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Date:      Wed, 29 Mar 2000 14:22:56 -0700 (MST)
From:      "Ronald G. Minnich" <rminnich@lanl.gov>
To:        hackers@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: How good a job of PCI config will freebsd do? 
Message-ID:  <Pine.LNX.4.20.0003291419580.2692-100000@mini.acl.lanl.gov>
In-Reply-To: <200003292101.NAA00799@mass.cdrom.com>

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On Wed, 29 Mar 2000, Mike Smith wrote:
> Yeep.  You don't know Fra Dolcini, do you?  That looks like a Really 
> Unpleasant Undertaking. 8(

It's getting there. Also SiS is now a supporter. Long term, we may see
motherboards specifically designed for the OSS community, with real docs
yet. Also, I can't see any way to get to 3-second reboot (one of the
things we need) given the stupid way BIOSes work. PXE is not an answer. 

> cluster hardware over for a pile of IA64 boxes just yet, but it strikes 
> me that it'd be easier just to write a userland flash updater than to 
> rewrite the BIOS from scratch. 8)

You haven't look at how intel designs and documents some of their
motherboards, particularly the L440GX+. They won't tell people what they
need to know to update flash on this one. Result: you have to boot DOS to
upgrade flash. Stupid of them. 

Also, there are an amazing number of advantages to having a real OS in the
flash. Once you start thinking about it, it becomes hard to live without.

ron



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