Hello everyone, My name is Yogev Ezra from Green Gadgets Ltd, Israel ( http://www.greengadgets.co.il/)
Our company specializes in assembly, integration and sales of small fanless computers, thin clients and industrial systems. We have two systems that we are willing to donate for porting Coreboot / FlashROM on them:
1. DM&P / ICOP eBox-3300MX thin client / nettop (based on Vortex86MX CPU that is x86 compatible - Pentium I MMX clone) Product page is available at: http://www.compactpc.com.tw/ebox-3300MX.htm CPU details are here: http://www.dmp.com.tw/tech/vortex86mx/
2. Compulab Fit-PC2 nettop (Intel Atom Z510 / Z530 CPU + US15W chipset). Product page at: http://www.fit-pc.com/web/fit-pc2/fit-pc2-specifications/ Some datasheets are available here: http://fit-pc2.com/wiki/index.php/Documentation and here: http://www.compulab.co.il/fitpc2/html/fitpc2-developer.py
Why are we doing that? --- Having more choices for BIOS will benefit the customers and increase possible usage options. Freeware BIOS will also mean eventually cheaper systems. In addition, the factory BIOS in both systems has some issues that we hope to solve with Coreboot: a) The eBox-3300MX has ROM chip big enough (2MB) to start a small OS directly from BIOS, so no external storage is needed (I am thinking of KolibriOS). The factory BIOS can support this option, but the manufacturer requests extra fee which is too high to justify it. b) Fit-PC2 occasionally does not recognize SSD disks on boot. Normal "mechanical" hard disks are always recognized fine. We believe the problem is in factory BIOS or in bridge-chip BIOS (US15W chipset does not have native SATA port so Fit-PC2 is using Marvell 88SA8052 PATA-to-SATA bridge chip). The manufacturer Compulab does not even acknowledge the problem, yet alone solve it.
Q&A and general terms: 1) The manufacturers of both systems currently do not support, endorse or allow using Coreboot. We are doing this as our own initiative. Installing Coreboot instead of factory BIOS will most likely void the manufacturer warranty. 2) We do not try this ourselves because flash ROM chips in both systems are soldered, and we just do not have the qualification and equipment for de-soldering / re-soldering the chips. We already "bricked" a few systems in the past, so we prefer to concentrate on our own work and let the professionals try that. 3) We can supply non-NDA datasheets and more info on request. To receive NDA datasheets, you will have to sign this directly with manufacturers. Not sure if manufacturers will agree to that, when you tell them what it's needed for (Coreboot)... 4) The systems we are donating cost us (a lot of) money, so we would like them to get into "good" hands, of people that actually can invest time in porting Coreboot/FlashROM to those systems. If you just want free hardware, please do not bother.
We can donate up to 5 units of each system, in 3 phases: Phase I - one unit, should go to someone very knowledgeable to start the porting from scratch. JTAG knowledge and JTAG programmer is a big plus (eBox-3300MX has on-board JTAG port. Not sure about Fit-PC2 but probably it does have too). Phase II - two more units, once the porting becomes WIP on Supported Mainboards list (http://www.coreboot.org/Supported_Motherboards), to people who can help the person from Phase I to fix major bugs Phase III - two more units to two more people, to fix minor bugs once major bugs are fixed The reason we won't donate more than one unit from the beginning is because of big hardware costs that we just cannot bear, so we would like to see at least some progress before we can allow to donate more units.
Interested persons that are willing to work on Phase I (and have the required skills and free time to actually work on this), are welcome to e-mail me. Other comments are also welcome.
Best regards, Yogev Ezra Green Gadgets
Hi Yogev,
Yogev Ezra wrote:
We have two systems that we are willing to donate for porting Coreboot / FlashROM on them:
- DM&P / ICOP eBox-3300MX thin client / nettop (based on Vortex86MX CPU
that is x86 compatible - Pentium I MMX clone)
This machine is not so advanced, so it would probably be a comparatively easy target for you to port coreboot to.
- Compulab Fit-PC2 nettop (Intel Atom Z510 / Z530 CPU + US15W chipset).
This however is a rather advanced platform.
coreboot supports none of the components on these platforms. I realize that you have significant expense for this hardware, but it is, mildly put, unrealistic to think that simply donating some custom hardware will motivate any developer to spend the many months of work that will benefit mostly yourselves, because the boards are not common consumer boards.
Why are we doing that?
I think this is obvious. You're unable to commit to investing in coreboot yourselves, so you try to buy many months of expert work paying with $5k worth of hardware. I doubt anyone will be interested.
Freeware BIOS will also mean eventually cheaper systems.
Do not make the mistake to think that coreboot is freeware. Please remember that coreboot is licensed under the terms of the GPL. This is vastly different from what is commonly known as freeware.
Free software yes indeed, freeware certainly not.
In addition, the factory BIOS in both systems has some issues that we hope to solve with Coreboot:
To be frank, it looks like you are hoping that someone else will solve them for you.
- We do not try this ourselves because flash ROM chips in both
systems are soldered, and we just do not have the qualification and equipment for de-soldering / re-soldering the chips. We already "bricked" a few systems in the past, so we prefer to concentrate on our own work and let the professionals try that.
Now if this particular point is a significant problem for you, then please ship the bricked boards and a few boards you want to develop on to me; I will be happy to desolder flash chips, and solder sockets into their place, to allow you to accelerate your effort in porting coreboot to your mainboards. I might expect a microcontroller as compensation.
- We can supply non-NDA datasheets and more info on request. To
receive NDA datasheets, you will have to sign this directly with manufacturers. Not sure if manufacturers will agree to that, when you tell them what it's needed for (Coreboot)...
Since you are buying their hardware you really need to be handling the negotiation required to obtain relevant documentation from the component vendors.
- The systems we are donating cost us (a lot of) money, so we
would like them to get into "good" hands, of people that actually can invest time in porting Coreboot/FlashROM to those systems.
I think there are no such people. There is zero motivation for the community to work for you for free. It's actually the other way around in this case; you have to work for the community for free.
We can donate up to 5 units of each system, in 3 phases:
This is a great arrangement, for a system that would be relevant, or a situation where you offered reasonable compensation.
Sorry.
I'll try to be constructive now:
I suggest that you throw out these non-supported boards and go to AMD. Have a talk with them about your requirements. Maybe they can suggest some off-the-shelf designs that are already supported by coreboot.
//Peter
On 5/13/11 5:07 PM, Peter Stuge wrote:
Yogev Ezra wrote:
- Compulab Fit-PC2 nettop (Intel Atom Z510 / Z530 CPU + US15W chipset).
This however is a rather advanced platform.
coreboot supports none of the components on these platforms.
Actually there is support for the CPU and chipset in coreboot (intel/sch)
Stefan
Stefan Reinauer wrote:
- Compulab Fit-PC2 nettop (Intel Atom Z510 / Z530 CPU + US15W chipset).
This however is a rather advanced platform.
coreboot supports none of the components on these platforms.
Actually there is support for the CPU and chipset in coreboot (intel/sch)
D'oh, I managed to confuse it! Of course you are right.
A board port is what is needed; significantly less effort, but will possibly still need to write new support for the EC, which often does more things than usual within Atom systems.
//Peter
On Fri, May 13, 2011 at 9:21 PM, Peter Stuge peter@stuge.se wrote:
Stefan Reinauer wrote:
- Compulab Fit-PC2 nettop (Intel Atom Z510 / Z530 CPU + US15W chipset).
This however is a rather advanced platform.
coreboot supports none of the components on these platforms.
Actually there is support for the CPU and chipset in coreboot (intel/sch)
D'oh, I managed to confuse it! Of course you are right.
A board port is what is needed; significantly less effort, but will possibly still need to write new support for the EC, which often does more things than usual within Atom systems.
Shouldn't be an EC, this is a nettop, not a netbook.
-Corey
Corey Osgood wrote:
Actually there is support for the CPU and chipset in coreboot (intel/sch)
D'oh, I managed to confuse it! Of course you are right.
A board port is what is needed; significantly less effort, but will possibly still need to write new support for the EC, which often does more things than usual within Atom systems.
Shouldn't be an EC, this is a nettop, not a netbook.
Nettop, but Atom does a bit more power management stuff than usual, and there was (at least originally) no EC designed in that could manage it in the reference schematics so every design has a different one. (One is supposedly always needed.)
//Peter
-
Corey Osgood -
Peter Stuge -
Stefan Reinauer -
Yogev Ezra