From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1754597AbXEADGi (ORCPT ); Mon, 30 Apr 2007 23:06:38 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1755450AbXEADGi (ORCPT ); Mon, 30 Apr 2007 23:06:38 -0400 Received: from ebiederm.dsl.xmission.com ([166.70.28.69]:46350 "EHLO ebiederm.dsl.xmission.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1754597AbXEADGg (ORCPT ); Mon, 30 Apr 2007 23:06:36 -0400 From: ebiederm@xmission.com (Eric W. Biederman) To: Andi Kleen Cc: "H. Peter Anvin" , Dave Jones , linux-kernel , Jeff Garzik , Jeremy Fitzhardinge , Linus Torvalds Subject: Re: arch/i386/boot rewrite, and all the hard-coded video cards References: <463698D5.20102@zytor.com> <20070501015115.GJ26601@redhat.com> <4636A332.2070101@zytor.com> <20070501034612.GK25929@bingen.suse.de> Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 21:06:11 -0600 In-Reply-To: <20070501034612.GK25929@bingen.suse.de> (Andi Kleen's message of "Tue, 1 May 2007 05:46:12 +0200") Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.110006 (No Gnus v0.6) Emacs/21.4 (gnu/linux) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Andi Kleen writes: >> Not that the x86 BIOS is bad. It is nearly a marvel in it's simplicity >> and ubiquitousness, > > Simplicity? That must be why x86 motherbords are shipping with (compressed) > 8MB BIOS flash chips now. Those would be 8 megabit chips, and those would be server motherboards you are looking. Most likely the ones that are starting to think ahead to EFI support. There are thread jobs the firmware on a PC does. - Configure the hardware to look like a PC. What with memory controller setup and the like that is the hard part and the bulk of the work. Since this is written quickly and in assembler it has likely descended into spaghetti by now. - Whatever ACPI does. suspend/resume and etc. - Provide a subroutine library for boot loaders. That subroutine library is what gets exposed. Now if you compare what it takes to implement the PC BIOS interface the "subroutine library for bootloaders" with EFI, or open firmware or a real OS you will quickly see how very small and simple it is. It isn't a beautiful interface but it is short and to the point. Eric