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May 23, 2016 at 8:24 review Low quality posts
May 23, 2016 at 11:51
Nov 1, 2012 at 15:21 comment added Martin Beckett @Coomie - or cthullu.stackexchange.com - this is the PC architecture we are talking about
Oct 26, 2012 at 17:39 comment added mouviciel The devil is in the details.
Oct 26, 2012 at 14:11 comment added cHao @Tobias: In the 8086, the startup address is 0xFFFF0. In the 386, though (the first IA-32 processor in the family, IA-32 being what people generally mean when they say "x86"), it's 0xFFFFFFF0. I imagine most systems will ensure that both addresses contain valid code, in order to stay compatible with DOS. But a 32-bit CPU will use the latter address.
Oct 26, 2012 at 13:10 comment added Tobias Kienzler @cHao My bad, I skiped the BIOS... Isn't that three F's too many? IIRC the reboot assembler code is JMP F000:FFF0 (or equivalently FFFF:0000, both meaning 0xFFFF0 due to the real mode paging...)
Oct 26, 2012 at 12:32 comment added cHao @Tobias: "x86" != "IBM". :) Actually, an x86 CPU, execution starts at 0xFFFFFFF0, which (in an IBM-compatible system) usually is a jump into the BIOS code to set itself up and load a boot sector into memory. There's quite a bit of code that runs before 0x7c00 even contains viable instructions, and in a non-IBM-compatible system the boot code may be loaded into a whole other location.
Oct 25, 2012 at 6:10 comment added Tobias Kienzler @mouviciel The adress in memory is 0x7C00 for any x86 compatible architecture and first has to be filled by the BIOS which usually loads the first sector of whatever bootable device it prefers... Nice answer though :-7
Oct 24, 2012 at 19:25 comment added Canadian Luke ... And on the 7th day, the Man rested with his games
Oct 24, 2012 at 18:02 comment added Midhat and thus our interface to hardware evolves from bare metal software to the modern GUIs and CLIs over several million microseconds
Oct 24, 2012 at 17:10 comment added Random832 @Midhat from the switches on the front panel.
Oct 24, 2012 at 12:53 comment added gnat @mouviciel that sounds like first address is written in stone doesn't it
S Oct 24, 2012 at 12:44 history suggested Cloudy CC BY-SA 3.0
Minor grammar fix
Oct 24, 2012 at 12:42 review Suggested edits
S Oct 24, 2012 at 12:44
Oct 24, 2012 at 10:21 comment added mouviciel @Midhat - The first address to be fetched by the CPU is hardwired inside it. Usually it is 0.
Oct 24, 2012 at 9:58 comment added Midhat what is "a given address" where does it come from. Sorry for playing Charles Darwin here.
Oct 24, 2012 at 8:12 comment added Coomie This answer should be moved to christianity.stackexchange.com
Oct 24, 2012 at 8:01 history answered mouviciel CC BY-SA 3.0