GSoC 2018 - x86_64 BSP and port and introduction

[Amaan Cheval]

Hi everyone!

I'm Amaan, and I'll be working on the RTEMS BSP and port for the x86_64
architecture, with the aim of dropping support for legacy features which
have proved hard to maintain for the Intel x86 (i386) architecture - the
specifics of this process will likely depend on how complete a replacement
the x86_64 port is in comparison to the i386 one, but here are some of the
features I'm aiming for during the course of this summer:

- Support for UEFI
- Minimal APIC support
- Context-switching
- Console driver to allow the use of serial ports
- Little to no ACPI support (since little will be required to get the port
functional - may be added if it's relatively low-effort)

The specifics of my project plan can be found in my proposal[1] - I highly
appreciate all feedback you may be able to offer!

If you're using the existing i386 BSPs, I'd also be interested to know your
target use-case and which features you think are key for your application.

If you'd like to keep up with the status of the project, you'll likely hear
about more updates on the devel at rtems.org mailing list, and slightly more
rarely on my blog[2]. There's a wiki page for the project too[3], which
will act as a rolling status and eventually documentation for the project.

Let me know if any of you have any ideas or feedback! Feel free to clarify
anything that you find unclear or misguided. :)

Cheers!

[1]
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X79Yj0DNqvaDFqpJMUX4gF3WC550GDvVDS5QufvAnFE/edit#
[2] https://blog.whatthedude.com/
[3] https://devel.rtems.org/wiki/GSoC/2018/x86_64_BSP