LinuxBIOS 2-2742

LinuxBIOS project is aimed at replacing the normal BIOS with a little bit of hardware initialization and a compressed Linux kernel that can be booted from a cold start. The project was started as part of clustering research work in the Cluster Reseach Lab at the Advanced Computing Laboratory at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The primary motivation behind the project was the desire to have the operating system gain control of a cluster node from power on. Other beneficial consequences of using LinuxBIOS include needing only two working motors to boot (cpu fan and power supply), fast boot times (current fastest is 3 seconds), and freedom from proprietary (buggy) BIOS code, to name a few. These secondary benefits are numerous and have helped gain support from many vendors in both the high performance computing as well as embedded computing markets. Note that, on newer systems, there need be no moving parts at all. At LANL, we are building a new no moving parts 16-node cluster to demonstrate this capability. The cluster will fit in a toolbox, run from a battery, boot in 10 seconds, and be controlled from your laptop (which, sadly, will still have a few moving parts). Whats New in This Release: - This release adds preliminary support for M50FW040, M29W040B, M50FLW040A, M50FLW040B, M50FLW080A, M50FLW080B, M50FW080, M50FW016, M50LPW116, and M29W010B (all by ST) to flash ROM..

Requirements:	No special requirements
Platforms:	Linux
Keyword:	Bit,  Boot,  Cluster,  Hardware,  Linuxbios,  Little,  Little Bit,  Normal,  Project,  System
Users rating:	0/10