Booting Atom SoC - Alder Lake - Clarification

[MartinGarrison]

Hi, I'm interested in booting an Atom x7000 SoC into Linux and would like some clarification based on what I've read. Apologies if my assumptions are false. 

I'm mostly familiar with the following high-level SoC boot flow: Turn power on to SoC > Power on reset > Boot ROM > First Stage Bootloader > Second Stage Bootloader (If exists) > OS boot (Linux, android etc.)

Does Slimbootloader (SBL) https://slimbootloader.github.io/index.html act as a first stage bootloader in this bootflow? Since from documentation it appears to be able to boot into U-boot which would act as a 2nd stage bootloader. Or directly into an OS.

SBL is required to be stitched into an IFWI (intel Firmware Image). Are IFWIs available to the public?

What are the alternatives to using SBL? 

Is it possible to by-pass SBL and just boot the SoC into U-boot directly?

Kind regards,
Martin

[Diego_INTEL]

Hello @MartinGarrison,

Thank you for contacting Intel Embedded Community.

My apologies for the delay in the response. 

Well, yes but you may install Linux directly with the BIOS firmware that comes as default, we usually just run the installer of Windows or Ubuntu to the attached drive and works fine.

The SBL is commonly used for more specific designs, but for general use you don't have to touch this.

Also, here is the Ubuntu implementation.

https://slimbootloader.github.io/how-tos/boot-ubuntu.html

There is a repository with public FSP files if you want to check:

https://github.com/intel/fsp

Best regards,

@Diego_INTEL