[coreboot] 8 GB DIMMs on Nehalem (Arrandale)

[Zoran Stojsavljevic]

> The T410s does have only two slots (NB: T410 is a completely different
> model with a different casing). The 4-slot system is the W510 with the
> clarkdale i7 CPU that does not have coreboot support at all.

Sorry for my ignorance. I know very well (more than) in many aspects INTEL
CPU CORE and ATOM architectures/technologies. I really do not track
platform specifics (too many of them). Especially I do NOT track which
INTEL "Echo System" (as INTEL call 'em) partners (ASUS, LENOVO etc.) use
which INTEL CORE CPUs for which of theirs' platforms, per say. People need
to feed me with these info. If they feed me with detailed journalctl/dmesg
(with various options), I can figure it out from kernel dmesg/journalctl
traces. If I have (any personal) interest to do this. Usually I do not.

There are IOTG INTEL (R&D as well as Support) employees on this list which
should know (much) better. At least, to help you with these requests. Why
they do NOT do these... Not (really) my problem! Rather theirs/INTEL.

Don't you agree? ;-)

Please, ask INTEL. Tell us, please, what did they answer to you?! :-))

> In the T410s the vendor firmware and coreboot work fine with 2x 4GB
> DIMMs but as soon as there is one 8GB DIMM even if it is the only
> stick and no matter in which slot it is, things go crazy with the vendor
> firmware and the raminit code of coreboot stops in the middle as
> described earlier. So there is nothing obvious left to try regarding
> DIMM combinations in the T410s.

My best guess is... INTEL internally (teamed with AMI) did NOT (even in The
Past) issue internal BIOS (for the given platforms) which does
(particularly) MRC for 2 X 8GB DDR. Just for 2 X 4GB (if they did for 2 X
8GB, please, keep us all in Coreboot list informed)

I have advice to you: either you give up, either you try to rewrite AMI
BIOS/Coreboot MRC algorithm(s) to comply with 2 X 8GB DIMM for Lenovo
T410s/Nehalem DDRAM timings. ;-)

Good Luck!
Zoran

On Sun, Jan 29, 2017 at 11:43 AM, Stefan Tauner <
stefan.tauner at alumni.tuwien.ac.at> wrote:

> On Sun, 29 Jan 2017 07:15:18 +0100
> Zoran Stojsavljevic <zoran.stojsavljevic at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > The current raminit for Nehalem in coreboot is not able to train the
> two
> > > 8 GB DIMMs I have tested so far. I have added a debug output to
> > > choose_reg178 in the first loop before the margins are compared to
> > > STANDARD_MIN_MARGIN that shows that all margins are 0.
> >
> > I would suggest to you to do the following: to return to the platform
> true
> > BIOS, and to see if BIOS works with your Arrandale i5-520M (Thinkpad
> 410).
> > Then you can try several different DIMM configurations, and see if BIOS
> > supports up to maximum of 32GB (4 X 8GB DIMM).
> >
> > Then, from these BIOS experiments, you can draw obvious conclusions in
> > relations with Coreboot MRC algorithm. :-)
>
> The T410s does have only two slots (NB: T410 is a completely different
> model with a different casing). The 4-slot system is the W510 with the
> clarkdale i7 CPU that does not have coreboot support at all.
>
> In the T410s the vendor firmware and coreboot work fine with 2x 4GB
> DIMMs but as soon as there is one 8GB DIMM even if it is the only stick
> and no matter in which slot it is, things go crazy with the vendor
> firmware and the raminit code of coreboot stops in the middle as
> described earlier. So there is nothing obvious left to try regarding
> DIMM combinations in the T410s.
>
> --
> Kind regards/Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Stefan Tauner
>
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