Ollie Lho wrote:
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> I'm a developer for an embedded computer manufacturer - RadiSys. I'm
>> looking for a quick way to get Linux running on our embedded x86 platforms.
>> Typically, we engineer the hardware platform to be "pc compatible" and
>> throw a BIOS onto the board to complete its PC-ness, however, some of our
>> platforms are not PCs even though they use PC chipsets (Intel BX's and.
>> Serverworks).
>
>
> Does PC == x86 and non-PC == non-x86 in your question ??
> or
> PC == x86 PC and non-PC == x86 customized ??
>
> Ollie
If its LinuxBIOS for non x86 systems that use bootloaders like Angel and
Blob for StrongArm as well as Arc for Mips we've already looked at it
and it would fit right in so you could take advantage of the common
netboot across different platforms. Though there's no working code yet
that I'm aware of.
The answer to your question is the latter. We're using x86's, however,
in many instances they're not wired as PCs and may or may not be using PC
chipsets. For instance, one of our designs uses a custom southbridge chip
that conflicts with typical PC compatible peripherals - if I remember
correctly, this specific ASIC also doesn't use an 8259 compatible interrupt
controller.
x86 init is the same since it falls back to 8086 after reset. You'd just
have to write your own init for your custom north/south bridge parts.
The rest is up to you to make whatever kernel you jump to work with your
non-PC standard I/O's, IRQ's and memory maps.
Bari
