[U-Boot] U-boot for Pentium

[Raleigh Boulware]

> Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2011 10:02:31 +1000
> Subject: Re: U-boot for Pentium
> From: graeme.russ at gmail.com
> To: r_boulware at hotmail.com
> CC: u-boot at lists.denx.de
> 
> Hi Raleigh,
> 
> On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 9:37 AM, Raleigh Boulware
> <r_boulware at hotmail.com> wrote:
> > Thanks for your help.
> >
> > I have several boards I am looking at.
> > One is a Pentium Main board that uses the Intel 82340LX chip set.
> > Anther board is a Pentium that uses the Opti Viper Chip set.
> > The third is just a Mother board that has a custom FPGA as the North and
> > south bridge.
> 
> A couple of questions:
>  - Are these commercially available boards?
No these are boards I have here at home that I am working with.
>  - Do you have model/part numbers?
I believe the Chip set numbers are 82C556, 82C557, and 82C558 this is for the Opti board. I also have schematics in Orcad for this board and full ducmentation on this chipset.
>  - Is this a work related port (versus a spare time personal effort)?
No actually this is a home project. At work I do Hardware development. Schematics, board layout and debug.
> 
> > I think the Intel and Opti main boards could be used down the road for
> > others to port U-boot to other Later Platforms.
> 
> Yes, I would love to get bare-bones support for more x86 CPUs into U-Boot.
> So far I have only done sc520 because that is all I have ready access to

Well these boards are just first generation Pentium mother boards. I know the performance is slow compared to today's standard, but they are easy to write code for because the registers are as many as the chipsets today.
I am also working on a platform that has no North bridge or south bridge. This might be easier from a U-boot linux stand point but more difficult from a Hardware standpoint
> 
> Also, have you looked at Coreboot (it is a BIOS replacement project). Not
> that I don't want to get more x86 U-Boot ports running, but you may find
> that the board you are looking at is already supported by Coreboot
> (especially if it is a commercially available motherboard)
> 
> > I have to admit my programming skills in the GNU enviroment is very limited.
> > I am taken a Linux course now at work and I somewhat understand. I guess
> > right now I am trying to understand and work my way through the U-boot
> > source. So please excuse any questions that might seen odd or dumb.
> 
> Ask away - If you are unsure of mailing list etiquette, Wolfgang is rather
> fond of these two links:
> 
>   http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html
>   http://catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
Yeah this seems like alot to try to remember to do...I'm sure I am breaking a bunch of rules on this.
> 
> Don't forget to have a good look through the U-Boot wiki at:
> 
>   http://www.denx.de/wiki/U-Boot/WebHome
> 
> And the 'U-Boot Porting Guide' found in the README:
> 
>   http://git.denx.de/?p=u-boot.git;a=blob_plain;f=README;hb=HEAD
> 
> Just so you know, U-Boot is a hobby for me (i.e. limited time, no budget).
> I'm more than willing to help, but unfortunately that help is not going to
> extend to buying my own development hardware
> 
Yeah, this is a hobby for me too. It is a Sloooowww hobby at that... 

This U-boot seems very big I am trying to fumble my way through it. Right now I am going through the .S files from the reset vector and following it from there. I got to the 'Start.S' and got lost that's why I asked about which board on the tree was the sc520 or x86 platform.

I will keep trying to make baby steps and ask questions if I get stuck
> > thanks for your help.
> 
> My pleasure
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Graeme