[Fwd: Re: OpenFirmware and interrupt-map]

ron minnich rminnich at lanl.gov
Tue Feb 3 19:26:00 CET 2004


On Tue, 3 Feb 2004, Tarl Neustaedter wrote:

> One benefit we're hoping for is to not have to write multiple drivers
> every time we go to a new technology (e.g., infiniband). Right now,
> we're facing the possibility of needing to write a Solaris driver, a
> Linux driver, an IEEE-1275 FCode driver, and a real-mode BIOS driver.
> All for one technology, and with the probability of having to repeat for
> the next i/o technology to come along, since we are going forward with
> both SPARC and Opteron-based systems.

> With LinuxBIOS, it looks like it should be possible to re-use the Linux
> driver in the PROM. If so, it would mean that a new platform based on a
> particular i/o technology could contain the drivers for that particular
> technology (e.g., for Infiniband, IPoIB and SRP drivers), and not have
> to worry about option ROMs.

You've just described the entire case for linuxbios we started with years 
ago :-)

So I am very happy to see it might make some sense :-)

> I can believe it. My task right now is to determine if LinuxBIOS
> is feasible, and if so, at what size. We have some flexibility in that
> we design our own boards, so if we  can justify a large PROM, we
> could get it in. Better if we can fit it in a 1MB prom, however.

ow. ow. ow. Not with Infiniband, at least not yet ...

Is the price difference really that big? 

ron




More information about the coreboot mailing list