[coreboot] coreboot BIOSisms

[Kevin O'Connor]

Hi Joseph,

On Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 08:46:07AM -0400, Joseph Smith wrote:
> > Given the above, I see two possibilities.
> > 
> > The first involves having coreboot build the standard tables.
> 
> Like I said why not just have a mini program between the two that handles
> this operation.

Where does this "mini program" get the data?  It will face the same
issues I outlined in my previous email.

>It could be added to coreboot or legacybios as an option
> module. The mini program would read the coreboot tables and what ever else
> it needed and then set these tables up in a format that coresponds with
> legacybios, and finally passes the tables to legacybios.

The coreboot table today does not provide sufficient information to
build the acpi/pir/mptable/smbios tables.

We could extend the coreboot table - but what's the point of defining
our own intermediate format.  For example, if the end consumer wants
an smbios table, why translate from "coreboot->coreboot
table->legacybios->smbios table" when we can just go from
"coreboot->smbios table"?

>Does it have to be more complicated than that?

Adding an additional program in between seems to make things more
complicated.

Thanks,
-Kevin