| SRM stands for "System Reference Manual". Or more specifically, the Alpha AXP
System Reference Manual. The manual itself is divided into three major
sections: common architecture, PAL code architecture (one subsection each
for UNIX, OVMS, and NT), and finally the Console Interface Architecture.
ARC is a defunct consortium of a small number of hardware manufacturers.
I forget exactly what the acronym stands for. Anyway the one thing we got
out of it was the console that NT requires. You probably already understand
that NT doesn't/can't use the SRM console, and that UNIX/OVMS can't use
the ARC console. So for this reason we have both in those machines that
support all three OS's. If you want to light a fire, go into the AlphaStation
conference and ask why this persists... :-)
I believe the ARC acronym is itself falling out of favor, having been
replaced by the term "Alpha BIOS".
-- Farrell
[Posted by WWW Notes gateway]
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| As defined in the Alpha Architecture Handbook:
A Privileged Architecture Library (PALcode) is a set of subroutines that are
specific to a particular Alpha operating system implementation. These
subroutines provide operating system primitives for context switching,
interrupts, exceptions, and memory management. PALcode is similar to the BIOS
libraries that are provided in personal computers. PALcode subroutines are
invoked by implementation hardware or by software CALL_PAL instructions.
PALcode is written in statndard machine code with some implementation-specific
extensions to provide access to low-level hardware.
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