Chipset autodetect -- pro and con

[Hetz B.H (bios email)]

> We aren't talking about compiling in support for all and every supported
> chipsets, just making it configurable, so one could add support for more
> chipsets in one binary, of course limited by size. This would for instance be
> nice for admins having a large pool of computers with two different
> motherboards.

Ahh, it's much clearer now. But I don't think that could be called
"auto-detect" since the binary file will have only small set of chipset
support - so what can it detect? VX or FX chipset?

> I think this is the answer to many discussions we will probably see:
> - Do we want a boot logo?

Yes, this should be cool (2 or 4 bit plane 128x128 or 256x256 compressed
pic should do the trick).

> - Should it support loading the kernel directly?

Optionally, but I guess there are some Windows 95/98/NT or OS/2 or BeOS
who would like to use it also, so don't bind them together :)

> - Should we support 16bit functions for compatibility

Oh yeah, unless you can come around with a genious way to remain
compatible with current BIOS's and OS's..

> - ...
> Make it configurable (tm) :)

Amen :)

> 
> Karl Erik Asbjornsen
> karlea at samfundet.ntnu.no
>