RFC:new superio proposal

[Adam Sulmicki]

> >>The new super i/o structure of freebios2 should also account for these
> >>changes.
> >
> >any suggestions on how this should look? I can see a
> >src/superio/<vendor>/microprocessor, to which you pass all these
> >parameters, and which talks to the microprocessor to set them up. Would
> >that be sufficient? What new parameters would it need?
> >
> >
> >
> Besides just setting a few bits in registers to config the super i/o,
> one now has the option/ability to reload the binary firmware into the
> flash memory of the super i/o to customize the board. The binary may be
> 64KB for some cpu based super i/o's.
>
> Some examples of cpu based super i/o's
>
> http://www.renesas.com/eng/products/mpumcu/16bit/h8s/2100/index.html

In other words, it is an computer inside of computer.

in fact it seems to sort of change the whole firmware padagrim. we have

	main pc bios
		PCI video 	: video bios
		super io  	: standalone firmware
		some pci card 	: pci bios.

what's significant here is that the superio is compiled with the super
IO's cpu as target rather than main cpu being the compilation target.

As time go on I expect there to be more subcompoents go like this.

The very fact alone that the compilation target is differnet suggest it
being removed from pc linuxbios main to large degree.

Adam,
who actually did go over that 1000 page pdf.

-- 
Adam Sulmicki
http://www.eax.com 	The Supreme Headquarters of the 32 bit registers