Suspended, if you will. [STOP]-A suspends the currently running "program"
(i.e. Solaris) and gives you an OBP prompt, at which point you can display
and modify memory, etc., then "go" to resume execution. Think of it as a
kernel debugger.
| Am I in the ballpark? Would such a thing HAVE to be in ROM?
+--->8
It doesn't have to be --- one could in theory bootstrap an Open Firmware
BIOS-replacement on a PC and then load an OS written to that spec. But it's
far more useful (and safer: you can't overwrite it by accident) when OF is
in ROM.
The biggest problem with the above "theory" is that the BIOS all too often
glosses over the bugs in the hardware.
| Are the ISA dodads in the following snip whole drivers?
+--->8
No, they are APIs. The driver itself is going to be specific to the actual
hardware; the point of OF is that at the OF level you don't need to know the
guts of the hardware, just that it supports the API for some device.
| I think one thing I don't get is, is there a Forth IN an O.F. compliant kerne
| l?
+--->8
No, you call out to the OF in the BIOS (which, unlike PC BIOSes, is designed
to be reentrant). OF is in essence a "BIOS" service (but without the
CP/M-oid restrictions PC BIOSes have).
-- brandon s. allbery [os/2][linux][solaris][japh] allbery@kf8nh.apk.net system administrator [WAY too many hats] allbery@ece.cmu.edu electrical and computer engineering KF8NH carnegie mellon university
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