A removable BIOS? [LWN.net]

A removable BIOS?

Posted Aug 31, 2006 21:25 UTC (Thu) by thomask (guest, #17985)
In reply to: The OLPC and BIOS upgrades by hamjudo
Parent article: The OLPC and BIOS upgrades

As an additional measure, how about using removable media (like an SD card or something) for the BIOS? That would at least mean that if the system got bricked you'd only have to replace a small and cheap piece of hardware, rather than a large and expensive one.

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A removable BIOS?

Posted Sep 7, 2006 14:55 UTC (Thu) by jimwelch (guest, #178) [Link]

I like this idea. Just like the memory card in my phone, cheap connector, cheap card, Small (looks like a credit card when shiped). I don't know if the final design has a place to put it, like a battery compartment on a real laptop. What is the storage capacity on a phone card? What is the standard?

A removable BIOS?

Posted Sep 11, 2006 22:15 UTC (Mon) by jg (subscriber, #17537) [Link]

Sockets cost money.... We have such a socket on the development boards.

But it turns out that if the embedded controller code, stored in the
same flash that the BIOS is stored in, is trashed, the board doesn't
even power up enough to be able to use a PLCC Flash part. (The
embedded controller is responsible for battery and other
power control in the machine). We've done this
(once).

You *REALLY* don't want to have the BIOS rom completely trashed. Recovery
at that point may require complex stuff talking to the embedded controller,
and is so painful we decided when we managed to do this once it wasn't
worth even trying to fix the board.