PA-risc platform?

[Scott Long]

Richard Pushman wrote:
> I know there's not support of any kind for the HP pa-risc machines.
> What would be involved to make freebsd run on 'em?
> I understand porting to a new architechure is difficult, at best.
> 
> Thanks,
> Rick Pushman
> 
> 

It would be about 9-12 months of dedicated effort.  However, there
needs to be a compelling reason.  It's quite easy to pick up a J2xx
or 9000/7xx on eBay or from government surplus, but all you'll really
get out of it is the equivalent performance of a Pentium or maybe
Pentium2.  Also, since the architecture has effectively been orphaned,
there isn't a whole lot of future growth potential to keep it 
interesting.  And there are technical hurdles like working with the
closed/proprietary bootstrapping mechanisms that make it a pain.  So
you'll need to ask yourself if the results will justify the effort.

Scott