Hi Paul,
>
> I think most of the time is spent in RAM initialization.
>
> 1. Do board owners with similar amount of memory (independent of the
> board) have similar numbers?
> 2. What are the ways to improve that? Is it possible? For example, can
> the modules be probed in parallel (if that isn?t done already)?
>
Regarding 1: I am running 128GB in 8GB modules (LRDIMMs) and experiencing a similar issue. With just two UDIMMs, the boot times are *much* faster. Also, the vendor BIOS is faster from the time you press the poweron button to the time the monitor gets a signal.
Cheers, Daniel