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NetBSD Ported To SuperH 64-bit SH-5 Processor

Posted by timothy on from the and-to-your-manual-transmission dept.

djcdplaya writes "Carrying on the tradition of NetBSD's ability to run on pretty much anything short of a toaster, Wasabi Systems has ported NetBSD to the SuperH 64-bit SH-5 processor. Here's a cut and paste job: 'NetBSD is the first commercially available operating system to run on the SH-5 platform. "We're very impressed with the speed of Wasabi's porting efforts," said Jon Frosdick, Director of Software Engineering at SuperH, Inc. Ideally suited for system-on-chip (SOC) designs and embedded applications, the SH-5 provides a feature-rich platform for designers developing set-top boxes, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), game consoles, networking and telephony applications, multimedia appliances and car infotainment systems.'"

25 comments

  1. In other news... by Perdo · · Score: 1, Informative

    Linux SH-5

    SH-5 benchmarks

    Company website

    --

    If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.

    1. Re:In other news... by Piquan · · Score: 5, Informative

      The link you entitled "Linux SH-5" discusses the GNUPro toolkit, which is pretty much the GNU toolchain (gcc, gas, ld, etc) and is unrelated to the Linux kernel. It doesn't announce that an OS is available.

    2. Re:In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Linux has already been ported to the SH-5; the sources are in bitkeeper.

      While the Linux codebase runs in 32-bit mode only, NetBSD suports both 32- and 64-bit modes.

    3. Re:In other news... by oldstrat · · Score: 2

      His link was just a little mis-pointed try this, it seems to indicate Linux is available on the SH5 http://www.superh-software.com/linux/downloads/

    4. Re:In other news... by oldstrat · · Score: 2

      Let me make it a little clearer, click on the link that takes you here http://linux-shmedia.bkbits.net/

  2. uhhhh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    isn't this old news? i thought the dreamcast used this CPU and netBSD was ported to the DC a looooong time ago

    1. Re:uhhhh by jasonditz · · Score: 1

      Nope, the Dreamcast ran an SH-4.

    2. Re:uhhhh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      so the SH-4 was 32-bit and SH-5 is 64-bit?

    3. Re:uhhhh by jasonditz · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yeah, the SH2 - SH4 were all 32 bit the SH2 was in the Sega Saturn (actually two of them) the SH3 was in a lot of early Windows CE based HPCs I'm still eager to know what the SH5 has found its way into.

    4. Re:uhhhh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you'd read the article, nothing yet, beyond a single evaluation board- it's just been released.

      SH3-DSP (IIRC) has found its way into the Kaii palmtop/universal-cheap-embedded-hardware platform from India that was just recently Slashdotted - (Main site here.)

      Probably the coolest SuperH product since anything Sega's done, though I hear certain Japan-only Zaurii (using Sharp's proprietary OS, rather than Linux) run them, too... and all sorts of digital cameras, microwaves, maybe even some home routers and things...

  3. I've never even *Heard* of that CPU by ealar+dlanvuli · · Score: 4, Funny

    and NetBSD runs on it. Why am I not suprize by this?

    I honestly think that they would try and port that thing to flea collars if they could get one with transistors...

    --
    I live in a giant bucket.
  4. Re:BSD IS DEAD: out of line? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dude, have you ever tried to practice "Capitalism" with the GNU license?

    Think of it from another angle...

  5. Re:News about NetBSD by 1nt3lx · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You for got to add the Mac OS X users.

    *BSD isn't dying. Parts of it have been integrated into nearly every operating system written since. As noted above, it makes up the foundation of the most modern and beautiful operating system ever written.

    --
    The List of Grievances with Slashdot.
  6. Go NetBSD! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    IMHO, NetBSD is one of the most amazing OSes in existence, purely for the sheer number of supported platforms -- and that they all compile FROM THE SAME SOURCE TREE. No messing around with patches, different config and userland tools; NetBSD 1.6 is the same on your ancient little Atari Falcon right through to a Pentium IV wonderbox.

    Contrast this with Linux, where separate archs are typically maintained as different kernel trees and it's not cohesive. I love Linux, but Debian is the only thing close to NetBSD in regards to complete uniformity across different platforms.

    Anyone looking to run a solid, flexible and well-supported free UNIX flavour on their old Mac/PC/68k/foo, check it out. It may not replace a Windows/Linux/FreeBSD desktop workstation, but it's superb for getting life out of those old machines.

    Oh, be careful with the Sushi tool in 1.6. Lot of glitches in it -- hopefully they'll be cleared up for 1.6.1.

  7. Blah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Geez, I'm still trying to find a Sun-2 to run NetBSD on and now I need to find one of these machines so I can run NetBSD on it too.
    Oh well, NetBSD rulez! :)