From owner-freebsd-alpha Sat Dec 4 22:30: 9 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org Received: from most.weird.com (most.weird.com [204.92.254.2]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E7306151A8 for ; Sat, 4 Dec 1999 22:30:03 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from woods@most.weird.com) Received: (1409 bytes) by most.weird.com via sendmail with P:stdio/R:bind_hosts/T:inet_zone_bind_smtp (sender: ) id for alpha@FreeBSD.ORG; Sun, 5 Dec 1999 01:29:15 -0500 (EST) (Smail-3.2.0.110-Pre 1999-Oct-27 #9 built 1999-Dec-2) Message-Id: Date: Sun, 5 Dec 1999 01:29:15 -0500 (EST) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: woods@most.weird.com (Greg A. Woods) To: port-alpha@netbsd.org, alpha@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Q: Compaq, *BSD and 'Linux-only' AlphaBIOS (fwd) In-Reply-To: <199912050441.UAA18061@lestat.nas.nasa.gov> References: <199912050441.UAA18061@lestat.nas.nasa.gov> X-Mailer: VM 6.74 under Emacs 20.3.1 Reply-To: port-alpha@NetBSD.ORG (NetBSD/alpha Discussion List), alpha@FreeBSD.ORG Organization: Planix, Inc.; Toronto, Ontario; Canada Sender: owner-freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org [ On Saturday, December 4, 1999 at 20:41:01 (-0800), Jason Thorpe wrote: ] > Subject: Re: Q: Compaq, *BSD and 'Linux-only' AlphaBIOS (fwd) > > Ah! But it's not microcode! :-) > > It's written in the same instructions that you and I as appliation > and kernel developers write code in, plus a few that can only be > executed while in the PAL mode (PAL == Privileged Architecture Library; > it runs in a separate privilege level even higher than kernel privilege). Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyou! I've been brain-stuck on the thought that "PAL" had something to do with programmable array logic! Silly me! ;-) -- Greg A. Woods +1 416 218-0098 VE3TCP Planix, Inc. ; Secrets of the Weird To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-alpha" in the body of the message