In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Roy Schestowitz
<newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote
on Wed, 01 Mar 2006 16:33:15 +0000
<du4if4$9f5$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> Phoenix makes a compelling case for the Open Source BIOS
>
> http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=29963
>
> "BIOS GIANT Phoenix, the company responsible for the pieces of code saved on
> flash memory and which initialize our computers and interfaces to the
> hardware at the low level -even before the OS loads, is giving us plenty of
> reasons to support the case of an open source BIOS."
>
> Give us detailed schematic of the chips and that'll be an Open PC...
http://www.ameinfo.com/78676.html
might be a start. Admittedly, all this article does is
announce the concept.
Bear in mind that there's a lot more to a microprocessor
than a schematic, if one wants to maximize die yield
and reliability. (I used to work in the chip business
in the mid-to-late 80's, as a software engineer, but
shapes are shapes, whether they're abstract rectangles
making pretty pictures in a museum or representations
of fabrication instructions. However, the latter has
to take into account certain "design rules", among them
making sure shapes aren't too close together or prone to
ruination of the product because acid during etching pools
up in niches and makes the resulting fabrication too thin.
I'm not all that expert in this but I know there are those
out there who are.)
Bear also in mind the support chips; RAM in particular
needs some sort of driver so that the RAM bits don't
lose charge (a RAM bit is basically a cap on a MOSFET
transistor). Presumably, these won't be hard to design --
or we can use existing designs.
--
#191, ewill3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
It's still legal to go .sigless.
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