Open Firmware, was Re: Bootstrappable language

On Dec 11, 2008, at 10:42 AM, Paul Koning wrote: This is correct...it's called Open Firmware, and it has been the ROM-based boot facility (and some other neat stuff) in all SPARC- based Sun systems from the SPARCstation-1 on up to the current hardware, all Apple PCI-based PPC systems, and many IBM POWER-based (RS/6000) systems. Sun calls it OpenBoot. The OLPC XO-1 laptop (based on an AMD x86 implementation) also has Open Firmware, and probably other machines as well. Open Firmware is an IEEE standard (1275) and can be implemented on just about anything. It is well documented, portable, well behaved, and used to great success. In the face of these facts, one wonders why things like EFI are brought into existence. What seems to surprise most people is that this makes Forth one of the most widely-deployed languages in modern computing. I recently had a conversation with an otherwise extremely clueful guy who even has a background in embedded systems, who thought Forth was completely dead. He was shocked to learn that the Mac he was typing on had a Forth implementation in flash. As you observed, it is indeed Forth. It's an extremely powerful and well-thought-out system that allows expansion cards to contain machine-independent code ("FCode", Forth bytecode) in ROM or flash that implements initialization and diagnostic routines, bootstrap code, and OS-accessible/-usable device drivers. If you've ever noticed the flash chip on Sbus cards...that's what's in there. Some PCI cards have it as well; the world would be a much happier place if all of them did. So, one other implication here is that any old SPARCstation sitting in a closet makes a great Forth hack machine. -Dave -- Dave McGuire Port Charlotte, FL