Dell Latitude D820 - BIOS doesn't register HPET in ACPI Namespace?!?

Ok, I've been investigating an issue that comes up in non-Windows operating systems where certain kernel features require the presence of an HPET device (High Performance Event Timer). This is a very common device in modern systems and is frequently used to manage the scheduling of multiple processors and cores.

Unfortunately, it seems that many Dell system BIOS revisions don't appear to register the HPET device in the ACPI namespace as device "PNP0103" even though it is present, functional, and even appears to be entered into the ACPI tables. As a result, some operating systems are not detecting the device without the implementation of some ugly hacks at the kernel level.

Is my diagnosis correct and the Dell BIOS (Dell Latitude D820 BIOS rev. A07) *not* registering this device in the ACPI Namespace as PNP0103?

Is there any chance that in a future BIOS revision this device may be properly registered in the main system bus scope as device "PNP0103" as outlined in the HPET specification? Until such time that the BIOS registers this device, is there a known workaround for getting plug and play operating systems to detect this device without hacking the kernel?