Have you ever heard about LinuxBIOS ?
Yes, easy to guess ! It's a BIOS powered by Linux.
Most of us using normal BIOS in our computers, and some of us tried EFI which is used in MAC computers, These days, LinuxBIOS is also going to being popular, but there is a long way to real success
You can read the interview with Ronald G Minnich, the creator of LinuxBIOS here.

If you will have Hardware Projects in near future, don't forget LinuxBIOS. It could be useful.