"Jay West" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> The merced executes PA-RISC instructions natively. It also executes x86
> instructions natively. If the chip you get doesn't do one or the other, it's
> because that section has been lobotomized for marketing/contract reasons due
> to where you get the chip from. The section is still on the silicon
> though...
As a side comment, note that there is more than one "Merced Linux
port" (it'll be interesting to see how they merge the efforts, if at
all). There's the VA/Intel port, and there's a lesser-known one from HP
Labs (it's been demo'd at the HP booth at recent Linux trade shows).
>From the secondhand info I've heard, it may be further ahead than the
VA/Intel one. Back in February, I did see a very early version boot on
some laptop running a Merced simulator. At the time, it wasn't very
functional, being able to do ps, ls, and not much else, but I was
surprised at how fast the simulator ran on the laptop (I think the boot
sequence took a couple of minutes, but I didn't do any actual timings).
However, that was six months ago, and quite a bit has supposedly been
done since then. I've heard that it's "almost usable" (whatever this
means).
--
Darryl Okahata
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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