On Tue, 3 Feb 2004, Tarl Neustaedter wrote:
One benefit we're hoping for is to not have to write multiple drivers every time we go to a new technology (e.g., infiniband). Right now, we're facing the possibility of needing to write a Solaris driver, a Linux driver, an IEEE-1275 FCode driver, and a real-mode BIOS driver. All for one technology, and with the probability of having to repeat for the next i/o technology to come along, since we are going forward with both SPARC and Opteron-based systems.
With LinuxBIOS, it looks like it should be possible to re-use the Linux driver in the PROM. If so, it would mean that a new platform based on a particular i/o technology could contain the drivers for that particular technology (e.g., for Infiniband, IPoIB and SRP drivers), and not have to worry about option ROMs.
You've just described the entire case for linuxbios we started with years ago :-)
So I am very happy to see it might make some sense :-)
I can believe it. My task right now is to determine if LinuxBIOS is feasible, and if so, at what size. We have some flexibility in that we design our own boards, so if we can justify a large PROM, we could get it in. Better if we can fit it in a 1MB prom, however.
ow. ow. ow. Not with Infiniband, at least not yet ...
Is the price difference really that big?
ron