direct BIOS access from Linux?

[Bill McGonigle]

On Oct 18, 2005, at 10:41, Paul Lussier wrote:

> But does anyone know if x86-based
> hardware and BIOSes have made *any* advance in this area in the last
> 5-20 years ?

Check out the EFI BIOS from Intel.  It's shipped on their Itanic 
machines and Apple's using it for their x86 machines.  The OpenFirmware 
'dudes' who know Sun and Mac BIOS say it's even better.  That may be a 
purely technical opinion and I'm not sure how it relates to software 
freedom (patents, etc.).

I don't know if you can get an x86 clone with EFI BIOS at this point, 
but Linux runs on Itanium so there must be some kernel support, even if 
it's in the wrong assembly at the moment.  If you find such a 
machine/mainboard in x86 please summarize.

-Bill

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