[coreboot] Why do we have FSP-S

[Timothy Pearson]

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On 05/01/2018 01:30 PM, Julius Werner wrote:
>> All the ARM64 boards I've seen that are desktop or higher class ship
>> with AMI UEFI and AMI BMC.  Plus they contain their own magic blobs,
>> some akin to the ME.  ARM64 is not a panacea either; OpenPOWER's
>> actually shipping open POWER9 systems right now with source code.  Why
>> not go down that route?
> 
> Can we please stop bashing each other about whose architecture is better? I
> haven't seen any POWER9 systems of laptop or lower class shipping either.
> What makes one more important than the other?
> 
> We actually have several ARM64 boards in the repository right now where you
> can walk into a store and buy them for a couple hundred bucks, and install
> fully open-source blob-free firmware on them straight from the coreboot
> master branch. It would be great if the POWER port of coreboot can
> eventually see this level of success as well. That's just more choice for
> the users.
> 
> I have also personally spent a bunch of time arguing with Arm SoC vendors
> about open-sourcing their code and I think we can be pretty happy with what
> we've achieved so far, even though we can always try to do even better. The
> reason those ARM64 servers are heading the x86 route of running proprietary
> UEFI (and, worst of all, implementing ACPI) is because no corporation with
> sufficient influence is trying to guide them in the other direction. If it
> wasn't for Chromebooks, the Arm laptop market might be going the same way.
> That is also corporate influence.

Don't mean to bash anyone.  I get frustrated at times with the messages
on here from people that want something they can't have (basically,
cheap, powerful, and open -- pick two), and just wanted to say that
there are open systems *right now*, no vendor coaxing needed.

Our recommendation for some time has been a mix -- arm64 client devices
(laptops, tablets, etc.) and ppc64el servers.  With those two, you can
replace x86 entirely if you don't have proprietary software in your
environment.

- -- 
Timothy Pearson
Raptor Engineering
+1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line)
+1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard)
https://www.raptorengineering.com
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