Platforms supported by NetBSD

Platforms supported by NetBSD
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Platforms supported by NetBSD
NetBSD calls a supported architecture a 'port'. Most ports run on generic hardware and emulators, although some
commercial hardware
also exists. The NetBSD Ports History page details the inclusion date for each port.
Ports are classified into three 'tiers' based on the current importance of the architecture and the level of community activity. Summarizing, the tiers can be viewed to represent ports that NetBSD will support, ports that NetBSD does its best to support, and ports which may be desupported soon. The tier for each port may change over time and is decided by
core@NetBSD.org
based on input from users and developers.
Tier I: Focus -- support is part of NetBSD's strategy
Focus ports are the architectures that NetBSD targets as part of its strategy.
The platforms consist of modern server, embedded and desktop architectures.
The guidelines are as follows:
Machine independent (MI) changes should benefit these ports.
MI changes must be tested on at least one of these ports.
It is the developer's responsibility to implement machine dependent (MD) support necessary for changes, fix build problems and aid in debugging with any platform-specific problems.
Even within a port, common sense should be used (cf. the i386 port which still supports 486).
Regressions in the automated NetBSD test suite (/usr/tests) are not allowed.
Currently there are 9 ports with Tier I status. They are:
Port
CPU
Machines
Latest Release
aarch64
aarch64
64-bit ARM CPUs
10.1
amd64
x86_64
64-bit x86-family machines with AMD and Intel CPUs
10.1
evbarm
arm
ARM evaluation boards
10.1
evbmips
mips
MIPS-based evaluation boards
10.1
evbppc
powerpc
PowerPC-based evaluation boards
10.1
hpcarm
arm
StrongARM based Windows CE PDA machines
10.1
i386
i386
32-bit x86-family generic machines ("PC clones")
10.1
sparc64
sparc
Sun UltraSPARC (64-bit)
10.1
xen
i386, x86_64
Xen Virtual Machine Monitor
10.1
Tier II: Organic -- evolving at its own pace
Organic ports are highly valued by the NetBSD project, but their development is not as tightly mandated as that of the focus ports. Generally speaking, the hardware platforms of organic ports have lost their industrial relevance, or there is not enough community activity for the port to make it to the first tier. The guidelines are as follows:
Generally speaking, the port boots and works, but keeping it working is the responsibility of the user community. This includes, but is not limited to, kernel changes and toolchain upgrades.
Developers committing MI changes are still encouraged to keep ports up-to-date when it can be easily done.
MI architecture decisions may penalize organic ports if there is a benefit for focus ports.
If the port is not working at release time, a release is done without the port and the port is moved down to the life support tier.
Currently there are 49 ports with Tier II status. They are:
Port
CPU
Machines
Latest Release
acorn32
arm
Acorn RiscPC/A7000/NC and compatibles
10.1
algor
mips
Algorithmics MIPS evaluation boards
10.1
alpha
alpha
Digital Alpha (64-bit)
10.1
amiga
m68k
Commodore Amiga, MacroSystem DraCo
10.1
amigappc
powerpc
PowerPC-based Amiga boards
10.1
arc
mips
Machines following the Advanced RISC Computing spec
10.1
atari
m68k
Atari TT030, Falcon, Hades
10.1
bebox
powerpc
Be Inc's BeBox
10.1
cats
arm
Chalice Technology's Strong Arm evaluation board
10.1
cesfic
m68k
CES's FIC8234 VME processor board
10.1
cobalt
mips
Cobalt Networks' Microservers
10.1
dreamcast
sh3
Sega Dreamcast game console
10.1
epoc32
arm
32bit PSION EPOC PDA
10.1
emips
mips
Machines based on "Extensible MIPS"
10.1
evbsh3
sh3
Evaluation boards with Renesas (Hitachi) Super-H SH3 and SH4 CPUs
10.1
ews4800mips
mips
NEC's MIPS based EWS4800 workstations
10.1
hp300
m68k
Hewlett-Packard 9000/300 and 400 series
10.1
hppa
hppa
Hewlett-Packard 9000/700 series
10.1
hpcmips
mips
MIPS based Windows CE PDA machines
10.1
hpcsh
sh3
Renesas (Hitachi) SH3 and SH4 based Windows CE PDA machines
10.1
ia64
itanium
Itanium family of processors
none
ibmnws
powerpc
IBM Network Station Series 1000
10.1
iyonix
arm
Iyonix ARM pc
10.1
landisk
sh3
SH4 based NAS appliances by I-O DATA
10.1
luna68k
m68k
OMRON Tateisi Electronics' LUNA series
10.1
mac68k
m68k
Apple Macintosh
10.1
macppc
powerpc
Apple Power Macintosh and clones
10.1
mipsco
mips
Mips family of workstations and servers
10.1
mmeye
sh3
Brains' mmEye Multi Media Server
10.1
mvme68k
m68k
Motorola MVME 68k SBCs
10.1
mvmeppc
powerpc
Motorola MVME PowerPC SBCs
10.1
netwinder
arm
StrongARM based NetWinder machines
10.1
news68k
m68k
Sony's m68k based "NET WORK STATION" series
10.1
newsmips
mips
Sony's MIPS based "NET WORK STATION" series
10.1
next68k
m68k
NeXT 68k 'black' hardware
10.1
ofppc
powerpc
Generic OpenFirmware compliant PowerPC machines
10.1
pmax
mips
Digital MIPS-based DECstations and DECsystems
10.1
prep
powerpc
PReP (PowerPC Reference Platform) and CHRP machines
10.1
riscv
riscv
RISC-V
none
rs6000
powerpc
MCA-based IBM RS/6000 workstations
10.1
sandpoint
powerpc
Motorola Sandpoint reference platform
10.1
sbmips
mips
Broadcom SiByte evaluation boards
10.1
sgimips
mips
Silicon Graphics' MIPS-based workstations
10.1
shark
arm
Digital DNARD ("shark")
10.1
sparc
sparc
Sun SPARC (32-bit)
10.1
sun2
m68k
Sun 2
10.1
sun3
m68k
Sun 3 and 3x
10.1
vax
vax
Digital VAX
10.1
x68k
m68k
Sharp X680x0 series
10.1
zaurus
arm
Sharp C7x0/C860/C1000/C3x00 series PDA
10.1
Tier III: Life Support -- severely incapacitated or broken
Ports are moved to life support if they no longer function. The reasons can range from lack of community interest to the hardware becoming so rare that it is simply not available any more. If ports in life support are not shown to be working within a reasonable timeframe, they will be moved to the Attic. The guidelines are as follows:
Organic ports get moved here if they do not complete a build for 6 months or are otherwise suspected to be broken.
It is the responsibility of the users of an organic port to show it is working, not the other way around.
Movement to life support causes a mail to be sent out to the port mailing list and the portmaster.
Port will be bumped up to organic when it is shown to be working.
If the port is not reported fixed within the next 6-12 months, it will be moved to the Attic.
Currently there are no ports with Tier III status.
Ports by CPU architectures
This table contains the same set of ports as in the above list, but ordered by MACHINE_ARCH CPU architecture value (returned by
'uname -p') and showing a total of
16 CPU types. Machines of the same MACHINE_ARCH share the same
userland binaries (with a few device specific exceptions).
Both big endian (eb) and little endian (el) MIPS and SH3
ports are supported.
CPU
Tier(s)
Ports(s)
aarch64
aarch64
alpha
II
alpha
arm
I, II
acorn32
cats
epoc32
evbarm
hpcarm
iyonix
netwinder
shark
zaurus
hppa
II
hppa
i386
i386
xen
m68010
II
sun2
m68k
II
amiga
atari
cesfic
hp300
luna68k
mac68k
mvme68k
news68k
next68k
sun3
x68k
mipseb
I, II
emips
evbmips
ews4800mips
mipsco
newsmips
sbmips
sgimips
mipsel
I, II
algor
arc
cobalt
evbmips
hpcmips
pmax
sbmips
powerpc
I, II
amigappc
bebox
evbppc
ibmnws
macppc
mvmeppc
ofppc
prep
rs6000
sandpoint
sh3eb
II
evbsh3
mmeye
sh3el
II
dreamcast
evbsh3
landisk
hpcsh
sparc
II
sparc
sparc64
sparc64
(Can also run sparc binaries)
vax
II
vax
x86_64
amd64
(Can also run i386 binaries), xen
Various ways of denoting ports and CPUs
When discussing ports and CPUs, there are two concepts, each of which have three ways of being named. Strictly, the word port refers to the value shown by "uname -m", and typically corresponds to a directory under src/sys. build.sh supports aliases, which are passed as if they were a port, but expand to a port and a cpu (MACHINE and MACHINE_ARCH); an example is evbearmv7hf-el which expands to the evbarm port and earmv7hf cpu.
concept
/usr/share/mk variable
uname
build.sh
port
MACHINE
uname -m
build.sh -m
cpu
MACHINE_ARCH
uname -p
build.sh -a
Additonally, there are things referred to as ports which are not actually "uname -m" values, but are notably different than what would be expected from that port name. One is xen, which is a system architecture variant of i386/amd64, and another is aarch64, which is a CPU type variant of evbarm.
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Last edited
late Saturday evening, December 21st, 2024
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