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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Hi Hubbard,<br>
<br>
Thank you for your answer!<br>
<br>
At 2013-02-07 08:05, David Hubbard wrote:<br>
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<div dir="ltr">Hi Csillag,<br>
<div>
<div><br>
[...]<br>
I don't have experience with Intel motherboards.<br>
<br>
If this sounds like I'm pushing one specific motherboard, I
apologize. Rudolf Marek did a great job porting coreboot to
the Asus F2A85-M board,</div>
</div>
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Yeah, I am reading the thread. Congrats there.<br>
<br>
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<div> and I bought one. I simply know the most about this
board.<br>
<br>
The open source radeon driver performs just fine for this
board (as you mention below, yes, there is a binary blob).<br>
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... and as such, it does not fit the requirements (when used with
on-board graphics.)<br>
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<div> </div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px
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1.2. It must have hardware support for AES. (For hw
crypto acceleration.)<br>
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<div><br>
</div>
<div>For AMD that means you want a Bulldozer or
Piledriver:<br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AES_instruction_set#Supporting_CPUs_2"
target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AES_instruction_set#Supporting_CPUs_2</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piledriver_%28processor%29#2012_platforms"
target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piledriver_%28processor%29#2012_platforms</a><br>
<br>
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1.4. It must have hardware support for virtualization.<br>
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<div><br>
</div>
<div>Which specific virtualization features are you
interested in?</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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Everything that is available. What's AMD's equivalent of VT-d called
nowadays?<br>
IOMMU or AMD-Vi ?<br>
<br>
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<div> AMD CPUs should all have some virtualization
capability. Coreboot + virtualization has not been
tested on the F2A85-M.<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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Could you please test it?<br>
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1.5. It must be able to drive 3 independent display
outputs, at least in 1920x1200 resolution.<br>
(Preferably all digital, but that's not necessary.)<br>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The F2A85-M board has HDMI, DVI-D, and VGA sockets,
but only works with up to 2 displays. I can confirm that
all three sockets work fine with the open source radeon
driver, and that dual-display works fine.<br>
</div>
</div>
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That's fine, however, since the integrated GPU requires a binary
firmware, it does not fit the requirements.<br>
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<br>
ASUS does do 3-display motherboards, just not this one.</div>
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Yep. There is a board with the same name & Pro prefix that is
like that. (F2A85-M Pro.)<br>
However, that would sill require a binary firmware, so it would not
fit the requirements, therefore, irrelevant.<br>
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<div> I think this means you'll need a discrete graphics
card, as you mention in 2.1 below. Bitcoin just got
ASICs so if you're the type to risk a scammer on
fleabay, you could score a great deal.<br>
</div>
</div>
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OK, but what graphics card? Both AMD and Nvidia require binary
firmwares...<br>
Is there something that does not? (And does 3 displays...)<br>
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1.6. I must _use_ this, in a production environment,
therefore it must work. Reliably. Now. I have ~15 yrs
Linux programming experience, have modified stuff inside
the kernel and X drivers, and I am not afraid to have my
hands dirty, but now I am not here to run a hobby
project, I want to to buy something that works, so that
I can do my job using it.<br>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Great! I understand that completely. The F2A85-M has
some linux bugs:<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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Thank you for the listing!<br>
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<div>1.6.1. The motherboard realtek r8169 gigabit NIC will
lock up the system as it gets fully loaded (tested up to
kernel 3.7.1). Consider picking up a cheap PCI-E NIC and
ignore the on-board NIC until the bugs are well and
truly fixed.<br>
</div>
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OK, not a problem.<br>
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<br>
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<div>1.6.2. The hwmon sensors driver is still a
work-in-progress with significant bugs. The stock linux
kernel doesn't do anything to hwmon, which is fine for
production use.<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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Does not care.<br>
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<div>1.6.3. I'll mention that there is almost no
overclocking ability just to be complete. The only thing
coreboot supports is selecting the proper voltage for
DDR3 RAM at compile time.<br>
</div>
</div>
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Does not care.<br>
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<div> <br>
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2. Would be nice:<br>
<br>
2.1. It should only use integrated graphics. (Both Intel
and AMD can do 3 displays from integrated graphics now.)
If I must, I could add discrete card[s], but that
increases power consumption and system size...<br>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Yep, integrated graphics can drive 1920x1200 but only
2 displays.<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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(With binary firmware -> out of the question.)<br>
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2.2. Size small enough to be portable. Not planning to
use in on the move; I mean portable in a (potentially
huge) backpack, between several sites, where I intend to
use them.<br>
- size of Intel NUC or Thin Mini-ITX mainboard are
very cool,<br>
- Mini ITX is great, too,<br>
- MicroATX is acceptable<br>
- ATX seems to be too big, unless you can recommend
me a really, really small case (with acceptable cooling)<br>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The F2A85-M is a MicroATX board, for what it's worth.<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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That's fine.<br>
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2.3. Modern tech and High CPU performance. Of course :)
Whatever is available...<br>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>AMD really doesn't have anything that competes with
high-end Intel CPUs.<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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</blockquote>
Indeed, this seems to be the case.<br>
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2.4. Low TDP, for the possibility of quite/silent
cooling.<br>
- definitely under 100W,<br>
- probably at most 65W,<br>
- ideally only 45W.<br>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>TDP for a high performance AMD CPU is ~100W.</div>
</div>
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You mean something like the FX-8300, right?<br>
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<div> I use an aftermarket heatsink and 120mm fan, and if
you're willing to get a high-end heatsink this board can
be silent, even when the CPU and GPU are running at
100%.<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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</blockquote>
I could do that, but that would about kill my chances to build this
in a portable size. Oh well.<br>
<br>
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<div> [...]</div>
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<br>
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Now, if I understand correctly, the both GPU's (intel HD
4000 and Radeon HD 7660D) runs on binary firmware blobs.<br>
I have read about attempts to replace the Intel firmware
with an open version, but I am not sure where it stands
now.<br>
<br>
What are my options here?<br>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I didn't realize Intel HD 4000 uses a binary blob.
That's interesting, I'm going to go research that.</div>
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I am not exactly sure how the binary part is used; it might be
uploaded, or it might go into the BIOS.<br>
This is the part I was talking about:<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/intel-gfx/2012-August/019353.html">http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/intel-gfx/2012-August/019353.html</a><br>
<br>
Thank you for your help:<br>
<br>
Csillag<br>
<br>
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