Hello, On Thu, May 03, 2007 at 08:41:05PM +0200, Sébastien Hinderer wrote: > Does it mean that every hope is lost,
Not yet. > would it be possible to use an external BIOS to do the development, Yes, but it must then replace the flash chip soldered to the mainboard, so the original chip has to be desoldered. Also the required equipment for this (a ROM emulator) is currently a bit expensive at a few hundred dollars. However, the FLASH-PLAICE which is being developed around a $150 hardware platform could be used once the software and firmware for the PLAICE is ready. On Thu, May 03, 2007 at 08:47:50PM +0200, Samuel Thibault wrote: > This is indeed a Geode GX1 system (though there is a lot of stuff > around it). Did you happen to take a photo of it? > The chip most probably responsible for holding the BIOS is labelled > AM28F040B-90ED Yep, this is a 4Mbit == 512kb flash chip from our friends at AMD. > and is indeed soldered on the board through very thin pins. Could you identify the packaging? Please see: http://linuxbios.org/FAQ#How_do_I_identify_the_BIOS_chip_on_my_mainboard.3F >From "very thin" I suspect that it's a TSOP, but please check anyway. Reworking TSOP chips without the right tools is no fun, but it can be done even with just a very warm soldering iron, and if the chip doesn't have to be re-used it's even easier. (Just cut off all the pins and then use any soldering iron and a soldering wick to clean up all the pins and the solder that held them to the mainboard.) There are TSOP sockets that could be installed where the chip used to be, but I haven't found them available in smaller quantities than what would cost a few $100. (Maybe segor.de have some though.) //Peter -- linuxbios mailing list [email protected] http://www.linuxbios.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
