[coreboot] Support for K10/K10.5 on old AM2-only boards

[Qing Pei Wang]

it's pretty sure the coreboot support k8...

On Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 4:26 AM, Andrew <nitr0 at seti.kr.ua> wrote:

> Hi all.
>
> I experimented with K10+ CPUs and boards that doesn't support them, and on
> some boards it's possible to start new CPUs with BIOS from board on same (or
> closely relative, like GeForce7025/NForce520 pair) chipset - possible with
> some bugs, possible without all working fuctions, or even sysnem that hangs
> on late BIOS initialisation stages - but CPU is successfully initialized.
> Also there are many enough old AM2 boards, that have AM2+/AM3 CPU support.
> So incompatibility of new CPUs with old hardware is only on software level
> (or 'semi-hardware' - when there aren't enough place in flash to fit new
> K10-related modules and microcodes).
>
> I looked to coreboot because it looks like it can be enough functional
> replacement of native BIOS. And I want to try to make some experiments with
> it.
>
> I have some MBs for experiments (Asus M2V-MX, Biostar GeForce7025, Palit
> NForce520 - that is AM2+/AM3 CPU compatible, MSI K9N4 Ultra MS-7310, and
> some Biostar on K8T800 - but as I understand this bridge can't be correctly
> initialized by coreboot). GeForce7025 and NForce520 boards have compatible
> BIOS - at least, after swapping of flashes they can successfully load MS-DOS
> from USB flash, and work with PCI/PCI-E videocards - so it looks that they
> use reference design. Also I have Willem programmer (still without PLCC
> parallel flash adapter because it was unneeded for me for many years - but
> I'll make it soon) and POST card, some knowledge in PC hardware and
> programming, and sometimes have some free time that I can spent for such
> experiments.
>
> After look at code I have some questions:
> 1) Coreboot image that is assembled for K10, will support K8 CPUs? And how
> about K10.5 AthlonII/PhenomII CPUs (generic AM2+ boards can successfully run
> AM3 CPUs)?
> 2) To change CPU family - it's enough to replace family in Kconfig and
> replace included files in romstage.c?
> 3) Why you don't use generic AMD memory routines and CPUID detection for
> CPU family at initialization, and possible conditional compiling of code if
> somebody will need to disable support of K8 or K10+ - for ex., for flash
> space saving?
> 4) And what I need for try to create bios for unsupported MB if I take one
> working as basic? Except modifying Kconfig, replacing DSDT and, of course,
> replacing MB model name? How can I obtain data for devicetree.cb? I must
> edit irq_tables.c and mptable.c if I try to adapt BIOS from MB with same
> chipset? And how about cmos.layout?
>
>
> --
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> http://www.coreboot.org/mailman/listinfo/coreboot
>



-- 
Wang Qing Pei
MSN:wangqingpei at hotmail.com <MSN%3Awangqingpei at hotmail.com>
Gmail:wangqingpei at gmail.com <Gmail%3Awangqingpei at gmail.com>
Phone:86+13426369984
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