[coreboot] GSOC 2015 Preperations

[Alexandru Gagniuc]

On Saturday, February 14, 2015 02:50:15 AM Alexander Couzens wrote:
> I would like to attend as a student this year.
> I'm open for most of the ideas at the page.
> Here are some of my ideas.
> 
> - porting new mainboards (hp micro n54L and x121e atm)
> - porting new arm platforms
> - refactoring amd code
> - create an opensource firmware for some Thinkpad (H8S based)
> - building a basic testing system (looking for a x60 or other
> supported_board) - add usb debug support to SerialICE
> 
Porting new boards is of limited value. As a former GSoC student, I can attest 
that the more generic the subject of your proposal is, the higher your chances 
of being selected. That's why a board port is a bit of a crapshoot.

New ARM platforms is definitely an interesting topic. Although you have to 
consider whether your platform of choice can work blob-free, and whether or 
not there is already a uboot port for it. All these things, I believe, will be 
factored in.

Refactoring code seems to have been a popular GSoC theme since I've been doing 
coreboot. Personally, and I will not be part of the decision making, I think 
this is of limited value when that source code works. You see, coreboot is 
nowadays being bombarded from all directions with binary-only components.  I 
think that you can do a great deal more good by working on eliminating some of 
these blobs. Though tread carefully if you choose this path... reverse 
engineering is not a valid project for GSoC, so RE should not be part of your 
proposal or project.

And this point is where you've really gotten my attention. It's gold. Pure 
gold. Having a free software implementation of H8 firmware is a worthy goal in 
itself. Although there's the argument to be made that there already is such a 
thing in ChromeEC, your should stress the counterpoint that the EC is not 
something that can just be replaced, and the mere popularity of the H8 makes 
it a great platform to target.

Another amazing subject that I would suggest you consider is creating a free 
replacement for the SMU firmware in AMD chipsets. Talk to ruik about it. He 
may be able to tell you more. Regarding AMD chips up to fam16 at least, this 
is the final frontier.

Alex