Hello

[Stefan Reinauer]

Hi...

On Tue, 13 Oct 1998 daniel.engstrom at riksnett.no wrote:

> Here is what I thought:
> A free Open Firmware implementation that runs on my PC would be utterly
> cool and the Right Thing To Do <tm>.

This is generally correct I would say. But what could/should be discussed
is whether we should really implement what is IEEE Std 1275-1994
(Official Name of Sun's OpenFirmware). I am a bit in fear that we might
get problems implementing a forth interpreter in 128k together with the
whole stuff we need to get a machine running. (This may be because I am
not familiar with Forth, though) :)

What I would like to see as a result of this project is a slim-but-mighty
solution. I really don't know whether this is practicable with IEEE
1275-1994.

> Having a open source firmware code base would also make life easier for
> people who make their own embedded boards.
True. this would again be an arguement for implementing the IEEE version.
Afaik they have general drivers to access OpenFirmware supported hardware
in Net- or OpenBSD. 

> The boring part is that I believe the Open Firmware specs cost money.

They are available as a book. I ordered it today :-)
It's ISBN Number 1-55937-426-8 IEEE Std 1275-1994: IEEE Standard for Boot
Firmware.

> In order to to this one fist should get the specs (anyone here who has
> them?) And then make an architecture addendum for the i386 and submit
> it to the Open Firmware folks. (Las time I checked their web site there
> were none for the i386, the web site is unresponsive at the moment.)

I found http://playground.sun.com/1275/home.html
which might be interesting as a starting point, but I haven't had a closer
look at it.

> I also think that providing legacy OS support though loading a
> traditional BIOS from disk is the way to go. 

Yes. fully true.

Stefan.


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