[edk2-devel] Multi-ISA Driver Compatibility Survey

["Rebecca Cran" <rebecca@bsdio.com>]

Originally posted at 
https://twitter.com/UEFIForum/status/1745518769232077208

The Multi-ISA Driver Compatibility Survey is at 
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScXjwaSBgLeqB1coEDxCPxho5JWF3AMqshOTJ2wd6Tf0He4LA/viewform

 From that page:

Did you know Tiano today supports four 64-bit architectures, yet plug-in 
device OpRoms are still mostly limited to x64 and CSM? While 
binary-translation approaches are a useful stop-gap solution for both 
AArch64 and RV64 ecosystems, we need a common approach that is not a 
technical debt nightmare and that will be adopted by IHVs and endorsed 
by OSVs.

The  Multi-ISA Driver Compatibility talk went over some of the possible 
approaches, as a lead-in for an open discussion, and raised the 
long-term importance of solving cross-architecture compatibility issues 
for OpRom drivers.

This survey is an opportunity provide feedback to guide further 
exploration in this space.

The discussed options were:

- Do nothing. This is an IHV problem. IHV should continue shipping 
support for whatever architectures they deem necessary.
- Resurrect EFI Byte Code. Invest in compilers and tooling (e.g. 
addr2line, JIT, etc) to get parity with existing native drivers.
- Look at WASM, and solve tooling constraints (around sandboxing) that 
prevent adoption.
- eBPF, and solve tooling constraints (around sandboxing) that prevent 
adoption.
- Constrained, well-defined subset of x64. This meets IHVs half-way by 
avoiding significant perturbations to existing driver development and 
release processes, and achieves compatibility with existing x64 systems 
in the market "for free", while addressing most of the concerns around 
binary translation of x64 code.

Note: the last three options (WASM, eBPF and constrained x64) are not 
neutral with respect to host natural register width, which will mean a 
break in compatibility with future TBD 128-bit environments, unless a 
TBD OpRom sandboxing technology is invented.

Note 2: emails and names/sign-ins are not collected, this is an 
anonymous response.



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