Re: [patch] SMP alternatives

[Andi Kleen <ak@suse.de>]

On Thu, Nov 24, 2005 at 02:48:25PM -0800, thockin@hockin.org wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 24, 2005 at 11:12:14PM +0000, Alan Cox wrote:
> > On Iau, 2005-11-24 at 20:14 +0100, Andi Kleen wrote:
> > > I proposed something like that - best with an ASCII string
> > > ("First DIMM on the top left corner") But getting such stuff into BIOS 
> > > is difficult and long winded.
> > 
> > Propose it the desktop management people and get it into the DMI
> > standard. They already have entries for each memory slot, they already
> > have entries for descriptive strings for connectors. In fact you may
> > well be able to 'bend' the spec enough to do it as is.
> 
> There are enough fields that maybe one of them is loose enough to mean
> this.  It doesn't help us convince mobo vendors to support it, though.

With arbitary desktop/laptop/etc. vendors it's pretty hopeless I agree.
But I suspect there is a chance at least on the server side. There
is only a limited number of companies working on server BIOSes 
for their boards and they tend to be more receptive to Linux's need
because it's now a significant part of their market.

And it's clearly an obviously useful "RAS feature" which is
fully buzzword compatible and everything.

IMHO it's time that Linux gets more proactive regarding talking
to BIOS vendors. Perhaps a generic "BIOS writers guide for Linux"
would be a good thing.  I have at least one other extension I would like
BIOS vendors to support. Just would need to come up with a writeup
for a clearly defined specification.

-Andi