[U-Boot] Bare x86 support is merged to u-boot-x86

[Christian Gmeiner]

Hi Bin,

2014-12-02 5:38 GMT+01:00 Bin Meng <bmeng.cn at gmail.com>:
> Hi Bruce,
>
> On Tue, Dec 2, 2014 at 4:28 AM,  <Bruce_Leonard at selinc.com> wrote:
>> Simon,
>>
>>> From: Simon Glass <sjg at chromium.org>
>>> To: Bruce_Leonard at selinc.com
>>> Cc: "trini at ti.com" <trini at ti.com>, U-Boot Mailing List <u-
>>> boot at lists.denx.de>, u-boot-bounces at lists.denx.de, Bin Meng
>>> <bmeng.cn at gmail.com>
>>> Date: 12/01/2014 12:14 PM
>>> Subject: Re: [U-Boot] Bare x86 support is merged to u-boot-x86
>>> Sent by: sjg at google.com
>>>
>>> +Bin
>>>
>>> Hi Bruce,
>>>
>>> On 1 December 2014 at 12:33,  <Bruce_Leonard at selinc.com> wrote:
>>> > Hi Simon and Bin,
>>> >
>>> > u-boot-bounces at lists.denx.de wrote on 11/25/2014 01:51:06 PM:
>>> >
>>> >> From: Simon Glass <sjg at chromium.org>
>>> >> To: U-Boot Mailing List <u-boot at lists.denx.de>
>>> >> Cc: "trini at ti.com" <trini at ti.com>
>>> >> Date: 11/25/2014 01:52 PM
>>> >> Subject: [U-Boot] Bare x86 support is merged to u-boot-x86
>>> >> Sent by: u-boot-bounces at lists.denx.de
>>> >>
>>> >> Hi Bin (and others interested in U-Boot on x86),
>>> >>
>>> >> I've applied the remaining x86 patches to u-boot-x86. It runs on
>>> >> chromebook_link (Pixel) with support for most hardware relevant to a
>>> >> boot loader: SDRAM, SPI, PCI, USB (and USB Ethernet), SATA (internal
>>> >> 32GB SSD), SD card, LCD, UART, keyboard, EC.
>>> >>
>>> >> Bin this should be a good base for you to send patches for your Atom
>>> >> platform and I have no major work pending now so should not get in
>>> >> your way.
>>> >>
>>> >> Instructions on how to build and run are here:
>>> >>
>>> >> http://www.denx.de/wiki/U-Boot/X86
>>
>>> >>
>>> >> For this platform 4 binary blobs are needed. This is an unavoidable
>>> >> feature of the platform at present. The blobs cover flash descriptor,
>>> >> SDRAM init, video init and Management Engine. Instructions on how to
>>> >> get these are on the same page.
>>> >>
>>> >> Here is a list of some missing features:
>>> >>
>>> >> - README.x86 in the source (mostly the content from the Wiki page
>>> >> would be a good start)
>>> >> - MTRR support (for performance)
>>> >> - Audio
>>> >> - Chrome OS verified boot (only a rough rebase has been done, I'm not
>>> >> sure how to track mainline anyway)
>>> >> - SMI and ACPI support, to provide platform info and facilities to
>>> >> Linux
>>> >>
>>> >
>>> > This is awesome!  Thanks so much for the work you two have done on this.
>>> > We've been using u-boot on our PPC platforms for years and love it.
>>> > We're
>>> > considering moving to an Atom processor and wanted to continue to use
>>> > u-boot, but were worried about getting it up and running with the FSL
>>> > from
>>> > Intel so we haven't made the jump yet.  This is going to be a hugeleg up
>>> > in
>>> > my argument for actually getting that project off the ground.  If we do,
>>> > I'll be sure to be pushing out any work we do that isn't in the
>>> > mainline.
>>> >
>>> > Thanks again guys!
>>>
>>> Sounds good! What Atom are you using? It might be the same one as Bin.
>>
>> Not sure yet.  We had originally settled on the first one Intel put out, but
>> since we've waited so long and we're not locked in by design yet, we'll
>> probably pick a newer generation.  Our products tend to be in service for a
>> long time (upwards of 20 years) so we like to get as cutting edge as we can
>> without losing a finger :)
>
> I am currently working on patches to support Intel Atom E6xx with
> Platform Controller Hub EG20T. This Atom platform aims at the embedded
> market. More newer Atom would be Bay Trail, which is an SoC and I
> believe Simon is going to support that platform once he gets a board.
> The latest Atom would be Braswell. If Intel keeps open for the chipset
> datasheet, I think we can try to support that too. We will see.
>

That sound really interesting! My company is also using Intel Atom
E6xx based designs
and I would love to see u-boot/coreboot running on them. What is the
current state of your
work?

--
Christian Gmeiner, MSc

https://soundcloud.com/christian-gmeiner