OpenBIOS

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Parallel Port EPROM simulator
by Qiwei Xiao 23 Nov '98

23 Nov '98

Parallel Port EPROM Simulator Copyright 1998, Qiwei Xiao (qiwei(a)qiwei.net), All Right Reserved Free for noncommercial use. Absolutely no warranty of any kind. Note: IC1, IC2 and IC3 (74ACT541) can be replaced by two 74ACT841 to save one IC. For a PC parallel port, the control output (base+2) has 4 lines: C0-C3. They are open collector so you might need a pull-up resistor for each of them. C5 controls the state of bi-directional data port: if C5=0, the port acts as an ordinary output port; if C5=1, the output port is in high impedance state (and effectively becomes an input port) so any outside source can drive the bus and can be read in. A good PC parallel port tutorial is in http://www.rmii.com/~hisys/parport.html. How it works: C5=1, C1,C2,C3 = 000: Normal Mode The simulator acts like an ordinary ROM. The extra ICs on the bus add about 5ns delay which shouldn't be a problem for FLASH chips whose delay is typical in the 70-100ns range. C1,C2,C3 != 000: Programming Mode (C1,C2,C3 "park" on 111) Read operation: (1) Set C0=1, then C5=0. Order is important. (2) Place address byte 1 on the data port, send a pulse to IC7 to latch it. (i.e., C1,C2,C3 = 111 -> 011 -> 111) (3) Place address byte 2 on the data port, send a pulse to IC6 to latch it. (4) Place address byte 3 on the data port, send a pulse to IC5 to latch it. (5) Set C5=1, then C0=0. Order is important. (6) Read in data. Repeat the steps so all the data are read in. High address byte needs to be changed once for every 256 low address byte changes. Write operation: Same as read operation, the only difference is in step (5): (5) set C5=0, send out the byte to be written on the data port, and send a pulse to the "Write Enable (WE)" line of IC9.

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Re: FAQ
by John Foster 23 Nov '98

23 Nov '98

M, Let me know when you have an IP number for this machine, and we can check resetting our DNS pointers to access it and get things going. BTW, Happy Thanksgiving - even it if is not a national holiday for all of us, it is a nice idea to take some time in appreciation of how this planet is so supportive and convenient of our life-forms - almost like it was planned, eh! John -----Original Message----- From: M Carling <m(a)midgard.net> To: openbios(a)elvis.informatik.uni-freiburg.de <openbios(a)elvis.informatik.uni-freiburg.de>; stepan(a)wesley.informatik.uni-freiburg.de <stepan(a)wesley.informatik.uni-freiburg.de> Cc: john(a)tsf.net <john(a)tsf.net> Date: Monday, November 23, 1998 10:47 AM Subject: Re: FAQ >> Thanks to M. Carling for his work. > >You're welcome. > >My thanks to Todd Whitesel for bringing to my attention a nasty typo. >An update version is available at ftp://209.157.87.155/pub/openbios/FAQ > >I just built this machine yesterday, so it's not in DNS yet. I bought >a 4GB drive for it, it gets backed up regularly, and is sitting on an >underutilized T1. As soon as I finish getting it configured, it can >serve ftp, http, and cvs for OpenBIOS. The machine won't be used for >anything else, so it would be suitable for it to be ftp.openbios.org >and www.openbios.org. I'd be happy to work with John Foster to make >this happen, and to make sure that any concerns he may have are met.

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Re: FAQ
by M Carling 23 Nov '98

23 Nov '98

> Thanks to M. Carling for his work. You're welcome. My thanks to Todd Whitesel for bringing to my attention a nasty typo. An update version is available at ftp://209.157.87.155/pub/openbios/FAQ I just built this machine yesterday, so it's not in DNS yet. I bought a 4GB drive for it, it gets backed up regularly, and is sitting on an underutilized T1. As soon as I finish getting it configured, it can serve ftp, http, and cvs for OpenBIOS. The machine won't be used for anything else, so it would be suitable for it to be ftp.openbios.org and www.openbios.org. I'd be happy to work with John Foster to make this happen, and to make sure that any concerns he may have are met.

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FAQ
by Stefan Reinauer 23 Nov '98

23 Nov '98

Hi.. I've put the FAQ online. You can have a look at it: http://www.freiburg.linux.de/OpenBIOS/faq/ Thanks to M. Carling for his work. Stefan. -- "Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under Communism, it's just the opposite." -- John Kenneth Galbraith

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Re: New Code :-)
by M Carling 22 Nov '98

22 Nov '98

> For the EPROM simulator: It will cost about 450,- DEM (~ $290) to build, That seems optimistic. Anyway, I know someone who owns a ten-person company that manufactures such things, primarily for the embedded market. He's getting excited about OpenBIOS, and I think he's just about talked into donating a few. M

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Creation of a FAQ
by Daniele Realcosmo Frijia 22 Nov '98

22 Nov '98

hiho... what about creating a faq ? when i told people about the openbios project they had many questions. -how can i write the bios in C ? are there libs, which are used, etc.pp.... -do you know, when u are finished with the first working bios ?.... blabla... i would maintain the FAQ, but i think that somebody has to mail me questions and answers...or just questions..so that i can ask here at the mailinglist or that i can ask Stefan directly ;). is there somone against this idea ? cya, daniele .oO http://realcosmo.hat.gelitten.org realcosmo(a)hat.gelitten.bei.infra.de Oo.

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Re: New Code :-)
by Simon Richter 22 Nov '98

22 Nov '98

Sorry for the delay, but I haven't found any time to answer the 169 messages in my inbox yet... :-/ Stefan Reinauer wrote: > I thought about building something like an eprom simulator which can be > plugged into the bios socket of a board and to the parallel port of > another computer which just holds a file with the bios image. This would > make defelopment and testing *quite* faster. Has anyone experiences with > this or does anyone know whether there are ready, cheap solutions for > this? Well, I also thought about this, but I would even go as far as to build a VGA card "simulator", which would be a real VGA card, but with some kind of magic logic that would allow to read the video ram over the net. For the EPROM simulator: It will cost about 450,- DEM (~ $290) to build, according to a friend of mine who has enough electronics skills (for I have not... :-) ). If everything works out, the simulator will be ready in about two weeks' time. :-) > Should we go the way linux goes and write our own drivers or should we try > to use other bioses (i.e. scsi bios on host adapter) for that? Well, write a own driver, but support BIOS extensions as well. This way the new hardware at least works until there is a OpenBIOS driver for it. CU Simon

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Re: openbios.org
by Wim Crols 22 Nov '98

22 Nov '98

Stefan Reinauer wrote: > > Dear OpenBIOS readers, > > well, I tried to register the domain openbios.org two days ago and I > noticed that this domain is already registered to someone else. As there's > no contact email neither on www.openbios.org nor on www.openbios.com, I Contact person for openbios.org is johnfoster(a)SOFTFARM.COM (this is what internic says) > registered using the registration form on the openbios.org webpage. > > It seems to me that the "other" openbios project, which is registered > since august 1998, is semi-commercial. Does anyone know anything about it? > > I will try to email the postmaster(a)openbios.org now to find out more about > the other project.

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Re: OpenBIOS Project. (fwd)
by M Carling 21 Nov '98

21 Nov '98

> If there is interest in someone in the group becoming a webmaster > and site maintainer - I heartily invite hearing from you. I'm a professional UNIX sysadmin, consulting for investment banks in NY and London. I'm excited about OpenBIOS, and this seems to be a good opportunity for me to contribute. I can donate a 486 running Linux, and the time to administer it. And a friend has just agreed to host it on his underutilized T1 in Silicon Valley. I should be able to get it up within a week. M Carling

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Re: OpenBIOS Project. (fwd)
by Stefan Reinauer 21 Nov '98

21 Nov '98

Dear OpenBIOS readers, here's the answer from openbios.org. I'd say this is really fine :) Stefan.... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1998 12:34:52 -0600 From: John Foster <john(a)tsf.net> To: Stefan Reinauer <stepan(a)wesley.informatik.uni-freiburg.de> Subject: Re: OpenBIOS Project. Stefan, A little history on myself: I began writing bios' for clone PC's about 15 years ago as a consultant. Since I had been involved in embedded and process control systems for years, these were aimed at low-volume desktop and embedded applications which usually required a lot of flexibility. About 10 years ago, I created the XT BiosKit book, which included source code in C for an embedded bios. Later that year I wrote the AT BiosKit. The books were priced at $99 and $199 respectively, which was inrtended to allow small embedded developers to create their own bios. A per-unit production fee was also stipulated. I moved from San Diego back to the Midwest in 1991 and got involved in building an ISP business and that has taken most of my time since. We soon found that our Windows NT platforms (which worked well as bios development platforms) did not solve the typical ISP problems and we tried RedHat Linux a few years ago. Obviously this awakened us to two things! - Linux is the wave of the future and that the Open Source idea that we had with our original BiosKits was really relevant. I had also written some real-time operating systems for micro and mini computers back about 30 years ago and always had intended to pursue this area just because of the enjoyment of doing it. There are two basic bios needs - support for 16-bit versions to support the traditional functionality of a bios, and a clean approach to 32-bit versions to support Linux (and similar operating systems). My previous 16-bit version is based on using Microsoft 1.52 compiler and MASM - I really want to find suitable public domain tools to update this - make it a total package by being able to include the toolset (like we have in the 32 bit world). A new 32 bit version can use GCC and NASM so with tool support readily available, the next fascinating question is architecture - which your group is addressing. So much to do, so little time......... With the Open Source movement gaining speed, I see that companies like RedHat and SendMail are able to produce income by providing convenience, support, packaging, etc., by building on an open source structure. In order to return to my spending full time creating software, I am attempting to figure out how to combine Openness with Income. A thorny question!! I hope a solution can be found. Additionally, the Open approach seems to provide an exciting opportunity to create a new reat-time system aimed at embedded applications. I have a lot of ideas based on doing and thinking about this for the last 30 years. Regarding the OpenBios.org domain, I registered this really to protect it, I intend for this to preserve the intent of opennesss and want it to be available not only for myself, but for anyone interested in this idea. So I invite you and your group to use this domain. It presently is hosted on an NT server, but forgive us, we are still learning Linux, Apache and all the rest! - our intention is to move this as well as all our other websites to Apache. If there is interest in someone in the group becoming a webmaster and site maintainer - I heartily invite hearing from you. It is good to hear from you and I invite you to convey this info to the others in the group... Best Regards to all, John O. Foster - john(a)tsf.net -----Original Message----- From: Stefan Reinauer <stepan(a)wesley.informatik.uni-freiburg.de> To: postmaster(a)openbios.org <postmaster(a)openbios.org> Date: Saturday, November 21, 1998 10:53 AM Subject: OpenBIOS Project. >Dear Postmaster! > >I didn't find any contact adress on the webpages neither of openbios.com >nor of openbios.org, so I decided to mail you. > >We, too, have an upcoming project since about one year, which we called >OpenBIOS and it's going to be a completely 32bit enhanced, GNU licenced >firmware for intel and other hardware platforms. > >You may want to check out > http://www.freiburg.linux.de/OpenBIOS/ > >Maybe it could be interesting to stay in contact with each other. What are >your approaches? You don't have a lot of information on your site. > > >Best regards, > Stefan. > >

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