There's An Effort By A System76 Engineer To Bring Coreboot To Newer AMD Platforms

[herman]

Of course we do not know if Apple will even be successful with this move but I'm honestly cheering them on. Not so much that I have huge love for Apple but rather if they have the success that I think is possible maybe other vendors will realize that ARM is viable as a laptop processor.

In the case of System 76; I'd rather that they would be working on an ARM based solution for Linux but if it takes Apple to show the rest of the industry the way then so be it. So far every ARM based laptop I've seen, has left me thinking that is the most half assed thing somebody could dream up.

Based on what I'm seeing, the switch to ARM will be inevitable. Intel's stock just plunged today as analysts concluded that their roadmap is hopeless. This is more of a defeat for Intel than it is a victory for AMD. Meanwhile, ARM hasn't even seriously tried to enter the desktop market yet. That will be Apple's job first, and then other companies like Samsung and Microsoft may feel compelled to compete.

[chithanh]

wizard69 herman
There is more truth to this than many people think. Industry insider Jean-Louis Gassée has written on this topic, that if Apple's ARM devices are a serious improvement over what x86 offers, they have the potential to disrupt the x86 market.

Specifically, what are Dell, HP, Asus, and others going to do if Apple offers materially better laptops and desktops and Microsoft continues to improve Windows on ARM Surface devices? In order to compete, PC manufacturers will have to follow suit, they’ll “go ARM” because, all defensive rhetoric aside, Apple and Microsoft will have made the x86 architecture feel like what it actually is: old.

This won’t happen overnight and there will be an interesting mess of x86 and ARM SoC machines fighting it out in the marketplace. Large organizations need continuity and would balk at the prospect of servicing two kinds of Windows machines and apps. As usual, they’ll downplay Apple’s advantage and curse Microsoft for causing trouble. But if the newer machines are actually better, rogue members within these organizations will sneak in new devices and software; they always do.

https://mondaynote.com/apple-silicon-the-passing-of-wintel-79a5ef66ad2b

[Terrablit]

Am I the only one who doesn't care about coreboot/libreboot? What's the point of booting a linux kernel to boot my linux kernel? All I want a BIOS/UEFI to do is give me a F1/F8/F10/whatever button to press and a menu so I can choose my boot device and set my memory speeds.

There's always been the possibility of coreboot payloads evolving to allow a more traditional BIOS/UEFI interface, but without the periodic vendor flubs, disabled functionality and whatnot. Open firmware with a UI for frequencies featureset and management, HW monitoring, a built-in mem tester or an option to add internal USB drive partitions to a recovery tab, etc could be a *really* powerful tool for consumers. I haven't checked coreboot payloads and UIs recently, but I'm pretty sure we're not there yet.

Not to mention, AMD apparently left ECC memory support enablement to BIOS vendors on a lot of their Ryzen chips. Coreboot could really add a lot of value in scenarios like that. As could coreboot with IPMI/OPMA integration, as a lot of servers have issues with their IPMI implementations. I'd *love* to see firmware integration with a potential PCIe IPMI card make it into a standard. That'd be a *huge* push for the server market that could filter down to consumers.

Furthermore, if coreboot can gain enough momentum, there's a fair chance that, together with vendors, it can be the new default firmware. Which would bring everyone forward. I mean, it can be used to boot another OS like Windows, too. Open firmware moving us away from proprietary AMI and Phoneix BIOS shit would be a major win.

Keep in mind that not every contribution results in a direct revolution. Sometimes you've got to wait for the grains of sand to pile up before it changes the scales.

[drakonas777]

Guys, don't be naive. Apple won't give a f*** about Linux. The best "support" you can expect from them is maybe not artificially limiting/locking a boot for other OS, but even that I really doubt. What, do you think they will upstream Apple SoCs-specific drivers/code (accelerators support and stuff)? Not gonna happen.

[dibal]

wizard69 herman
There is more truth to this than many people think. Industry insider Jean-Louis Gassée has written on this topic, that if Apple's ARM devices are a serious improvement over what x86 offers, they have the potential to disrupt the x86 market.

https://mondaynote.com/apple-silicon...l-79a5ef66ad2b

HW-Vendors would love machines which are completely locked and looks like a jail which enforces you to buy a new machine every 2 years because of dropped support.

[ossuser]

bridgman : Any chance AMD will help with this initiative ?

[CochainComplex]

Am I the only one who doesn't care about coreboot/libreboot? What's the point of booting a linux kernel to boot my linux kernel? All I want a BIOS/UEFI to do is give me a F1/F8/F10/whatever button to press and a menu so I can choose my boot device and set my memory speeds.

the gentle forum reader might be able to use google or any searchengine of choice to figure out this difficult question....
Assuming you have been in a hurry ....please find the answer here

https://www.coreboot.org/FAQ#Why_do_we_need_coreboot.3F

[bridgman]

bridgman : Any chance AMD will help with this initiative ?

AFAIK we are providing AGESA source code access, docco and support. I'm not aware of any plans to supply developers outside of that though.

[mmstick]

bridgman : Any chance AMD will help with this initiative ?

They've provided all the documentation necessary for making this happen. Now it's just a matter of plugging everything together and releasing a product.