Proposal to remove HIPPI support

[Jason Thorpe <thorpej%me.com@localhost>]

Hey folks --

I am proposing that we remove support for HIPPI.  For those not familiar, HIPPI (High Performance Parallel Interface) is/was an interconnect typically used in supercomputer systems, originally for connecting to storage systems, but also used to connect to other computer systems ... back in the day (mid-to-late-90s), it was pretty impressive -- 800Mb/s.  It was originally a parallel copper interconnect, but was later available over fiber.

Kevin Lahey wrote our HIPPI support code along with a driver for the Essential Communications "RoadRunner" HIPPI interface, and we used it on DEC Alphas back when we worked at NASA.  Unfortunately, this code is not MP-safe, and it's a near certainty that no one has equipment (nor motivation -- Gig-E is faster) to test updates to this code.

Code in question:

net/if_hippi.h
net/if_hippisubr.c

dev/ic/rrunner.c
dev/ic/rrunnerreg.h
dev/ic/rrunnervar.h

dev/pci/if_esh_pci.c

While this code has a special place in my heart, it seems like a good time to put this stuff out to pasture.  Are there any objections?

-- thorpej