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@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +skiboot +------- + +Firmware for OpenPower systems + +https://github.com/open-power/skiboot + +OPAL firmware (OpenPower Abstraction Layer) comes in several parts. + +A simplified flow of what happens when the power button is pressed is: + + 1) The baseboard management controller (BMC) powers the system on. + 2) The BMC selects the master chip and releases the self-boot engines (SBEs) + on the POWER8 chips, master last. + 3) The BMC relinquishes control of the flexible service interface (FSI) + SCAN/SCOM engines. + 4) The hostboot firmware IPLs the system. It initiates a secondary power-on + sequence through a digital power systems sweep (DPSS). + 5) The hostboot firmware loads the OPAL image and moves all processors to + their execution starting points. + +Here, the OPAL image is three parts: + 1) skiboot (includes OPAL runtime services) + 2) skiroot - the bootloader environment + a) kernel + b) initramfs (containing petitboot bootloader) + +They may be all part of one payload or three separate images (depending on +platform). + +The bootloader will kexec a host kernel (probably linux). The host OS can +make OPAL calls. A TODO item is to extensively document this API. + +See doc/overview.txt for a more in depth overview of skiboot. + + +Hacking +------- +You will need a C compiler (gcc 4.8) for ppc64 (big endian). +You will need a POWER8 system that you can deploy new firmware to. + +License +------- +See LICENSE + |