[LinuxBIOS] Support for recent chipset and powerful desktop CPU

[Simon Labrecque]

>> The 6 month lifespan (approximately) of an off-the-shelf
>> ...
>> Will your company allocate resources in the future to keep up with
>> LinuxBIOS ports for new boards or revs? It will be great if you do.

As most smaller companies, we need to distribute our resources carefully.
Currently, the most advantageous way for us for this particular project
(considering costs and time-to-market, among others) is to use off-the-shelf
hardware. We do realize the implications of that choice.

If the platform is successful, the next "revision" of the product would use
different components (motherboard and cpu, mainly), and yes, we would
support LinuxBIOS in this case and do whatever is needed to get our chosen
components to work with it. In fact, I came to this list with the idea of
hiring someone to get LinuxBIOS to work for our chosen components (and I
wrote about it in my first post), but hey, if someone wants to do it for
free, that's even better ;)

We will be glad to donate back to the LinuxBIOS community if our product has
the smallest success.

>> ... passive cooling system...

Passively cooled CPU would be nice, but that's not a requirement per se
right now. However, a passively cooled *motherboard*
(northbridge/southbridge) is a strong plus.

>> ... I just don't see this coming out of the box.

We have no problem in modifying the off-the-shelf hardware we chose, as long
as the bill fits our cost requirements.

Thanks for your comments and input.

Simon Labrecque

-----Original Message-----
From: Bari Ari [mailto:bari at onelabs.com] 
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 4:10 PM
To: Simon Labrecque
Cc: 'Vlad C.'; linuxbios at linuxbios.org
Subject: Re: [LinuxBIOS] Support for recent chipset and powerful desktop CPU

Simon Labrecque wrote:
> Good point. While it would be quite easy to add FireWire support through a
> PCI card, it sure would be nice to have support for it native to the
> motherboard.
>
> The problem with the MSI K9N is that the Northbridge's passive cooler is
> said to get very, VERY hot, which might be problematic in our application
as
> noise (and therefore airflow) needs to be minimized.
>
> I haven't tested it personally though, but every review I read on the K9N
> seems to mention the heat issue. That's why I liked the Abit board in the
> first place; passively cooled, but with heat pipes and an easy way out for
> the heat.
>
> I guess we would need to test such a board in our "harsh" environment to
> know if it could survive there.
>   
A few other points you may wish to consider are:

The 6 month lifespan (approximately) of an off-the-shelf. I'm not
against LinuxBIOS (I've been lurking on the list since 1999) but the
motherboard you pick today may be out of production by the time you go
to market.

Will your company allocate resources in the future to keep up with
LinuxBIOS ports for new boards or revs? It will be great if you do.
Hopefully MSI will also get onboard with LinuxBIOS and support this from
the factory.

Your issues with thermal management are a bit off topic on this list,
but a 100% passively cooled AM2 designs are possible. We have done them.
I've never seen an off-the-shelf mainboard come with an entirely passive
cooling system for any cpu over a few (5-10) watts. You would however be
able to develop a passive cooling system for the K9N that use the <35 W
AM2 processors. I just don't see this coming out of the box.

-Bari