I suppose that anybody here would know the name of Robson, Intel's HDD cache on flash mem. But, somebody dont know the detail of it?
I have an interest in the spec about logical format of the flash mems. I mean, they would have parition table and something like FAT table or such, and what is the format?
Why I want to know it? Because, I guess we can use the flash for putting Linux BIOS there. And it is better that Linux BIOS partition can co-exist Robson cache partition. This is the reason I am curious about the logical format.
If this is possible, we will not have to worry about the space shortage issue ( 256KB is small for linux bios) anymore. And it is also easy to "multi-boot" both normal BIOS and Linux BIOS, like ADLO.
--- Okajima, Jun. Tokyo, Japan.
No one has interest in Robson? I think it is not so bad story that we can get dozen mega bytes of flash RAM.
--- Okajima, Jun. Tokyo, Japan.
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I suppose that anybody here would know the name of Robson, Intel's HDD cache on flash mem. But, somebody dont know the detail of it?
I have an interest in the spec about logical format of the flash mems. I mean, they would have parition table and something like FAT table or such, and what is the format?
Why I want to know it? Because, I guess we can use the flash for putting Linux BIOS there. And it is better that Linux BIOS partition can co-exist Robson cache partition. This is the reason I am curious about the logical format.
If this is possible, we will not have to worry about the space shortage issue ( 256KB is small for linux bios) anymore. And it is also easy to "multi-boot" both normal BIOS and Linux BIOS, like ADLO.
* Jun OKAJIMA okajima@digitalinfra.co.jp [061023 10:52]:
I suppose that anybody here would know the name of Robson, Intel's HDD cache on flash mem. But, somebody dont know the detail of it?
Apparently it is supposed to be used by the operating system as a hard drive cache replacement to allow hard drives to spin down
I have an interest in the spec about logical format of the flash mems. I mean, they would have parition table and something like FAT table or such, and what is the format?
on a hardware layer it is a NAND flash, so it can theoretically be used with MTD in Linux.
Is there any real hardware with "Robson" out there? I know several systems (including those running LinuxBIOS, like the OLPC) have NAND flash for storage _instead_ of a hard drive.
Where is "Robson" supposed to live? on the hard drive? on the mainboard?
Why I want to know it? Because, I guess we can use the flash for putting Linux BIOS there.
At least for the payload this might be interesting, indeed. Are there any specs available for an actual hw implementation of Robson?
And it is better that Linux BIOS partition can co-exist Robson cache partition. This is the reason I am curious about the logical format.
The logical format might very well be different depending on the OS you are using from what I can tell?
Is there any OS that will actually use this? Is there any hardware that has this?
If this is possible, we will not have to worry about the space shortage issue ( 256KB is small for linux bios) anymore. And it is also easy to "multi-boot" both normal BIOS and Linux BIOS, like ADLO.
EFI will bring us at least 8mbit of flash on most boards in the future as well :-) Intel is about to log-roll... ;-)
Stefan
Is there any real hardware with "Robson" out there? I know several systems (including those running LinuxBIOS, like the OLPC) have NAND flash for storage _instead_ of a hard drive.
Where is "Robson" supposed to live? on the hard drive? on the mainboard?
More importantly, where is it documented? Until there's (public) documentation and real hardware, don't expect support for it.
Segher
Segher Boessenkool wrote:
Is there any real hardware with "Robson" out there? I know several systems (including those running LinuxBIOS, like the OLPC) have NAND flash for storage _instead_ of a hard drive.
Where is "Robson" supposed to live? on the hard drive? on the mainboard?
More importantly, where is it documented? Until there's (public) documentation and real hardware, don't expect support for it.
I've just been assuming that Robson would be another one of these "it's standard, but you can't know how it works" type deals.
Docs, anyone?
ron
Hello Mr. Stefan Reinauer.
I am not sure about inside of Robson, but from this article. Sorry, Japanese only. But this is a report of IDF, so you can get same info from English pages. http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2006/1002/hot449.htm
1. Robson is implemented by Vista's device driver. It is just a virtual disk, like MTD of linux. 2. Robson is basically not supported by except Vista. 3. H/W implementation of Robson is not fixed, but mainly it is offered as MiniCard in the early stage. 4. The MiniCard is attached to PCI express bus.
1 and 2 suggest that Robson Flash ROM has given same formant, which Vista's device driver can recognize.
Then, these issues come.
1. Robson flash format has partiion talbe to add linuxbios payload area? 2. If not, can we change the format?
--- Okajima, Jun. Tokyo, Japan.
* Jun OKAJIMA okajima@digitalinfra.co.jp [061026 19:04]:
- Robson is implemented by Vista's device driver. It is just a virtual disk, like MTD of linux.
- Robson is basically not supported by except Vista.
- H/W implementation of Robson is not fixed, but mainly it is offered as MiniCard in the early stage.
- The MiniCard is attached to PCI express bus.
1 and 2 suggest that Robson Flash ROM has given same formant, which Vista's device driver can recognize.
so the mc might just appear as an ide device of some type and LinuxBIOS might just support this out of the box. That'd be neat
- Robson flash format has partiion talbe to add linuxbios payload area?
- If not, can we change the format?
It sounds to me as if they're using a journalling filesystem an pack the journal to the flash. Changing the format is sure possible, if the device itself is functional in LB. Running vista might just destroy it though ;)
Still, have you ever seen any hw for this?
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Jun OKAJIMA -
Ronald G Minnich -
Segher Boessenkool -
Stefan Reinauer