[coreboot] goal for march summit

[Carl-Daniel Hailfinger]

On 02.02.2008 14:19, Rudolf Marek wrote:
> > Great. Can we pick a socket AM2 board with these chips? Such boards are
> > more readily available than socket 939 boards and usually they are also
> > cheaper. A list of socket AM2 boards with K8T890/K8M890, availability
> > and price in Germany follows:
>
> > Asrock ALiveSATA2-GLAN, K8T890 (50 Euro)
> > Asus M2V, K8T890 (63 Euro, difficult to get)
> > Asus M2V-X (unavailable)
> > Asus M2V-TVM, K8M890 (49 Euro, difficult to get)
> > Asus M2V-MX, K8M890 (43 Euro)
> > Asus M2V-MX SE, K8M890 (38 Euro)
> > Foxconn K8M890M2MA-RS2H, K8M890 (40 Euro)
> > Foxconn K8M890M2MB-RS2H, K8M890 (36 Euro)
> > MSI K9VGM-V, K8M890 (38 Euro)
>
>
> Hmm M2V seems to use VT3351 aka K8T890CF (not CE). I checked some
> lspci dumps I
> found and this is bit different - perhaps I will need to contact VIA
> again and
> get the docs. This can take few months :/

That's unfortunate. Then again, the M2V is difficult to get, so it
probably is not a viable candidate.

> I would suggest to stick with the boards which PCI id is
>
> 00:00.0 0600: 1106:0238
> 00:00.1 0600: 1106:1238
> 00:00.2 0600: 1106:2238
> 00:00.3 0600: 1106:3238
> 00:00.4 0600: 1106:4238
> 00:00.5 0800: 1106:5238
> 00:00.7 0600: 1106:7238
> 00:01.0 0604: 1106:b188
>
> (K8T890CE variant)
>
> I was unable to find the M2V-MX lspci -xxx dump on the net. Imho the
> chipset is
> called K8M890. But it seems that it is CE version + unichrome. It uses
> internal
> AGP and unichrome card. The AGP bridge may need some programming. Lets
> try to
> get some PCI dumps first. The southbridge is VT8237A it should be
> fairly similar
> same to VT8237R.

Good.

> I know already about one difference, hopefully not more will
> arise. Again, there is a chance to get the datasheets from VIA under
> NDA, but it
> takes some time to get them - in my case slightly less time I guess -
> I have
> already signed the papers and I think it can be extended to that
> chipsets too.

That would be great! We will need support for newer VIA chipsets anyway,
so if you're 2 months ahead with requests, supporting the K8T890CF and
K8T890CE+Unichrome should be attainable until May 2008.

> To sum it up, with VIA we may be able to get the datasheets, it just
> takes time.
>  They also answered some of my technical questions and provided
> additional help
> and asked their engineers. All just takes a lot of time to get the
> answers ;)

Good to know that they cooperate.

> > That's really expensive.
>
> It was "buy now" button.

My list mentioned boards available from German online stores, so it
would be mostly equivalent to "buy now" at ebay.
By the way, the MSI K9VGM-V is available in the US from Newegg for $35.
MSI have been cooperative in the past when trying to port their boards,
so this may be a good choice.


Regards,
Carl-Daniel