[U-Boot] u-boot-x86

[sk ong]

Graeme,

I am not familiar with device driver for embedded Linux, but
I think the Linux device driver for Atom currently still use the BIOS alike
support at least in the booting phase.

I think there may be a challenge to port the device driver (video, SATA,
ethernet, etc.) to use in uboot from one Atom to another different Atom,
unless uboot can reuse directly the device option rom that provides the int
services and the device driver that uses the int services in the booting
phase. I assume coreboot will be able to have such reuse. However I still
see a value to uboot (without PC support) for deeply embedded application
using certain Atom.

Thanks,
SK


On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 10:49 PM, Graeme Russ <graeme.russ at gmail.com> wrote:

> Sk,
>
> On 25/08/10 23:49, sk ong wrote:
> > Graeme,
> >
> > Thanks for the information. Now I know I need to take a look at coreboot
> > too.
> >
> > Do you know anyone has or plan to do porting for Intel Atom based uboot
> > or coreboot or other boot loader?
>
> Not specifically however I understand that the Atom is an x86/x64 based
> processor which makes life a little easier. Depending on the use-case, I
> think U-Boot could be useful. I notice the Atom is targeted at the Netbook
> market which Linux is particularly strong which implies good hardware
> driver support (i.e. re-usable driver code) which could (potentially) make
> the porting process easier.
>
> I notice there is a work in progress for coreboot on only one Intel Atom
> motherboard (the D945GCLF) - Not a lot of support there.
>
> Are you designing the hardware yourself or is this for an existing design?
>
> I suppose the next big questions relate to your experience with the x86
> architecture. It is a real pain to work with with a steep learning curve
>
> Regards,
>
> Graeme
>