Editor’s Note: This is part of a multi-series blog from the GizmoSphere partners
It seems like yesterday, but it was more than a decade ago that I started down the road to believing in open source solutions. It started while I was working at AMD. We bootstrapped support for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program, which sought to put small laptops into the hands of children around the globe. In keeping with the mission, and to keep costs down, OLPC used open software in every aspect of the design.
At the time, proprietary BIOS solutions ruled the PC and server world, and so a number of us were introduced to coreboot®—the only open source firmware alternative for x86 processors. This led a lot of us into directions we might have not otherwise found, for instance coreboot became an important element in the open source firmware created by my company, SageBIOS.
Another of those directions led to the desire to create an open x86 development board, now found in the Gizmo 2.
Developers are drawn to x86 processing because of its rich software ecosystem and inherent backwards compatibility, and we want to create an ecosystem in which current and upcoming developers are unencumbered by hardware or the OS solution. We also want to open the firmware code to exciting new levels of customization while producing stable validated production-worthy solutions.
That’s an important element in embedded computing today: ARM-based development boards, such as Raspberry Pi, are built on processor architectures that are intrinsically more open and have open source firmware options. While many of us believe that x86 processors offer superior processing abilities, the architecture itself is proprietary, so open source solutions require specific promotion efforts or tools.
The OLPC experience was eye opening at AMD, helping shape a program to provide source code needed by open source developers for firmware solutions, which was known as AGESA, or AMD Generic Encapsulated Software Architecture. This was an attempt to scrub the proprietary aspects out of the source code, allowing for open development.
The firmware for the Gizmo 2 was built on this source code, allowing the SageBIOS to be expressly optimized, built and validated for the project. This firmware has intrinsic support for both 32- and 64-bit processing, extending its efficiency in software accommodation. That’s why the SageBIOS Open Source Package on Gizmo will allow users to boot almost any OS they desire, including Linux, Windows, RTOS, Solaries, Free DOS, and legacy DOS.
The time required to produce the AGESA source code subsequently became unwieldy, usually taking more than six months following the release of the processors. Subsequently, in order to more closely align open source firmware development with the release of the processors, AMD introduced the Binary PI in 2013, in which the code is released as a binary image.
That was about the same time as Intel beefed up its open source solutions, with the introduction of the Intel® Firmware Support Package (Intel® FSP). Like the AMD solution, the Intel FSP also is released as a binary image, protecting proprietary elements while enabling open source firmware development.
Intel has taken a slightly different path on its own development board, the MinnowBoard MAX, deciding to use its own UEFI firmware. However, open source alternatives are available through use of the Intel FSP, including using either coreboot or a free download of a SageBIOS solution.
The Gizmo board is important to the maker community. It opens that door to using x86 in new project concepts and has processing and graphic capability not found elsewhere. Simply put, Gizmo can take on computing tasks not appropriate for lower end development boards. And with the freedom of SageBIOS, the full range of operating systems and applications for x86 is available to explore.
The dream of bringing a laptop to the children of the world may have proven to be a bit much of a reach for its time, but for many of us, it remains an important milestone in providing the open solutions so important to the maker and developer community. This is an aspiration we cannot afford to forget in the x86 processing community.