On Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 10:42:56PM +0100, Michelle Konzack wrote: > Am 2008-10-29 00:39:40, schrieb Ben Hutchings: > > How exactly do you propose to load the firmware, if not through a JTAG > > port? Back in the world of production hardware which Debian runs on, > > ASICs tend to have power-on-reset logic built-in... > > Most PCI hardware has a very small bootloader which checks some signals > on the PCI bus... I have a book about it but no time to read in since > it is very complicated... PCI (Express) hardware has to be able to initialise at least the bus interface and PCI config space at power-on reset. That includes board- specific information like subsystem IDs. The network controllers I work with can initialise their config registers either from built-in ROM or from external EEPROM or flash, selected by strap pins. Production boards always initialise from flash; thankfully no-one expects to be able to remove flash from NICs as they need to provide PXE boot code to the host. Ben. -- Ben Hutchings It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Albert Einstein
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