linux-kernel - Re: Patches for REALLY TINY 386 kernels

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Message-ID: <46A61163.3000701@aitel.hist.no>
Date:	Tue, 24 Jul 2007 16:49:07 +0200
From:	Helge Hafting <helge.hafting@...el.hist.no>
To:	Andi Kleen <andi@...stfloor.org>
CC:	Uwe Hermann <uwe@...mann-uwe.de>, Matt Mackall <mpm@...enic.com>,
	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>,
	Jonathan Campbell <jon@...dgrounds.com>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Patches for REALLY TINY 386 kernels

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
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