[U-Boot] u-boot for x86 Core2Duo target

[Andy Pont <andy.pont@sdcsystems.com>]

Zvi wrote...

> On my next project, the target is Core2Duo (AMPRO's COM840).
> 
> Is it a wise decision to use u-boot on this target ?

Probably not!  

Ampro will already have invested a lot of time and effort in porting the
BIOS to that board and are giving you a device that works out of the box.
If there is a specific issue that you have with their board then talk to
Ampro and they may look into it for you.

> Is it a huge project to port it to another x86 target that has a different
> ethernet controller ?

In the first instance it will rely on you being able to get all of the
information that you need in order to initialise all of the respective
hardware and some of the x86 CPU and chipset vendors limit who they make it
available to.

There are other questions you will need to ask, for instance.  Are you using
the VGA display?  If so, will your operating system device driver work
without the video BIOS having done the initialisation or some of the other
services provided by it?

> The u-boot image is loader by the BIOS from compact flash via SATA.

As Graeme Russ said, U-Boot would replace the BIOS.  I haven't looked at the
board but I would assume the BIOS can be in-situ updated.  In the first
instance you could try the flash update utility that goes along with the
BIOS to see if it will reprogram it with an arbitrary binary.  It may not do
as it may have a write protected boot block that you can't replace.

Andy.