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NetBSD Ported to AMD x86-64 (Sledgehammer)

Posted by michael on from the write-once-run-anywhere dept.

fvdl writes: "Last week, a port of NetBSD to the x86-64 (tm) architecture was committed to the NetBSD CVS repository. The x86-64 is AMD's upcoming 64bit line of CPUs. For now, it is only known to work on the Virtutech simulator, since no x86-64 hardware is available yet. In this environment, it runs multi-user. NetBSD/x86_64 is the 44th architecture that NetBSD runs on (12 different families of CPUs). The porting was done by Frank van der Linden of Wasabi Systems, with kind support from AMD, who provided the simulator and fast machines on which ro run it. The Wasabi press release is here. For more information on the x86-64, see of course AMD's website and x86-64.org"

4 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. are businesses going to use this? by B1ood · · Score: 4
    I can imagine the engineers and marketing dept at AMD looking at a checklist:
    1. Port NetBSD to our chips.CHECK
    2. Actually CREATE one of the chips.
    3. Convince someone to use it in a server.
    They're still working on the last two...

    B1ood

    --
    Note to self: pasty-skinned programmers ought not stand in the Mojave desert for multiple hours. -- John Carmack
  2. Transmeta? by Animats · · Score: 4
    Transmeta, which has a soft architecture, ought to be able to convert their code morpher to process the AMD 64-bit instruction set, which is basically x86 with longer words. This would be useful mostly as a test environment until AMD gets the real machine out the door.

    Since the Transmeta "code morpher" is closed source, and the actual machine interface is propretary, only Transmeta can do this port.

  3. "just" a port - portability by hubertf · · Score: 4
    I'd like to add a note on the "it's just another port" comment.

    For NetBSD to be portable to all the various platforms, it has to abstract the properties of these platforms, and provide interfaces between machine dependent and machine independent code, so that not every port to a new platform results in copying the whole code, and modifying it until it works on the platform, as that would give you a lot of code redundancy.

    Instead, NetBSD does a (IMHO) pretty good job to avoid code redundancy, and with abstract interfaces for bus-access, DMA etc., it's amazing to see lots of code written once, and running on platforms of either endianness, CPU, bus structure, etc.

    NetBSD currently runs on 44 different hardware platforms, and 12 different CPUs. If you think adding a new one is "just" a port, you miss something.

    If you feel bored, you can read a bit more about what makes an operating system here.


    - Hubert

  4. Nooooooo!!!! by V50 · · Score: 5
    By porting NetBSD to an machine that exists only in the future you are messing up the delicate time-space continuum! The fact that this impossible OS exits is just causing the earth to collapse on itself.

    If this goes on we are going to have the Pentium 9 avalible before the Pentium 5, Office 2005 before Office 2003. And when that happens any Pentium 9 computer will collapse on itself, being so fast that the universe will not have sped up to account for Moore's law! Don't you ever wonder why Windows 3.11 on a 386 with 4MB of RAM was as fast as Windows XP on an Athlon 4 with 512MB of RAM???

    By running NetBSD on an x86-64 simulator you are creating a gap in time. The more people use the x86-64 simulator the bigger the gap will be. Eventually the gap will become so big that stuff will start coming through. First software such as WindowsZX/2023. Unfoutonetly WindowsZX will require a 2.4 THz Pentium 13(801986) with 512GB of RAM.

    So of course Intel or AMD will build a 1986/P13 simulator to run WindowsZX. The motherboard of the computer will collapse causing a HUGE reverse black hole to spit out a a REAL Pentium 13. As well as 512GB or RAM.

    If you thought running an operating system from 2023 was bad you can't imagine what a Pentium 13 would do! When they turn the Pentium 13 box on it would completly deplete California's power supply. That is until the entire California from 2099 gets sucked to where California is now.

    Now that California has technology from 2099 such as WindowsBLT and the Pentium 86, the Universe hasn't ajusted to Moore's law and part of the world is running 3GGLHz (Googol Hertz) machines. California is now running 300 times slower than the rest of the world, and is causing random stuff from the future to appear. Which sets those parts of the world out of sync.

    By now no part of the world is in sync and parts of the future are appearing everywhere. As you probably have figured out, this will eventualy spread to the rest of the universe. Destroying it.

    Motto of this story: By running NetBSD on an x86-64 simulator, you have already doomed the universe.

    Have a nice day!

    --Volrath50