Etherboot in the BIOS?

[Steve Gehlbach]

ron minnich wrote:

> On one 1024 node update, a linuxbios update uncovered a
> problem in the hardware, such that 5 of the 1024 nodes had trouble 
> booting. Times like those you really need a fallback. It's easy to see, 
> given the general bugginess of so much PC hardware, why the BIOSes run it 
> so slow. 

I'm actually amazed you can get 1024 PC mobos all going at once.  Many 
if not most mobo mfrs turn their designs 4 times a year, that is not 
much time to do exhaustive design checks.  And the power conversion 
circuits are frequently running components beyond spec, so that this 
area has a life expectancy of 1-2 years, on many boards.  I guess PC 
mfrs figure you'll buy a new one by then so what the heck.  But it 
varies with the mfr and the specific board.  I've had some with <5% 
failure in 10 years, others 25% failure in 5 years.  And dont get me 
started on the power supply and the fans...

-Steve