6 Aug
2015
6 Aug
'15
12:05 p.m.
On Thu, 6 Aug 2015, Guy Sotomayor wrote:
In many cases more than one! ;-)
But more to the point, having a separate processor handing the booting chores
frees the
main CPU from those tasks. Initialization can be a pain just look at the x86
ISA and the
hoops it makes the S/W (BIOS & OS) just to get to the point where the OS can
really start
it's own initialization! And that doesn't even cover the "magic" that
goes
on just so that
the x86 CPU can fetch the first instruction.
As folks have mentioned, a lot of larg(er) system have service processors to
handle the
booting chores. However, it's more than that. The service processor (as the
name
implies) is doing a whole lot more than just booting. It is also responsible
for running
low level diagnostics and capturing the results of hard crashes for later
diagnosis.
Thanks for the info Guy (and others!). The biggest machine I ever owed
was a VAX 8250 that I got straight out of the machine room at
Mannesmann-Tally in Kent, WA. Fun machine, but made my upstairs floor sag
noticeably(sp). It had four RA-81s and a TU-81+. :)
g.
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