On Sun, 15 Nov 1998, Martin Mares wrote:
> > [[ It's possible for the kernel to have intimate knowledge of the
> > motherboard chipset and do the same thing that the BIOS does, but the kernel
> > cannot know how every motherboard is wired c.f the recent APIC code. So
> > the short answer "no" is pretty much accurate. ]]
>
> Actually, several PCI BIOSes support a "remap IRQ" call and the kernel PCI
> code could call it. I think I'll try to play with it a bit.
Yes, I know about this PCI BIOS interface. It's designed so that Windows
can use old 16-bit real-mode drivers in isolated DOS boxes. (It's related
to one of the meanings of "PnP OS" in the BIOS setup.)
We shouldn't propose it as a solution because:
It doesn't exist on many BIOSes.
The interface is *very* complicated
Because the BIOS must build and preserve large complicated structures,
some implementation likely don't work with non-Windows OSes
Donald Becker [EMAIL PROTECTED]
USRA-CESDIS, Center of Excellence in Space Data and Information Sciences.
Code 930.5, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. 20771
301-286-0882 http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/people/becker/whoiam.html
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