The reason I'm curious is because *all* PCs, even mighty P-4's, start off in 8086-compatibility mode when reset - you have to enable all the advanced (post-286) stuff by writing into a CPU register. So it's possible that you only need 8086 mode to init the graphics card...
Correct, as far as I see it. Thats the reason it can actually be contained together with the rest of the code in a small flashrom :-)
And to Seehund et al:
You obviously have no clue. Hyperion actually made the firmware by request from MAI. MAI already had an outstanding contract with another company to make ppcboot work on the Teron series. They didn't deliver the goods, so Hyperion took over. After a few days of discussions it apparently turned out that instead of writing a forth interpreter, integrating an existing 8086 emulator into the system would be a lot better. So it was done. The codebase is based on ppcboot 1.1.6, but as someone mentioned, they don't have to give out code to anyone until things are actually released you won't be playing with it yet. And you won't be able to make a ppcboot flashrom that can run amigaos, only Linux. Because the rom on the amigaone will still contain extra code not linked into ppcboot that AOS4 will check for. But you will be able to buy a linux-only board and improve the firmware (if that is even possible, after the Friedens have been there before you :-P ). Be ware that GPL does NOT imply "downloadable from web".
