OpenBSD Journal

UltraSparc III Documentation Issue Gets More Press

Contributed by jose on from the news-dot-com dept.

William was the first to send us this story.

News dot com is wunning a story on the OpenBSD-Sun Microsystems dispute over documentation for the UltraSparcIII processor. We recently ran a story on this issue UltraSparc developers are facing. Looks like Sun is (not surprisingly) suggesting OpenBSD developers sign an NDA, which is incompatable with the project's goals .

It will be hard to see if this increased visibility of the issue will force Sun's hand or attract the assistance of more helpful people.

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Comments

  1. By Anonymous Coward () on

    You know, I never read that page all the way through before. This cracked me up: "Be as politics-free as possible; solutions should be decided on the basis of technical merit." Hehehe. Maybe that one should be removed?

  2. By Anonymous Coward () on

    And there are customers interested in an OpenBSD version for UltraSparc III machines. University of Alberta's Bob Beck said he is forced to buy out-of-date UltraSparc II-based E450 servers instead of newer UltraSparc III-based V880 machines for the university's SunSITE software exchange.

    450's hold 1-4 processors, v880's hold 2-8 processors. why use a 450 or 880 over a 250 or a 280R? is it for the additional pci slots or internal disks, or did i miss the announcement that OpenBSD-smp is ready for prime time?

    the cost difference between 450/250 and v880/280R is around 200-400 percent, it seems that a separate FC disk array would save money (is it more feasible in TCO to get the 450 or v880?). or am i missing some other special feature of the 450 and v880?

    "I want to run OpenBSD on (UltraSparc III systems), because I can do stuff with it for routing, security and traffic control that I cannot do even with a $100,000 Cisco box," Becker said in an e-mail interview.

    not that i doubt it, but i'd love to see a list of the stuff that can be done w/ OpenBSD but not w/ $100,000 cisco box.

    note that as these 2 quotes were one after the other in the article, they dont seem right since a maxed out v880 can be worth well over $100,000 (edu discount notwithstanding).

  3. By Anonymous Coward () on

    Kewl. Hope this makes Sun realise what they're doing; hindering the development of truly free and open source software development.

    Hope they get more press like that if they don't do anything.

  4. By Jesus Igor () on

    So, could one list what are the deficiencies of a 100k Cisco box? Aside from a ridiculous pricing of course.

    I like OpenBSD too, but if I were SUN and felt there was an edge to protect for a while I would too. They are in business, no matter how we slice it, nobody gives them DARPA grants anymore.

  6. By Anonymous Coward () on

    I have 2 main question:

    * Why can't they sign a NDA like the Linux developers (and Jake Burkholder, one of the FreeBSD/sparc64 developers)?
    * Can't they just look at the Linux source? David Miller, a Red Hat employee in charge of the UltraSparc III version of Linux, believes that it's "obvious" how the UltraSparc III works after looking at the UltraSparc III version of Linux.

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