Difference between revisions of "OpenPOWER Firmware"

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(Undo revision 1160, I didn't know about FSI)
(clarify that on TalosII boards the FSI debugging interface is used to override the normal POWER9 boot sequence)
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# SBE executes [[OTPROM|OTPROM]], which loads SEEPROM firmware into SBE PIBMEM
 
# SBE executes [[OTPROM|OTPROM]], which loads SEEPROM firmware into SBE PIBMEM
 
# SBE executes SEEPROM firmware
 
# SBE executes SEEPROM firmware
# [[OpenBMC|OpenBMC]] starts SBE
+
# [[OpenBMC|OpenBMC]] uses [[FSI|FSI]] interface to start SBE
 
# [[Self-Boot Engine|SBE]] loads Hostboot   
 
# [[Self-Boot Engine|SBE]] loads Hostboot   
 
# [[Hostboot|Hostboot]] loads Skiboot
 
# [[Hostboot|Hostboot]] loads Skiboot

Revision as of 17:17, 30 July 2018

OpenPOWER Firmware is an open-source alternative to OpenFirmware and proprietary IBM firmware used on Power machines.[1] It is a general name for many separate pieces of software used to start recent Power Architecture chips made by IBM.[2]

OpenBMC is a separate project that creates firmware for the Baseboard Management Controller.

Components

Firmware Executed on Loaded from Function
OTPROM SBE core (on CPU chip) eFuses
  • very first instructions executed
  • loads SBE firmware from SEEPROM into SBE core
Self-Boot Engine (SBE) SBE core (on CPU chip) SEEPROM
  • initialises CPU core
  • loads Hostboot
Hostboot CPU core SPI Flash
  • loads Skiboot
  • inits DRAM (zeroing for ECC mem.), Processor Bus, Memory buffer
Skiboot CPU core
  • implements OpenPOWER Abstraction Layer (OPAL) for OS runtime services
  • setup PCIe, device tree, real time clock, NVlink, sensors
  • loads Petitboot, OCC
Petitboot CPU core
  • boot menu
  • loads operating system
On-Chip Controller (OCC) OCC core (on CPU chip)
  • thermal regulation on CPU chip

Process

  1. SBE executes OTPROM, which loads SEEPROM firmware into SBE PIBMEM
  2. SBE executes SEEPROM firmware
  3. OpenBMC uses FSI interface to start SBE
  4. SBE loads Hostboot
  5. Hostboot loads Skiboot
  6. Skiboot loads OCC, Petitboot
  7. Petitboot loads the operating system
  8. operating system talks to firmware through OPAL

References

See also

External Links