diff --git a/ghc/lib/exts/ByteArray.lhs b/ghc/lib/exts/ByteArray.lhs
index 6a900236264210f6a0ed3c942ac6544b93ce0c58..7f9615b6ded745177df343b8c35e7f73e691ca38 100644
--- a/ghc/lib/exts/ByteArray.lhs
+++ b/ghc/lib/exts/ByteArray.lhs
@@ -9,9 +9,11 @@ together the definitions in @ArrBase@ and exports them as one.
 \begin{code}
 module ByteArray
        (
-        ByteArray(..),  -- not abstract, for now.
+        ByteArray(..),  -- not abstract, for now. Instance of : CCallable, Eq.
         Ix,
 
+	newByteArray,	      -- :: Ix ix => (ix,ix) -> ST s (ByteArray ix)
+
         --Indexing of ordinary @Arrays@ is standard Haskell and isn't defined here.
         indexCharArray,       -- :: Ix ix => ByteArray ix -> ix -> Char 
         indexIntArray,        -- :: Ix ix => ByteArray ix -> ix -> Int
@@ -19,13 +21,17 @@ module ByteArray
         indexAddrArray,       -- :: Ix ix => ByteArray ix -> ix -> Addr
         indexFloatArray,      -- :: Ix ix => ByteArray ix -> ix -> Float
         indexDoubleArray,     -- :: Ix ix => ByteArray ix -> ix -> Double
-        indexStablePtrArray   -- :: Ix ix => ByteArray ix -> ix -> (StablePtr a)
+        indexStablePtrArray,  -- :: Ix ix => ByteArray ix -> ix -> (StablePtr a)
+
+        sizeofByteArray,      -- :: Ix ix => ByteArray ix -> Int
+        boundsOfByteArray     -- :: Ix ix => ByteArray ix -> (ix, ix)
  
        ) where
 
 import PrelArr
 import PrelBase
 import PrelStable( StablePtr(..) )
+import PrelST
 import Ix
 \end{code}
 
@@ -36,3 +42,35 @@ indexStablePtrArray (ByteArray ixs barr#) n
     case indexStablePtrArray# barr# n# 	of { r# ->
     (StablePtr r#)}}
 \end{code}
+
+The size returned is in bytes.
+
+\begin{code}
+sizeofByteArray :: Ix ix => ByteArray ix -> Int
+sizeofByteArray (ByteArray _ arr#) = 
+  case (sizeofByteArray# arr#) of
+    i# -> (I# i#)
+
+boundsOfByteArray :: Ix ix => ByteArray ix -> (ix, ix)
+boundsOfByteArray (ByteArray     ixs _) = ixs
+\end{code}
+
+\begin{code}
+newByteArray :: Ix ix => (ix,ix) -> ST s (ByteArray ix)
+newByteArray ixs = do
+   m_arr <- newCharArray ixs
+   unsafeFreezeByteArray m_arr
+\end{code}
+
+If it should turn out to be an issue, could probably be speeded
+up quite a bit.
+
+\begin{code}
+instance Ix ix => Eq (ByteArray ix) where
+   b1 == b2 = eqByteArray b1 b2
+
+eqByteArray :: Ix ix => ByteArray ix -> ByteArray ix -> Bool
+eqByteArray b1 b2 =
+  sizeofByteArray b1 == sizeofByteArray b2 &&
+  all (\ x -> indexCharArray b1 x == indexCharArray b2 x) (range (boundsOfByteArray b1))
+\end{code}