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Lecture

Booting and x86

Description

This lecture covers the process of booting a computer, starting from the power-on sequence to the handover to the operating system kernel. It explains the role of BIOS, the x86 architecture, memory referencing, I/O communication, and ATA commands. The lecture delves into topics such as the x86 registers, memory-mapped I/O, and the segmentation model in x86. It also discusses the implementation details of SeaBIOS, memory aliasing, and the physical memory layout. The lecture concludes with a review of the xv6 bootloader code and references to further resources.

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Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Computer engineering

Hardware engineering: Microprocessors

High-performance computing: Real-time computing

Related concepts (32)

X86

x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was introduced in 1978 as a fully 16-bit extension of Intel's 8-bit 8080 microprocessor, with memory segmentation as a solution for addressing more memory than can be covered by a plain 16-bit address.

X86 assembly language

x86 assembly language is the name for the family of assembly languages which provide some level of backward compatibility with CPUs back to the Intel 8008 microprocessor, which was launched in April 1972. It is used to produce object code for the x86 class of processors. Regarded as a programming language, assembly is machine-specific and low-level. Like all assembly languages, x86 assembly uses mnemonics to represent fundamental CPU instructions, or machine code.

X86-64

x86-64 (also known as x64, x86_64, AMD64, and Intel 64) is a 64-bit version of the x86 instruction set, first released in 1999. It introduced two new modes of operation, 64-bit mode and compatibility mode, along with a new 4-level paging mode. With 64-bit mode and the new paging mode, it supports vastly larger amounts of virtual memory and physical memory than was possible on its 32-bit predecessors, allowing programs to store larger amounts of data in memory.

Memory protection

Memory protection is a way to control memory access rights on a computer, and is a part of most modern instruction set architectures and operating systems. The main purpose of memory protection is to prevent a process from accessing memory that has not been allocated to it. This prevents a bug or malware within a process from affecting other processes, or the operating system itself. Protection may encompass all accesses to a specified area of memory, write accesses, or attempts to execute the contents of the area.

Memory-mapped I/O and port-mapped I/O

Memory-mapped I/O (MMIO) and port-mapped I/O (PMIO) are two complementary methods of performing input/output (I/O) between the central processing unit (CPU) and peripheral devices in a computer (often mediating access via chipset). An alternative approach is using dedicated I/O processors, commonly known as channels on mainframe computers, which execute their own instructions. Memory-mapped I/O uses the same address space to address both main memory and I/O devices.

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Related concepts (32)

X86

X86 assembly language

X86-64

Memory protection

Memory-mapped I/O and port-mapped I/O