BIOS Autodetection Design

Eric R. Kern eric_kern at ibm.net
Tue Jan 12 08:39:17 CET 1999


M Carling wrote:

> The objective is not to write OpenBIOS such that (in practice) a single
> compiled image can boot any chipset. Rather, the autodetect objective is
> that a set of chipsets may be chosen at compile time from which the image
> is about to boot. Thus, for example, a MB manufacturer could compile a
> BIOS such that one image would work for all the MBs that they manufacture.
>
> Do you think this has any merit, Eric?

This is a standard practice used in today's BIOS and it definately has merit.
The big BIOS vendors such as AMI and Phoenix generally sell a standard BIOS to
MB manufacturers.  However, this BIOS generally needs to be customized by the
motherboard manufacturer to run with a particular motherboard.

Is the objective of OpenBIOS to provide source code to motherboard
manufacturers that they can modify and customize for their boards or is it to
provide a BIOS that will run on an individuals PC?

Eric R. Kern



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