[coreboot] How long will take to add coreboot support for my motherboard? Please, expert roughly estimation needed.

[Vikram Narayanan]

On Tue, May 17, 2011 at 10:52 PM, Peter Stuge <peter at stuge.se> wrote:
> Vikram Narayanan wrote:
>> > It took me less then 8 hours to make my first port, and I'm not even a C
>> > programmer, mine was a best case senario as there was a sibling board
>> > already ported. I have also ported some where just the component where
>> > supported, that didn't take to long either, probably 7-10 hours.
>> >
>> > Working on a board where only legacy code and docs are available I have
>> > probably spend around 12 hours to get to ram init.
>> >
>> > I think the key to sussess is to have an easy way to reflash the bios when
>> > your image failes.
>>
>> Seems quite inspirational to the people who wanted to port for new
>> boards.
>> @ Stefan: Can you please share your opinions on this?
>
> The time required of course depends on many factors. In general
> terms, these are:
>
> 1. Ability to understand or learn C and programming languages in
>   general, and hardware structure.
> 2. Hardware differences.
> 3. How much similar code there already exists in coreboot.
> 4. How readable the code is that does exist in coreboot and is
>   relevant for the project.
>
> In concrete terms, they are:
>
> 1. Programming and electronics experience, and abstract thinking
> 2. How similar your mainboard is to another already supported
>   mainboard.
> 3. If *any* similar mainboard is already supported by coreboot.
>   By similar I mean exact same relevant components; cpu north south
>   superio.
> 4. Quality of coreboot code for cpu north south superio.
>
> These are just the factors to consider *when all components are
> supported already*. In ideal circumstances a board port needs to take
> only one hour. In reality, circumstances are never ideal and the time
> needed per board grows exponentially or even steeper still with the
> number of less than ideal points to consider.
>
> Worst case is so far 8-12 man-months for a coreboot expert.
Thank you. I think this can also be in Developer wiki. This might give
an insight of how much work is involved.
(or is it already there in the wiki?)

-
Thanks,
Vikram