Re:RISC-V: More Than a Core
by mjevans on Monday October 15, 2018 @07:04PM
(#18224793)
I'm not even sure where I'd look to find a platform target specification (and there SHOULD be a standard platform target).
Just basic things like:
* This is where the chip will try to run code if powered up/reset.
* A standard address and format for a "bios configuration" block, or pointer to one.
* Required standardized platform description.
Probably a lot of other things, but at least with the above a generic (if bloated) kernel could include the kitchen sink and bootstrap further according to the stored configuration.
Somewhat ideally the configuration should be in two blocks; a small 'read only' (or at least rarely updated) one, and the larger supplementary block that can be left erased without bricking the system (in fact, erasing it would be the 'simple' unbricking method, but it should have a shadow copy of the main block so that when re-programming that a partial erase/program might be recovered by the backup copy).
Just basic things like:
Probably a lot of other things, but at least with the above a generic (if bloated) kernel could include the kitchen sink and bootstrap further according to the stored configuration.Somewhat ideally the configuration should be in two blocks; a small 'read only' (or at least rarely updated) one, and the larger supplementary block that can be left erased without bricking the system (in fact, erasing it would be the 'simple' unbricking method, but it should have a shadow copy of the main block so that when re-programming that a partial erase/program might be recovered by the backup copy).