From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1759587AbXGXPGh (ORCPT ); Tue, 24 Jul 2007 11:06:37 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751856AbXGXPG3 (ORCPT ); Tue, 24 Jul 2007 11:06:29 -0400 Received: from embla.aitel.hist.no ([158.38.50.22]:42378 "EHLO embla.aitel.hist.no" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750737AbXGXPG2 (ORCPT ); Tue, 24 Jul 2007 11:06:28 -0400 Message-ID: <46A61163.3000701@aitel.hist.no> Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2007 16:49:07 +0200 From: Helge Hafting User-Agent: Icedove 1.5.0.10 (X11/20070329) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Andi Kleen CC: Uwe Hermann , Matt Mackall , "H. Peter Anvin" , Jonathan Campbell , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Patches for REALLY TINY 386 kernels References: <469A8AED.7070207@nerdgrounds.com> <469E3806.4030804@zytor.com> <20070718194137.GG11166@waste.org> <20070718201043.GF3898@one.firstfloor.org> <20070718204102.GM11115@waste.org> <20070720072730.GN3700@greenwood> <20070720073509.GA19833@one.firstfloor.org> In-Reply-To: <20070720073509.GA19833@one.firstfloor.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Andi Kleen wrote: >> Some people are putting Linux kernels in the "BIOS" (i.e. ROM chip) when >> using LinuxBIOS (www.linuxbios.org). It _does_ make a lot of difference >> there how big the kernel is. At the moment you can't do that with >> anything smaller than a 1 MB chip. But if people could use 512 KB chips >> because the kernel is small enough that would sure be a great thing. >> > > I'm sure it would be possibel to save a lot of text size. But I don't > think removing the relatively small CPUID code is the right way. > That is just a big maintenance issue for little gain. > Well - anyone compiling linux for BIOS usage is targetting a single machine. So an ability to target a single machine is useful, i.e. run the CPUID at compile-time, put the answer in a constant/macro, let the optimizer prune the alternatives. :-) Helge Hafting