Subject: Re: PCI I/O address allocation
To: Todd Whitesel <toddpw@best.com>
From: Erik E. Fair <fair@clock.org>
List: tech-kern
Date: 11/29/1998 01:54:00
I'm no fan of Forth, but having an interpreted language for machine
independent device drivers in PROMs on the devices (where the interpreter
lives on the system motherboard) makes perfect sense; it also helps with a
wide variety of configuration parameters, and makes any system using it
self-describing.

Anyone working in that area should simply adopt OpenBoot Firmware and be
done with it; I'd be surprised if there were a better, machine-independent
solution. Unless, of course, these OpenBIOS people don't want to be machine
independent. If they need convincing, I'd pressure the periperal
manufacturers - they're the ones who have the economic incentive for as
wide a market for their peripherals as possible.

To put it more simply: another "standard" in this area is unnecessary, and
unwanted.

	Erik <fair@clock.org>