Re: RFC: Adding no-BIOS support to Linux?

[Geir Thomassen]

Anton Ivanov wrote:
> 
> Check how AMD Elan reference board does it. On Elan it should be very simple.
> 
In my case, this is simple, I know my memory configuration, the RAM is
soldered directly on the board. But in the general case, booting linux
on a PC without a BIOS, the RAM sizing is not trivial, esp. since there
is many SDRAM devices out there, which does not follow Intel SDRAM spec.

> If you are talking about linux it uses the APM Bios. If you are talking about
> Elan it should have its own power management which should be in the AMD docs.

I guess I can live without APM altogether.

> 
> This is all "if I recall correctly", I had the same idea for something like
> that with an Elan a while ago... It is a good chip... Though I am unsure how
> are you going to get eepro100 working in view of Elan's differences in DMA and
> busmastering (or lack of thereof).
> 

You make me worried !

The Elan spec states that the PCI controller can function as a target
controller, to access the Elan's SDRAM. The DMA controller must use RAM as
target, this could be a major limitation.

It might be an idea to use a simpler ethernet controller. I need 100BaseT
though. The Intel 82559ER is cheap...

-- 
Geir