GitHub - johnrash/bebox: Haiku native PowerPC and Hobbit BeBox Emulator
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BeBox is a Haiku application that emulates Be Inc.'s BeBox, the dual-processor computer that BeOS was born on. It runs both PowerPC models from their original boot ROMs, with BeOS for PowerPC from Developer Release 6 through R5.0.3. It also runs the Hobbit prototypes that came before them, built around two AT&T Hobbit processors, with Be's 1993-94 system from their surviving disks. Model Processors Bus BeBox Dual603-66 two PowerPC 603 at 66 MHz 33 MHz BeBox Dual603e-133 two PowerPC 603e at 133 MHz 33 MHz Hobbit prototype (1993-94) two AT&T 92010 (Hobbit) at 25 MHz BeBus, 25 MHz The window shows the emulated screen between the two front panel LED columns (the "blinkenlights"), sixteen light pipe segments each: a CPU load bar of fifteen LEDs over the power LED (left) or the disk LED (right), lime and amber like the real ones (or red and green, if you prefer).
What is emulated Both processors (a PowerPC 603/603e interpreter with the 603's software TLB), the MPC105 bridge, the BeBox interrupt and CPU control registers. Boot ROM: the nub and main ROM in a writable flash (BeOS's ROM updater works), NVRAM and real time clock. Video: Number Nine #9 GXE64 (S3 Vision864, AT&T 21C498 RAMDAC) with its graphics engine, the default; or Cirrus Logic CL-GD5434. 640x480 to 1280x1024, 8 and 32 bits per pixel (what the BeOS drivers offer). Sound: Crystal CS4231A codec, played through the Haiku media kit. AT keyboard and PS/2 mouse; four game ports (axes and buttons).
Storage: NCR 53C810 SCSI (disks and CD-ROMs on IDs 0-6), IDE, floppy. Four serial ports: to a console window, a TCP server or client, a host serial port or a log file.
Ethernet: an NE2000 compatible ISA card on a private network behind the host (NAT, through libslirp): the BeBox reaches the host and the Internet, and host ports can be forwarded to it. Shared folders: a Haiku folder appears to BeOS as a SCSI disk it can read and write; the changes come back to the folder when BeOS shuts down. Not emulated yet: the parallel port, GeekPort, MIDI and infrared ports. What you need The BeBox boot ROMs, which are not included: bootnub.rom (16 KB) and bootmain.rom (Be Boot ROM 1.1d7) from a BeBox, in a folder of your choice. BeOS for PowerPC: CD images (ISO, BIN/CUE or Toast). For the releases with the Be File System (Advanced Access to R5): a newer boot ROM, which the Preview Release 2, R3 and R4.5 CDs carry as /beos/etc/bebox_bootmain.image (Advanced Access, Preview Release 1 and R5 use one of those). BeBox extracts it for you (see below). Getting started Open Machine > Preferences > ROM & NVRAM and choose the folder with the ROMs. For a BFS release, choose its CD image as Boot ROM image: BeBox copies the boot ROM from the CD (PR2's also boots Advanced Access and PR1). In Storage, put the CD image on a SCSI ID as CD-ROM (ID 3 is the classic choice), and give another ID a disk for installing: Choose... opens a file panel whose New disk image... button makes one right there (in the folder the panel shows) and puts it on that ID. Machine > Power on. The newer boot ROMs stop at their boot menu when no boot volume is set yet: press Return. Changes to the hardware restart the machine. A device type set without a file is turned back into "None" when the preferences are saved. The Hobbit prototype Before the PowerPC BeBox, Be built its machine around two AT&T 92010 "Hobbit" processors, three AT&T DSP3210 signal processors and the BeBus. A few prototypes survive with their disks, running Be's 1993-94 system: a window server, a console, the Browser and its dock. What is emulated: Both Hobbit processors (an interpreter written from AT&T's programmer's reference: the stack cache, the MMU, the timers, the event sequences). The board: its I/O and interrupt registers, the processor resets, the floppy DMA; the PC compatible I/O chips (keyboard and PS/2 mouse, real time clock, two serial ports, floppy) and the NCR 53C94 SCSI controller. The video card: a Trident VGA with an XGA style graphics engine on the BeBus (640x480 or 800x600, 256 colors, as the window servers set it). Not emulated: the three DSPs and what hangs off them (sound, the telephone and modem), the Ethernet card, the joystick controller and the parallel port. The system starts without them (its sound server reports an error). No boot ROM of these machines survives, so BeBox does the boot ROM's job: it loads /system/kernel from the boot volume (the floppy if one is inserted, else the SCSI disk with the lowest ID) and starts it.
To run one: In Preferences > Machine, choose Hobbit prototype and 4, 8, 16, 20 or 32 MB of memory (the sizes its kernel knows). In Storage, put a Hobbit disk image on a SCSI ID as a disk. To run a kernel of your own instead of the disk's, choose it in ROM & NVRAM > Hobbit kernel. Machine > Power on. The kernel reports its progress on serial port 1 (give it a console window in Serial to watch). Notes: The November 1994 disks start /system/Browser, which they have as /system/browser: the console comes up instead (the real machines did the same). Type /system/browser & in it to start the Browser. The floppy drive is the kernel's drive 1. The system writes to its disk (swap files and more): keep a copy of your images, or use them through QCOW2 overlays (bebox-img create -b IMAGE OVERLAY.qcow2). The front panel lights are hidden: the Hobbit's kernel drives none. Installing from the floppies The installer floppy and disks 1of7 to 7of7 install the November 1994 system (the one on the "pixels" disk) on a new disk.