Bug 33582

The Release Notes are for _changes_ to the OS.  AMD/Cyrix support has been
in FreeBSD for a long time.

Note that the first sentence of the website http://www.freebsd.org is:

"...FreeBSD is an advanced operating system for Intel ia32 compatible..."

Both Cyrix and AMD claim Intel ia32 compatability on their own CPU
documentation.

Note that the term "i386" is not a copyrighted term of Intel's and is
used as a general industry term for a CPU family of which the Pentium, the
Athlon, and the Cyrix CPU's all belong to.

The term "i386" is used within the Release notes right at the beginning.

If any file should be modified it is the HARDWARE.TXT which lists all
specific hardware supported by that version of FreeBSD.  This document
contains the phrase:

"...FreeBSD for the i386 currently runs on a wide variety of ISA, VLB, EISA,
MCA and PCI bus based PC's, ranging from 386sx to Pentium 4 class machines
(though the 386sx is not recommended)..."

It could be modified to be:

FreeBSD for the i386 currently runs on a wide variety of ISA, VLB, EISA, MCA
and PCI bus based PC's, ranging from 386sx to Pentium 4 to AMD and Cyrix
machines (though the 386sx is not recommended).




Ted Mittelstaedt                                       tedm@toybox.placo.com

Comment 2 Bruce A. Mah 2002-01-10 00:11:20 UTC

If memory serves me right, "Ted Mittelstaedt" wrote:

>  If any file should be modified it is the HARDWARE.TXT which lists all
>  specific hardware supported by that version of FreeBSD.

Yes, I assumed the submitter was a little bit confused and that he
really meant the hardware list.

>  FreeBSD for the i386 currently runs on a wide variety of ISA, VLB, EISA, MCA
>  and PCI bus based PC's, ranging from 386sx to Pentium 4 to AMD and Cyrix
>  machines (though the 386sx is not recommended).

I personally had in mind fleshing out the entire section...here's what I
have so far but I'm not sure how accurate it is...comments appreciated:

  <para>&os; for the i386 runs on a wide variety of
  <quote>PC compatible</quote> machines.</para>

  <para>Almost all i386-compatible processors are supported.  All Intel
  processors beginning with the 80386 are supported, including the
  80386, 80486, Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III,
  Pentium 4, and variants thereof.  All AMD processors are also
  supported, from the Am486 and Am5x86 up through the K5, K6, Athlon,
  and Duron processors.  The Transmeta Crusoe is recognized and
  supported, as are i386-compatible processors from Cyrix and
  NexGen.</para>

  <para>Motherboards using the ISA, VLB, EISA, MCA
  (<quote>Microchannel</quote>), AGP, and PCI expansion busses are
  supported to varying degrees (in particular, MCA-based machines
  enjoy more limited support than the others).  Symmetric
  multi-processor (SMP) motherboards are generally supported.</para>

  <para>&os; will generally run on i386-based laptops, albeit with
  varying levels of support for certain hardware features such as
  sound, graphics, and PCCARD expansion slots.  These hardware devices
  tend to vary in idiosyncratic ways between machines.  When in doubt,
  a search of the archives for the &a.mobile; may be useful.</para>

Comments appreciated...

Bruce.

I would change the sentence to:

All AMD processors are also supported, from the Am486 and Am5x86 up through
the K5, K6, Athlon, and Duron processors.

to:

All AMD i386-compatible processors are also supported, from the Am486 and
Am5x86 up through the K5, K6, Athlon, and Duron processors.

This covers you in case AMD sometime in the future releases some non-standard
variant.  AMD is currently pushing the "Athlon XP Processor" which is claimed
to have "special features" that support Windows XP.  I doubt that these
special
features (ie: enhanced support for software modems, etc.) are going to be
of much use to us for a while.

We probably need to put something in there on the status of the 64 bit port -
perhaps a pointer to http://www.freebsd.org/platforms/ia64.html but that page
is pretty old too.

Ted Mittelstaedt                                       tedm@toybox.placo.com

Comment 4 Bruce A. Mah 2002-01-10 15:43:57 UTC

If memory serves me right, "Ted Mittelstaedt" wrote:
> All AMD i386-compatible processors are also supported, from the Am486 and
          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> Am5x86 up through the K5, K6, Athlon, and Duron processors.

Good point, thanks.

> We probably need to put something in there on the status of the 64 bit port -
> perhaps a pointer to http://www.freebsd.org/platforms/ia64.html but that page
> is pretty old too.

The ia64 port will have its own hardware list (and its own, totally
separate, version of this section).  In -CURRENT, the infrastructure is
already set up, although it's not connected to the release documentation
build and the processor-specific paragraphs aren't written yet.  Since I
wouldn't know an ia64 machine if it bit me on the nose, I'm the wrong
person to try to write this part.  Once the port gets more mature, I'll
get some of the freebsd-ia64 crowd to help with this.

The powerpc and sparc64 hardware documents aren't set up at all, BTW, 
but I could do this pretty quickly if someone from those camps wanted 
to work on them.

Thanks for the feedback!

Bruce.

Comment 5 Bruce A. Mah 2002-01-11 23:28:03 UTC

State Changed
From-To: open->analyzed

I've written a new i386 processor-specific section for -CURRENT's 
hardware notes (proc-i386.sgml rev. 1.2).  I'll MFC this in the next  
day or so for 4-STABLE, and then close the PR. 

Comment 6 Bruce A. Mah 2002-01-11 23:28:03 UTC

Responsible Changed
From-To: freebsd-doc->bmah

I'm working on this.

Comment 7 Bruce A. Mah 2002-01-12 17:38:28 UTC

State Changed
From-To: analyzed->closed

Committed to 4-STABLE...all done! 

Minor nitpick:  In the future, please don't inflate the severity 
and/or priority of PRs..."critical" was not an appropriate severity. 
Thanks!