[LinuxBIOS] A8N5X port

Uwe Hermann uwe at hermann-uwe.de
Wed Oct 3 01:43:18 CEST 2007


On Fri, Sep 28, 2007 at 11:05:29AM -0700, ron minnich wrote:
> OK, these mobos are close enough to each other to share most code. Let
> me throw out a challenge to this group. Make the bios image that runs
> on each board *IDENTICAL*. You can figure out what each board is --
> can you tell by which superio it is or something? -- and then case out
> in runtime.

Sounds possible, yes. And it's a great idea, FWIW. That's for another
patch, though, as it'll need much more work. Could someone please ack
this patch meanwhile (or comment on it)?

Not sure if we want to try runtime-detection in v2, but we should
definately plan for it in v3.

The detection is highly board-specific of course, no generic function
possible. And it has to happen very early (pre-RAM), as we have to
detect a different Super I/O early enough to be able to initialize
it (or at least the serial part).

Super I/O IDs are good and pretty reliable (it seems) _if_ the Super
I/Os (or at least their revisions) differ for each board. Otherwise
you have to find something else that differs (and can be probed pre-RAM).


> Why is this good? Because a vendor can see that with proper design, a
> single bios image can support many mainboards -- even if the hardware
> differs slightly -- thus reducing the cost.
> 
> We've talked about this for years, never done it. Is this the time?

Yep.


Uwe.
-- 
http://www.hermann-uwe.de  | http://www.holsham-traders.de
http://www.crazy-hacks.org | http://www.unmaintained-free-software.org
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