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We've been kicking around the idea for some time of getting a coreboot port to the POWER9 Talos II systems going. We don't have the resources available / free at the moment to work on this independently, but it might be possible to get something going if there are other community members interested in helping out.
In a nutshell, Talos II is a completely owner controllable machine that is in the same general performance class as AMD and Intel [1]. We provide all of the data needed to create a port, including the schematics, with each system sold. We can also offer direct assistance and access to hardware for contributors to this project at no charge.
The motivation for this port is to clean up the "IPL" (Initial Program Load) process. Right now a chunk of open software called hostboot runs FSP routines on the main processor. This is slow and very bloated compared to how coreboot does things. We'd like to replace hostboot with coreboot, keeping for now the initial SBE and later skiboot software intact.
There are several challenges with a project of this magnitude. While the SBE brings up the basic CAR and loads hostboot into the CAR space, the processors are completely uninitialized beyond that point. Documentation is scarce, not because it is restricted per se, but mostly because the FSP routines are the main documentation. There is no simulator available for working on hostboot, either, and the initial POWER8 toolchain work still needs to be updated for POWER9 as well.
Advantages to the project include showing that coreboot, or more specifically a completely open, blob-free coreboot, can actually start a modern platform, essentially proving that the concept of an open coreboot remains viable given vendor cooperation. Being able to shave a significant amount of time out of the IPL would also show that coreboot's model provides advantages over a more standard vendor flow.
Is anyone interested in signing on for a long term project of this size?
[1] https://raptorcs.com/TALOSII/
- -- Timothy Pearson Raptor Engineering +1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line) +1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard) https://www.raptorengineering.com
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Timothy Pearson