Re: HPPA support for IGNITE-UX install discs

[Keith Monahan]

Helge,

Thanks for your reply!


On October 26, 2020 4:01:52 PM Helge Deller <deller@gmx.de> wrote:

> Somewhat late reply...
>
> On 9/22/20 2:28 AM, Keith Monahan wrote:
> > Here's the ioscan from the actual hardware
> >
> > no_hostname:/> ioscan
> > H/W Path    Class Description
> > ===============================================
> >             bc
> > 8           bc                      Pseudo Bus Converter
> > 8/0             ba                  PCI Bus Bridge
> > 8/0/15.0              instrument PCI(103c1650)
>
> That seems to be a specific HP PCI card.
> Maybe it's possible to pass-through it at some point in an emulation ?

Not super concerned with emulating that hw there. That card is used to 
connect the PCI bus (in turn, connected to GSC via DINO) to the logic 
analyzer backplane.

> > 8/16            ba                  Core I/O Adapter
> > 8/16/0             ext_bus          Built-in Parallel Interface
> > 8/16/1             audio            Built-in Audio
> > 8/16/4             tty              Built-in RS-232C
> > 8/16/5             ext_bus          Built-in SCSI
>
> ^ this one isn't implemented yet in qemu.
> As I said in another mail, we currently emulate a PCI SCSI card instead.
> Maybe emulating the original SCSI controller isn't hard, but I don't know
> and I'm not a SCSI expert.

The NCR 53C710 SCSI that's present inside LASI was pretty common. One of 
the uses includes the Commodore A4091, a SCSI controller sold for the 
Amiga 4000. The A4091 is emulated on WinUAE, which is open source. To 
make my story go full circle, looking at that source, located below, is 
based on QEMU source!!

https://github.com/tonioni/WinUAE/blob/master/qemuvga/lsi53c710.cpp

which is based on

qemu/hw/scsi/lsi53c895a.c

I don't know the significance/complexity of the difference between 
emulating a PCI card vs accessing things via LASI, which would sit on 
the GSC bus. Wishful thinking is that once we get there, that we've got 
existing (albeit different system emulation platform) working code that 
emulates those chip functions.

so then maybe there's still hope for this cause eventually! :)

> I think the SCSI controller is the biggest issue for now...
> If that works, the installations should continue.
>
> Helge

Thanks,
Keith