Kiran Patil wrote:
To make this project true "Open Compute Project", this Coreboot BIOS software on Motherboard is essential.
I request you to consider using Coreboot (www.coreboot.org) as BIOS for Server and Storage motherboards used in Open Compute Project.
Note that BIOS refers to a very specific set of OS<->firmware interfaces which have evolved over 30 years with little to no formal specification.
coreboot is a BIOS replacement. coreboot can be combined with the SeaBIOS project to have a standard BIOS environment, but perhaps more importantly coreboot offers significant opportunity for innovation even at the x86 firmware level.
Quoting Open_Compute_Project_Intel_Motherboard_v2.0.docx (Word file?):
--8<-- 6 BIOS
The ODM is responsible for supplying and customizing a BIOS for the motherboard. -->8--
The above means absolute BIOS vendor lock-in, and it has been designed into the specification right from the start. Not very open.
While the above is indeed the norm in the PC industry, it is by no means the only viable solution.
There are significant benefits to be gained from avoiding firmware lock-in, both in terms of freedom as well as significant technical and economical advantages, and I would urge any project striving for openness not to settle for the industry standard lock-in practise, and come talk to us in the coreboot project about firmware without lock-in, and without legacy limitations.
Kind regards
//Peter