AMD64 emulators and other hardware based LinuxBIOS developing tools

[Ken Fuchs]

I'm looking for a good/adequate tool for LinuxBIOS software
integration/development for dual Opteron mainboards.

The American Arium has recently added AMD64 support to their ECM-50
emulator.  I've heard that the ECM-50 is $11K plus $4K for AMD64
module and $1.5K for support for a total of $16.5K.  I've looked for
other AMD64 emulators, but didn't find any.  Are there cheaper AMD64
emulators?

Something less than an in-circuit emulator may suffice.  Maybe a bus
analyzer that simply filters and records bus signals on the mainboard.
The bus analyzed could be the processor bus, PCI bus, etc.

I'm looking for at least a POST card.  Maybe a POST card with extra
features.

I suppose even a processor adapter that allows processor pins to be
probed with a logic analyzer might do as well.

What hardware tools (emulators, bus analyzers, POST card, etc.) would
you recommend for LinuxBIOS integration/development for dual Opteron
mainboards?

------

Thank you Ron, YH and David for your comments concerning Nvidia CK8-04
support in LinuxBIOS!  It was/is most appreciated!

Sincerely,

Ken Fuchs

Ken Fuchs  writes:
> I'm looking for a good/adequate tool for LinuxBIOS software
> integration/development for dual Opteron mainboards.
>
> The American Arium has recently added AMD64 support to their ECM-50
> emulator.  I've heard that the ECM-50 is $11K plus $4K for AMD64
> module and $1.5K for support for a total of $16.5K.  I've looked for
> other AMD64 emulators, but didn't find any.  Are there cheaper AMD64
> emulators?
>
> Something less than an in-circuit emulator may suffice.  Maybe a bus
> analyzer that simply filters and records bus signals on the mainboard.
> The bus analyzed could be the processor bus, PCI bus, etc.
>
> I'm looking for at least a POST card.  Maybe a POST card with extra
> features.
>
> I suppose even a processor adapter that allows processor pins to be
> probed with a logic analyzer might do as well.
>
> What hardware tools (emulators, bus analyzers, POST card, etc.) would
> you recommend for LinuxBIOS integration/development for dual Opteron
> mainboards?

Primarily a serial console is used.   Which can be a pain to bootstrap
but after that all is fine.

There are other less expensive ways to get to the jtag pins then with
an arium.

A lot of POST cards I have looked at have problems on recent
boards. 5V instead of 3.3V.  Or there is not a slot on a bus
that does subtractive decode, so you can't get the appropriate
traffic.

There are other tricks like using a logic analyzing to watch the lpc
bus.

But for the most part I recommend just using a serial port and
if that is not sufficient look at better alternatives.

Eric