[coreboot] Owner-controlled POWER9 Talos II [was: Disabling Intel ME 11 via undocumented mode]

[Rene Shuster]

600-page documentation about the BCM5718 Family:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site:broadcom.com+5718+programmer's+reference+guide

Quote:
"This document covers the BCM5718 family of NetXtreme / NetLink Ethernet
controllers. This family of controllers includes the following devices:
• BCM5717
• BCM5718
• BCM5719
• BCM5720
The document focuses on the registers, control blocks, and software
interfaces necessary for host software programming."

Look like fantastic documentation. Is there no such thing as the EFF
starting a fundraiser/crowdfunding campaign, then hiring appropriate
firmware engineers and coming with with an open-source fw? In a perfect
world yes.

On Mon, Sep 11, 2017 at 12:30 PM, Timothy Pearson <
tpearson at raptorengineering.com> wrote:

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> On 09/08/2017 10:38 PM, Taiidan at gmx.com wrote:
> > Also want to add why broadcom? I heard they didn't have a good attitude
> > to open source and as a large company I imagine they have a lot of
> > institutional inertia preventing that from changing? - why not one of
> > the smaller NIC makers such as atheros, mellanox, solarflare etc?
>
> Cost was the main driver for this design.  Our focus was on getting the
> product to market at a reasonable price point, and Broadcom's NetXtreme
> series already has excellent Linux driver support, meaning that we
> didn't need to invest additional resources into driver development.
> Depending on what the uptake of Talos II is (and therefore how much
> "nice to have" development we can justify vs. simply keeping a
> functional, RYF-certifiable product on the market) we may consider
> changes to the NIC supplier in the future.
>
> As to why not Intel, in addition to the obvious issues in relation to
> sourcing a critical system component from a direct competitor, we have
> experienced issues with Intel GbE NICs in the past under Linux related
> to the on-chip firmware locking up and requiring a host reboot.  The
> NetXtreme devices appear to be quite stable, and their internal
> operation has already been partially documented, meaning development of
> a true open firmware port is at least possible.  The same cannot be said
> for the other players in this space.
>
> - --
> Timothy Pearson
> Raptor Engineering
> +1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line)
> +1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard)
> https://www.raptorengineering.com
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