open bios/hardware, coreboot
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Simy
Jan 11, 2009, 1:03:58 AM1/11/09
to TheOpenGameConsoleConsortium
Last hardware specs I saw I didnt know if we could use coreboot
(formerly linuxbios), I was wondering if this time around we could use
a motherboard specificly made for coreboot, and preferably an open
graphics card. By open I mean one with open source drivers, or open
specs so open source drivers can be made. Not to mention we can just
avoid licensing issues all togeather, we can as a company stay away
from the entire issue, and if something is licensed and worth it
people will most likley use it anways on their own and unsupported.
Games themselves can also use licensed material provided they deal
with any/all license issues themselves, if it was worth it to them.
I'm not sure what licensed material anybody would want, but... ya
never know...
(formerly linuxbios), I was wondering if this time around we could use
a motherboard specificly made for coreboot, and preferably an open
graphics card. By open I mean one with open source drivers, or open
specs so open source drivers can be made. Not to mention we can just
avoid licensing issues all togeather, we can as a company stay away
from the entire issue, and if something is licensed and worth it
people will most likley use it anways on their own and unsupported.
Games themselves can also use licensed material provided they deal
with any/all license issues themselves, if it was worth it to them.
I'm not sure what licensed material anybody would want, but... ya
never know...
Simy
Jan 11, 2009, 5:09:00 AM1/11/09
to TheOpenGameConsoleConsortium
Well the old specs (assuming we move from GeForce 7, to GeForce 8
apparently have linux drivers, which I dont think are open source
though, but I believe that series was picked for a reason ;P
And the mobo is apparently a nogo with coreboot, go figure...
apparently have linux drivers, which I dont think are open source
though, but I believe that series was picked for a reason ;P
And the mobo is apparently a nogo with coreboot, go figure...
Derick Eisenhardt
Jan 11, 2009, 3:28:46 PM1/11/09
to og...@googlegroups.com
The specs are getting completely redone. Since I'm no longer worried about trying to have an actual console, and just a console like experience on your PC now, what is going to happen is there is going to be a minimum requirement to run the OS at all. Games won't have individual requirements...but the OS will. So once you know you can run the OS (and what level your system is ranked) you can run any game made for our system (and within your sytem level).
What we'll have is some sort of benchmarking suite you can run to test your system to see what level you are at. At first we will only have two levels available, 0 and 1. The level one systems is what developers will target with their games, and by using this level system I have planned developers won't have to worry too much with what hardware the gamer has, and the gamer will only have to know what level their system is ranked. A year or two down the road, we may release a new spec for a level 2 system, and then developers can target that, stick with 1, or support both. As for level 0, that means your machine doesn't make the grade for gaming, but it can still use our OS's media center functionality, and maybe handle some real basic solitare/bejewelled type games ;)
It's a bit messier than my original dream but I think this will work just as well, if not better. I just hope I'm even half way explaining the concept properly. So, yeah, to sum up....what's going to happen in a couple months when I have the money to build my machine: I'm gonna pick the base spec for a level 1 system. Then we will need to get a fairly precise benchmarking suite (possibly based off the one Phoronix.net has made), benchmark the base spec prototype, and from then on for a computer to count as a level one machine it will have to score equal to or better on every single test. Unfortunately for compatibility sake, even if your computer passes 99.9% of all the test...you still fail. It has to be 100% to pass. But the great thing this means is if I choose to go with one of the new AMD Phenom II processors about to come out and a Radeon HD 4850 (which is what I'm considering right now), once we get the benchmark system in place, people will be able to use an Intel chip, with an NVidia card too...as long as it makes the grade in performance. Using CoreBoot will just be an option (not a requirement) for our users...if they're motherboard supports it ;)
And if miraculously we ever find a manufacturer who wants to sell a prebuilt system to retail, all they have to do is pass the benchmark suite like anyone else and license our trademarked logos for certification.
The other really cool thing with this new way is that it will make it much easier to handle updating the OS and such I believe. Since I want to make a distro similar (if not forked from) Gobo Linux, we can have multiple versions of all our libraries that will always be available and non-conflicting no matter how many new releases we make. And since we can create new system levels for future hardware, it lets us become more of an always rolling release, rather than a rigid one time only ultra locked down platform as was the plan originally.
So, I know youre gung-ho to get started right now, but please just give me a couple months to build my machine and get all this layed out on paper (so to speak); then we can really start trying to get somewhere. For now, you should look into studying or trying out GoboLinux and/or Linux From Scratch. Also feel free to just make your own test/prototypes in Python and such since you said you don't really know any languages to well yet. Practice is important.
- Derick
What we'll have is some sort of benchmarking suite you can run to test your system to see what level you are at. At first we will only have two levels available, 0 and 1. The level one systems is what developers will target with their games, and by using this level system I have planned developers won't have to worry too much with what hardware the gamer has, and the gamer will only have to know what level their system is ranked. A year or two down the road, we may release a new spec for a level 2 system, and then developers can target that, stick with 1, or support both. As for level 0, that means your machine doesn't make the grade for gaming, but it can still use our OS's media center functionality, and maybe handle some real basic solitare/bejewelled type games ;)
It's a bit messier than my original dream but I think this will work just as well, if not better. I just hope I'm even half way explaining the concept properly. So, yeah, to sum up....what's going to happen in a couple months when I have the money to build my machine: I'm gonna pick the base spec for a level 1 system. Then we will need to get a fairly precise benchmarking suite (possibly based off the one Phoronix.net has made), benchmark the base spec prototype, and from then on for a computer to count as a level one machine it will have to score equal to or better on every single test. Unfortunately for compatibility sake, even if your computer passes 99.9% of all the test...you still fail. It has to be 100% to pass. But the great thing this means is if I choose to go with one of the new AMD Phenom II processors about to come out and a Radeon HD 4850 (which is what I'm considering right now), once we get the benchmark system in place, people will be able to use an Intel chip, with an NVidia card too...as long as it makes the grade in performance. Using CoreBoot will just be an option (not a requirement) for our users...if they're motherboard supports it ;)
And if miraculously we ever find a manufacturer who wants to sell a prebuilt system to retail, all they have to do is pass the benchmark suite like anyone else and license our trademarked logos for certification.
The other really cool thing with this new way is that it will make it much easier to handle updating the OS and such I believe. Since I want to make a distro similar (if not forked from) Gobo Linux, we can have multiple versions of all our libraries that will always be available and non-conflicting no matter how many new releases we make. And since we can create new system levels for future hardware, it lets us become more of an always rolling release, rather than a rigid one time only ultra locked down platform as was the plan originally.
So, I know youre gung-ho to get started right now, but please just give me a couple months to build my machine and get all this layed out on paper (so to speak); then we can really start trying to get somewhere. For now, you should look into studying or trying out GoboLinux and/or Linux From Scratch. Also feel free to just make your own test/prototypes in Python and such since you said you don't really know any languages to well yet. Practice is important.
- Derick
Simy
Jan 11, 2009, 9:35:33 PM1/11/09
to TheOpenGameConsoleConsortium
I could compile my own kernel (provided I know the system its going
on) and manually build a system, one source at a time... Perhaps even
use apt package manager, but I will look into Gobo Linux :)
On Jan 11, 3:28 pm, "Derick Eisenhardt" <derick.eisenha...@gmail.com>
wrote:
on) and manually build a system, one source at a time... Perhaps even
use apt package manager, but I will look into Gobo Linux :)
On Jan 11, 3:28 pm, "Derick Eisenhardt" <derick.eisenha...@gmail.com>
wrote:
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