Design
Coreboot usually loads a Linux kernel, but it can load any other stand-alone ELF executable, such as Etherboot, which can boot Linux over a network, or SeaBIOS, which can load Linux, Microsoft Windows 2000 and later, and *BSD (previously, Windows 2000/XP and OpenBSD support was provided by ADLO). Coreboot can also load almost any operating system from any supported device, such as Myrinet, Quadrics, or SCI cluster interconnects. Some OSes (such as Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 and *BSD) require legacy BIOS functions which are provided by SeaBIOS.
A feature of coreboot is that the x86 version runs in 32-bit mode after executing only ten instructions (almost all other x86 BIOSes run exclusively in 16-bit mode). This is similar to the modern UEFI firmware, which is used on Intel-based Macintosh computers and other newer PC hardware.
Coreboot can boot other kernels, or pass control to a boot loader to boot a kernel/image instead. It can also boot a Plan 9 from Bell Labs kernel directly. A coreboot-capable version of GNU GRUB 2 exists.
By default, coreboot does not provide BIOS call services. A payload called SeaBIOS can be used to provide BIOS calls and thus allow coreboot to load operating systems that require those services, however most modern operating systems access hardware in another manner and only use BIOS calls during early initialization and as a fallback mechanism.
Read more about this topic: Coreboot
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