* Anton anton.borisov@gmail.com [061202 12:28]:
It would be nice to have TMS (Test Monitor System) onboard. Some big vendors have it on their systems for ages. Pros: a) Test for DRAM b) Test for Media (HDD, CF, SD, ..) connected to the host c) Test for Peripherals Cons: a) size. may not fit into 1/2/4 Mbit.
TMS is a regular payload, access is done via RS232 (or USB in future), the same way as we all see printk messages nowdays. However, it's not yet clear to me is it possible to have multiple payloads at once and how to choose between them. Where to store boot options (CMOS is a way too small for it).
It might also be interesting to put this together with another couple of tests from : http://www.linuxfirmwarekit.org/
a) need to prepare boot media, like SATA/IDE device, to have dedicated partition
CDROM or IDECF makes this kind of easy. You need modifications to the machine most likely, if you want to put parts of this in flash. Netbooting would be another alternative...
Stefan