(Rather Late) Surprise: Intel has "PCI Expansion ROM OS" Implementation for Computer Cluster

For some reason I stumbled upon one of Intel's patent application: Cluster computing - nic based os provision WO 2012040606 A2. The patent application cited my BUILDING A ''KERNEL'' IN PCI EXPANSION ROM article as non-patent citation.

I had that thought back then, that some companies must've built (or will build) something usable out of the principle explained there. I'm actually rather surprised why it didn't happen earlier. Of course, we have etherboot and PXE-boot eons ago. However, there's no such complete OS, even though a very small one in PCI Expansion ROM. Well, perhaps one of the limitation is the cost of the ROM.

Anyway, the use case explained in the patent application is interesting nonetheless. Head over to the patent application to see more details. It's a good read ;)

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