> The majority of LinuxBIOS development to date has been for x86, followed
> by the Alpha. I am now wondering how far LinuxBIOS will extend to for
> other processors. For highest Gips and Gflops per watt, ARM and Mips
> based machines are leading the pack.
The first versions of linuxbios were based on openbios, which is lots of
assembly. We moved to a C-based BIOS (freebios), and wrote all subsequent
code in C for a reason: we want to port to as many processors as possible.
We can run on as many processors as Linux can run on, by definition.
> It makes sense to me to take advantage of the common structure, open
> source and modularity that LinuxBIOS is now evolving to for other x86.
Sure, that's why the tree is evolving to a good one for multiple
architectures. The Alpha DS10 port will have an impact in the next week.
> How far will LinuxBIOS go to support a wider range of platforms? Should
> legacy support for an OS that relies on it be a future option? How much
> sense does it now make with RedBoot being available? Any input,
> thoughts, rants or flames?
linuxbios will go as far as people take it. I don't get the legacy support
question. I looked at RedBoot, it's a different answer to a different
question, no real value to me.
i want linuxbios to run on anything I buy for clusters, and that's not
just x86 machines.
ron
