I'd like to
> expand on what little information that I've collected.

People keep talking of an AV300 manual which details lots of interesting
hardware information.  I don't suppose that someone has one plus a digital
camera or scanner?

Also, has anyone managed to extract the AV5500 ROM image?  I've tried in the
past on a running DG system, but didn't have much success.  Since it's
capable of booting from the net, booting from SCSI and doing a variety of
diagnostic tests, it would probably make interesting reading...