From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list linux-mips); Wed, 04 Aug 2004 01:50:33 +0100 (BST) Received: from p508B65A8.dip.t-dialin.net ([IPv6:::ffff:80.139.101.168]:6010 "EHLO mail.linux-mips.net") by linux-mips.org with ESMTP id ; Wed, 4 Aug 2004 01:50:29 +0100 Received: from fluff.linux-mips.net (fluff.linux-mips.net [127.0.0.1]) by mail.linux-mips.net (8.12.11/8.12.8) with ESMTP id i740oSHV010510; Wed, 4 Aug 2004 02:50:28 +0200 Received: (from ralf@localhost) by fluff.linux-mips.net (8.12.11/8.12.11/Submit) id i740oNh7010509; Wed, 4 Aug 2004 02:50:23 +0200 Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2004 02:50:23 +0200 From: Ralf Baechle To: Alec Voropay Cc: linux-mips@linux-mips.org Subject: Re: SGI ARC .vs. ACE ARC BIOS Message-ID: <20040804005023.GA9046@linux-mips.org> References: <01ed01c47963$bc74a220$1701a8c0@portege> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <01ed01c47963$bc74a220$1701a8c0@portege> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i Return-Path: X-Envelope-To: <"|/home/ecartis/ecartis -s linux-mips"> (uid 0) X-Orcpt: rfc822;linux-mips@linux-mips.org Original-Recipient: rfc822;linux-mips@linux-mips.org X-archive-position: 5589 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: linux-mips-bounce@linux-mips.org Errors-to: linux-mips-bounce@linux-mips.org X-original-sender: ralf@linux-mips.org Precedence: bulk X-list: linux-mips On Tue, Aug 03, 2004 at 06:11:12PM +0400, Alec Voropay wrote: > Can anyone explain a difference between SGI ARC BOOT-PROM > (sometimes called ARCS) and an old ACE ARC BIOS (Jazz/Magnum) ? > Is this equal (in functionality, not command line) ? > > P.S. > http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/Hardware/Machines/ARC/ ARC is a dead-born standard that standardizes both hardware and firmware. All implementations violate it more or less. The whole thing was originally part of the ACE initiative, which also has developped the Jazz design to which the Magnum, Acer and others are more or less related. As I recall the Manum was some sort of reference implementation. The hardware specs were rather fuzzy and more or less obsolete from a UNIX workstation perspective already ten years ago. Not considering endianess - SGI ARC(S) is big endian, other firmware is little endian - and for the little ARC functionality that Linux is using the two can be considered equivalent. Ralf