Standarmization

[fehu]

Let me start by saying that I have almost no idea how arm's bios differ from x86's.

I've read that arm platforms are not standardized, and because of this there can't be a single common distribution of an os like android or windows 8/10.

Why?
Arm is becoming ubiquitous, so why theresn't any initiative to simplify the development of the vendor drivers?
This would increase the number of windows tablet, and alleviate the bulk of work to update a phone to the next android version.

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

ARM is only now transitioning to a firmware model similar to ACPI but we'll only be seeing it introduced in servers. Here's a good read about it: http://lwn.net/Articles/584123/

The simple reason is that ARM was till now only employed to embedded systems and all the specific drivers are simply compiled into a device's kernel due to simplicity and less effort. Why need to have dynamic drivers when your hardware never changes?

 

[fehu]

Maybe project ara will change something?

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

I'm not familiar with the software stack on that but I think I heard they're using some custom stuff?

 

[fehu]

They are starting almost from scratch with a different distribution to allow dynamic drivers loading for the plug and play

 

[asalspammer]

Vaio tap 13 fits that bill. It use full blown Intel cpu desktop class with fast (for Intel) Intel gpu (it's the one with edram if my memory are correct).

aliiii