Stefan Reinauer wrote: [...]
So basically there is no real way around having an x86 option rom. It seems. Intel is trying to break out and move firmware developers to their EFI bytecode, which does the same thing OpenFirmware FCode does, just with the need of 4*8MBit Flash to store all of the virtual machine
Actually, my understanding is that the multi-megabyte flash is only required for the IA-64 implementation. The IA-32 implementation of EFI from some vendors is reported to fit comfortably in 1MB.
One thing we've discovered recently is that the x86 firmware world is rife in rumors, FUD, and propaganda. It's pretty startling.
I've dropped the illusion of getting convinced some day that EFI is the way to go,
It certainly looks good; they seem to have learned a bunch of lessons from the OpenFirmware experience. Unfortunately, we got stopped by license issues - to go any further than just the basic spec, there is a "click to agree" license button on the web page which our legal team told us not to click.
I don't see it all that negative for FCode firmware in option roms. It's just not going to happen in small numbers. For this to happen, there have to be _many_many_many_ machines with an IEEE 1275 compliant boot firmware.
Sun pushed for this for many years; the IEEE 1275 specification and firmworks.com were both funded by Sun exporting technology they had developed in the early '90s, with an eye to moving the industry along in this direction. It sputtered along with minimal industry acceptance and largely fizzled out before 2000.
The specification (IEEE 1275-1994) is now obsolete; it's supposed to be renewed every five years, and there just wasn't the funding and interest level to get it done. We still use the specification in our day-to-day operations, but I don't think IEEE will even sell copies any more.
If you can revive interest in OpenFirmware, I'll be delighted. My personal opinion is that it's a sisyphean task, but don't let that stop you :-) Tarl Neustaedter