[U-Boot] arch/powerpc/lib/board.c:get_effective_memsize() for 4GB+ systems

[Timur Tabi <timur@freescale.com>]

Robert Thorhuus wrote:

> Sorry. But this is were I disagree with you. Of course its prime
> function is to boot an operating system. And usually in a desktop
> environment that is what you need. But if you have newly developed
> hardware it is very seldom everything works all the time. There are a
> lot of debugging hardware sessions before you have stable hardware. So
> in embedded systems I would say U-Boot can very well be a primary
> choice of testing platform in the beginning of a development. Mainly
> because sucessfully booting U-Boot demands less of the hardware than
> sucessfully boot an OS. Say you have a NOR and 1 MB L3 cache but no
> DDR3, U-Boot is set, OS not.

If you really want to turn U-Boot into a testing platform, feel free to
post patches that implement those features.  But don't be surprised if
your patches are rejected.

> And what test platform would you suggest? And what if your extended
> testing needs to be a viable option at every boot and that you have
> boot time requirements?

You can create U-boot "applications" that test your hardware, if you want
to test from within U-Boot.

-- 
Timur Tabi
Linux kernel developer at Freescale