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Forth

Open Firmware (too, OpenBoot) occurs as devices-independent firmware (computer software which loads the operating system), developed by Sun Microsystems, and utilized inside post-NuBus PowerPC-based Apple Macintosh computers (though it may be dropped using Apple's transition to Intel processors), Sun Microsystems SPARC based workstations and servers, IBM POWER systems, and PegasosPPC systems, among others. In people computers, Open Firmware fulfills a equivalent tasks when BIOS does on PC computers.

These are accessed by the user by the Forth-based shell interface. Forth river occurs as right high level language. E.g. these are imaginable to program Open Firmware to solve a Tower of Hanoi problem. [http://www.kernelthread.com/publications/firmware/src/ofhanoi.txt]

These are described by IEEE standard IEEE-1275.

Advantages of Open Firmware
Because a Open Firmware Forth code is compiled into Fcode (a bytecode) & non into the machine language of any particular computer architecture, Open Firmware code included within, say, an I/O card may be executed by any body that utilizes Open Firmware. In that way, an I/O card might provide boot-instance diagnostics, configuration code, and device drivers that will exist as usable in any rules running off Open Firmware, letting several of the equivalent I/O cards to be utilized in Sun systems & Macintoshes.

Accessing Open Firmware
Open Firmware displays "ok" when its prompt.

In Sun systems, a Open Firmware interface is displayed on a console terminal before the bootstrapping of the patterns software program. Whenever The keyboard is attached, The independent display is utilized when the console terminal & Open Firmware may be re-entered at anytime by pressing Prevent-A (L1-A) on the keyboard. Whenever there is no keyboard is attached, so the 1st serial line on a body is commonly utilized when the console & Open Firmware is re-entered by sending a "Break" on the serial line. When a body computer software is going, various Open Firmware settings may be scan or even written using the eeprom command.

In Macintosh, a Open Firmware interface may be accessed by pressing a keys Cmd-Guide-O-F at startup. This functionality is usually exclusively utilized by developers; for most common users, a Mac OS X operating system provides a high level graphical user interface to change usually utilized Open Firmware settings. E.g., these are imaginable to specify the boot disk or partition without directly using the Open Firmware interface. More Open Firmware settings may be changed using the nvram command when a formulas software package is going.

In Pegasos, just click Esc at startup.

OpenBIOS
To be free, portable BIOS implementation, 100% IEEE 1275-1994. PCs have had BIOSes since the start. Since then, most have been DOS-specific, 16-bit, and real-mode, not something a modern OS such as Linux, BSD, or Hurd can use.

CodeGen, Inc.
Makes SmartFirmware, a portable, easily customized ANSI C implementation of IEEE-1275 Open Firmware standard. Designed to be very easy and fast to port. Demonstration version download.

FirmWorks
O-F products, services, documentation, training. The industry champion and leading provider. Invented the technology, and lead development of the IEEE 1275-1994 standard. Field proven, written in Forth.

Open Firmware Working Group
O-F is processor and system independent boot code: firmware. Read about O-F, the Working Group; several related documents; several links to mirror sites, Forth, vendors, documentation, news, and proposals.

What is Open Firmware?
O-F is done in Forth.

OpenFirmware.org
Brief description, links to software and system makers.

Tinyboot
Tiny Open Firmware (TOF) for Coldfire, 68K and 8031 processors.

Apple Open Firmware
Information about Apple's implementation of Open Firmware.