Re: DECsystem 5400 on OpenBSD?????

[OpenBSD Bob <obsdbob@weedcon1.cropsci.ncsu.edu>]

> > I just fell heir to a very nice DECsystem 5400 crate.  It is not a VAX,
> > and it is not a MIPS, exactly, but a bit of both.  Can such a crate be
> > coerced into running OpenBSD?  It is kindof like a MIPS box crunched to
> > fit onto a Qbus backplane and box.  Any suggests, pointers to appropriate
> > lists or individuals, are appreciated.
> 
> You are confused. Most vaxes doesn't have a Qbus. I dont understand why
> it shouldn't be a MIPS it has a MIPS CPU. 

Nope, not confused.  Many VAXen have Qbus.  For example, MVI, MVII,
MVIII, MV 3300/3400/3500/3600/3800/3900 lines all have Qbus.
The 3100 line is the singleboard critter that most folks tend
to use, of late, that is not Qbus, plus the VS2000 line, plus
some 4000 lines.

The 5400 crate is a hybrid.  It is a mix of VAX and MIPS with a
3 board dual processor set, a 3 boad graphics set, and then a 4
slot Qbus.  The processor and graphics sets are on a different
sort of physical bus, not Qbus, while the addin boards are Qbus.
It actually boots and load VAX code, but runs MIPS code over the
top of it (I am not clear on the details yet, but it boots VAX
Ultrix as opposed to MIPS Ultrix, and runs VAXVMS, yet it has
MIPS processors in it, too).

Strange critter, and somewhat rare, as it turns out..

> Accordning to http://www.openbsd.org/pmax.html it isn't supported. 
> 
> Even if NetBSD should support it i think it would be hard to refit
> it into OpenBSD. Much has happened in NetBSD/pmax that hasn't happend
> in OpenBSD/pmax.

Well, I thought it would be worth a chance call, just in case.
OpenBSD now has some VAX support, so I was a longshot, but OK.
It is a nice box, with 4 big scsi bays in the top, and 32M ram
and a very nice graphics processor system.  It is just a bit
wierd, in the DEC tradition.

But, it will probably be stripped, or traded, for now.

Thanks

Bob