57 lines
1.9 KiB
HTML
57 lines
1.9 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN">
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="SGML-Tools 1.0.9">
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<TITLE>Brief Introduction to Alpha Systems and Processors: Porting</TITLE>
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<LINK HREF="Alpha-HOWTO-11.html" REL=next>
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<LINK HREF="Alpha-HOWTO-9.html" REL=previous>
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<LINK HREF="Alpha-HOWTO.html#toc10" REL=contents>
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</HEAD>
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<BODY>
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<A HREF="Alpha-HOWTO-11.html">Next</A>
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<A HREF="Alpha-HOWTO-9.html">Previous</A>
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<A HREF="Alpha-HOWTO.html#toc10">Contents</A>
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<HR>
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<H2><A NAME="s10">10. Porting</A></H2>
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<P> The ability of any Alpha-based machine to run Linux is really only limited
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by your ability to get information on the gory details of its innards. Since
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there are Linux ports for the E66, EB64+ and EB164 boards, all systems based on
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the 21066, 21064/APECS or 21164/ALCOR should run Linux with little or no
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modification. The major thing that is different between any of these
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motherboards is the way that they route interrupts. There are three sources of
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interrupts:
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<P>
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<UL>
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<LI> on-board devices</LI>
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<LI> PCI devices</LI>
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<LI> ISA devices</LI>
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</UL>
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<P>
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<P> All the systems use an Intel System I/O bridge (SIO) to act as a
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bridge between PCI and ISA (the main I/O bus is PCI, the ISA bus is a
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secondary bus used to support slow-speed and 'legacy' I/O
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devices). The SIO contains the traditional pair of daisy-chained
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8259s.
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<P>
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<P> Some systems (e.g., the Noname) route all of their interrupts
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through the SIO and thence to the CPU. Some systems have a separate
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interrupt controller and route all PCI interrupts plus the SIO
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interrupt (8259 output) through that, and all ISA interrupts through
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the SIO.
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<P>
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<P> Other differences between the systems include:
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<P>
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<UL>
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<LI> how many slots they have</LI>
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<LI> what on-board PCI devices they have</LI>
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<LI> whether they have Flash or EPROM</LI>
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</UL>
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<P>
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<HR>
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<A HREF="Alpha-HOWTO-11.html">Next</A>
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<A HREF="Alpha-HOWTO-9.html">Previous</A>
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<A HREF="Alpha-HOWTO.html#toc10">Contents</A>
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