[coreboot] POWER9 / Talos II coreboot support?

[Timothy Pearson]

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Register documentation was published today.  Links to the three volumes
(over 7000 pages of documentation!)

https://wiki.raptorcs.com/wiki/File:POWER9_Registers_vol1_version1.1_pub.pdf

https://wiki.raptorcs.com/wiki/File:POWER9_Registers_vol2_version1.2_pub.pdf

https://wiki.raptorcs.com/wiki/File:POWER9_Registers_vol3_version1.2_pub.pdf

That leaves only the PHB documentation in process at this point.  Almost
there....

On 05/12/2018 02:34 AM, Timothy Pearson wrote:
> On 05/03/2018 06:02 PM, ron minnich wrote:
> 
> 
>> On Thu, May 3, 2018 at 1:20 PM Timothy Pearson
>> <tpearson at raptorengineering.com <mailto:tpearson at raptorengineering.com>>
>> wrote:
> 
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>>     I think I was being a bit pessimistic / too careful here.  We're close
>>     to getting the docs publicly released, but that doesn't help anyone
>>     wanting access right now, which is why I mentioned the other route.
>>     IBM's committed to getting the documentation released, they're just
>>     making sure that what they release is actually correct for the products
>>     it covers.
> 
>>     It might make sense to get our "working group" together over the next
>>     few weeks, by which time the documentation should be available in public
>>     form.
> 
>>     Are you interested in joining? :-)
> 
> 
>> of course, but not until those docs are freed up. 
> 
> 
> We're getting there.  First manual to be released is the processor user
> guide.  More to follow, including register documentation, in around a week.
> 
> Users guide:
> 
> https://wiki.raptorcs.com/wiki/File:POWER9_um_OpenPOWER_v20GA_09APR2018_pub.pdf
> 
>> Context: I've been trying for 2 years now to get OPAL released under
>> dual gpl2 licensing with the current apache2 license, apache2 and gpl2
>> are not compatible, so we'd be in a bit of a mess should we use OPAL
>> code in coreboot, and it would be easiest if we were able to use some of
>> that code.
> 
>> The first response from IBM was "why do you think you need coreboot?" I
>> worked through that, and there was agreement in the end it ought to
>> happen, said agreement reached about 2 years ago. Stuff Would Happen, I
>> was told. After that, silence.
> 
> We've reignited this.  It's underway. :-)
> 
>> This is pretty much par for the course with Power. In 1990 I spent two
>> years getting an agreement that would allow me to .... get more agreements. 
> 
> We've plowed through this already and are at the action point.  For the
> most part, just let me know what you need and I'll see if we can get it
> published.
> 
>> So close doesn't count. Once I see the kind of docs I need to see, not
>> requiring a clickwrap, and covering all aspects of every chip on your
>> board, I'm in: I'll order a board. Until then, I can't really do much.
> 
> Is the NIC an issue?  There are several people working on REing the
> hardware with some great progress [1][2], but there's really no way to
> get Broadcom to ever release official documentation.  Everything else on
> the libre-friendly non-SAS version either has docs available or we are
> close to getting them published.
> 
>> Thanks for your efforts on Power!
> 
> No problem!  We still consider Power the best path forward for powerful
> libre systems at this point, getting really tired of the other vendors
> actively working against efforts to create open firmware (this includes
> SiFive at this point).
> 
> Will keep you posted as we get more docs published online, but thought
> you and the others here might at least be interested in the users guide.
> 
>> ron
> 
> 
> 
> [1] https://wiki.raptorcs.com/wiki/BCM5719
> [2] IRC discussions on #talos-workstation
> 

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