[SunRescue] Totally off-topic post

[Sam Creasey]

On Wed, 1 Dec 1999, Lyndon Griffin wrote:

> I hate to do this to the Sun list, but honestly - all of the most well-informed
> and intelligent people are right here, rather then on any other lists that I
> subscribe to.

Oh, I feel about as bad for replying and turning it into an off-topic
thread. :)

> I bought a Sega Dreamcast last week.  I am impressed, having owned both of the
> current competitors (N64 and SPS).  I notice the Windows CE compat. badge on
> the front, and I begin wondering when the NetBSD port is going to start up. 
> Really.  It's bound to happen.
> 
> So, this sparks my curiosity (no pun intended)...  what is the architectural
> breakdown of the Dreamcast?  CPU, bus, memory, etc.  Any idears?


Ok...  It's an SH4 based machine...  I've toyed with the still fledgling
Linux/SH port on SH3, and it's booting there for me now in simulation.
This includes a statically linked userspace. (gcc/binutils can't
produce PIC code on an SH yet) I've screenshots of Linux booting on
SH4's.  

Which means that the dreamcast port is probably largely down to a driver
issue.  the sh mmu is definately supported (never actually seen one swap),
and some of the integrated peripherals.

But, for the record, I'm not reverse engineering the sega proprietary
hardware..   I'll write the drivers after someome else figures it out. :)

-- Sam


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