Linux 5.10: Reveals Big Step Forward for RISC-V

The new code that is being introduced in the different versions of the Linux kernel reveals some very interesting hardware secrets. Now there is an important advance in Linux 5.10, and that is that it incorporates initial support for the UEFI boot process. This may seem absurd, since that is possible with ARM or x86, but it is not so much if we talk about that such support refers to the RISC-V architecture in this case.

The code for systems with RISC-V based chips to be able to boot with UEFI It will be on Linux 5.10, the first version to provide this feature for this type of hardware. That will open a lot of doors to RISC-V microprocessors, which can also be used in equipment with this firmware.

Some of the patches contributed to make this happen have come from the engineers of Western Digital, one of the members of the RISC-V Foundation (now RISC-V International). And although they were added in previous versions, it seems that in Linux 5.10 it can already be used initially. That means it will integrate early ioremap support, PE / COFF header, runtime services, etc.

That contribution for Linux 5.10 opens a window of opportunities, and it looks like more changes for RISC-V are coming to the kernel before the end of 2020, and they will be interesting too. This is how he joins the club in which IA-32 (x86-32), AMD64 or EM64T (x86-64), 32-bit ARM and 64-bit ARM were already there. Like it or not, the x86 ecosystem is the broadest and some other architectures are simply adapting to it out of necessity. So it is not surprising that ARM also did it in its day or that it also supported other parts of that x86 ecosystem such as ACPI, etc. RISC-V will follow similar steps if it wants to be on PC or HPC systems in the future ...