The Processor's Role in Today's Systems
Processor Activities at Startup
Refer to Figure 1-2 on page 14. At boot time, the processor performs the following functions:
Fetches and executes the system's Power-On Self-Test (POST) program from the boot ROM.
Reads the OS loader program from mass storage.
Executes the OS loader program which loads the remainder of the OS kernel into system memory. The OS loader then hands control over to the OS kernel.
Executes the OS kernel startup code which completes the setup of the OS and loads the loadable device drivers associated with the installed devices into memory. As each loadable device driver is loaded into system memory, the OS calls the driver's initialization code in order to complete the setup of the ...
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