[LinuxBIOS] AMD Geode LX support for LinuxBIOS

[Carl-Daniel Hailfinger]

On 03.05.2007 19:29, Richard Smith wrote:
> Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
> 
>> How do we deal with fan control, then? Most recent mainboards use
>> SMM for fan control. Once you forbid SMM, you have to trust the OS
>> to perform fan control correctly, which will fail if the machine
>> crashes or locks up.
> 
> Fans are mechanical and will always fail.  If your hardware dies because 
> your fan is off its a hardware flaw not a software issue.

Agreed. In the not too distant past, there were processors from
at least one major vendor which failed permanently if the attached
fan failed. Thermal diodes were not that common in past mainstream
x86 processors, and even those processors which had such diodes
did not necessarily slow down/halt on overheat conditions.

The Geode will probably never get hot enough for failure, but
a top-of-the line x86 processor with >120W TDP might have problems.

@AMD: Do we need to enable any specific features/MSRs in Athlon64
processors for overheating protection or is that functionality
always available?

Regards,
Carl-Daniel
-- 
http://www.hailfinger.org/