[OpenBIOS]: Pros & Cons

[Tim Small]

Hi,

> We could create somekind  interface for adding custom modules.
> Some programs might fit directly to same EEPROM with OpenBIOS.

This definitely seems like the best option, we can just generate code to use modules in flash, and look at the
possibility of loading additional modules from secondary storage if/when we start to fill up typical flash
ROMs.

BTW all the machines I have access to at the moment have either 128k, or 256k flash ROMs, if you write
efficient code, then it will take a long time to use up all this storage - it's not that long ago that most of
my computer's operating system (including GUI) came in a 256k ROM.

> If we want to replace entire boot loader (like LILO) then we would need a way
> to boot from different files.  This might be possible to implement without
> including file system support in BIOS.

I would definitely like ext2/vfat support as an option for my BIOS, I use GRUB, (http://www.uruk.org/grub/), as
my boot loader, and find this invaluable.  The 'Multiboot Standard' which is linked to from this page might
also be worth a look.  Having the ability to load a set of kernel modules (which are needed at boot time) prior
to boot-strapping the kernel seems like the most flexible way of doing things to me.

> I don't think that we should mix bios16 stuff with the rest of the OpenBIOS.
> I'd say that bios16 should be as separate as possible from the "real stuff"
> so that it wouldn't ruin the design.  I'm not at all certain wether
> this kind of separation is possible, so please comment.

Does anyone know what support services (if any) a typical VGA BIOS requires from a system BIOS?  Presumably
we'll need to jump to a VGA BIOS to get the graphics card in a sane state?

Is there anyone who would like to maintain a set of documentation links?  Here are a few that I dug up:

http://www.sandpile.org/80x86/index.shtml  - Loads of x86 information (e.g. Intel P6 Microcode update images).

http://www.cix.co.uk/~mayday/  - 8086 development tools for Linux

http://developer.intel.com/design/chipsets/datashts/index.htm  - Intel chipset data sheets

http://www.x86.org/intel.doc/Chipsets.html  - More Intel chipset information, and links to other useful
information

http://www.amd.com/K6/k6docs/pdf/21062e.pdf  - AMD 'k86' BIOS/SW dev guide (2.2M)

http://www.amd.com/K6/k6docs/pdf/21329h1.pdf  - AMD-K6 Processor BIOS Design Application Note (430k)


Tim.