Reference Materials

C programming

• The C programming language

• Modern C

• Learn C The Hard Way

UNIX

• The UNIX Operating System, AT&T Archives at YouTube

• The UNIX Time-Sharing System, Dennis M. Ritchie and Ken L.Thompson, Bell System Technical Journal

• The Evolution of the Unix Time-sharing System, Dennis M. Ritchie

• A Commentary on the Sixth Edition UNIX Operating System, John Lions

x86 emulation

• QEMU (manual)

• Bochs (manual, debugging)

x86 assembly anguage

• PC Assembly Language, Paul A. Carter, November 2003.

• Intel 80386 Programmer's Reference Manual, 1987 (HTML). Much shorter than the full current Intel Architecture manuals below, but describes all processor features used in 6.828.

• IA-32 Intel Architecture Software Developer's Manuals,

  • Volume I: Basic Architecture

  • Volume 2A: Instruction Set Reference, A-M

  • Volume 2B: Instruction Set Reference, N-Z

  • Volume 2C: Instruction Set Reference, Safer mode extensions

  • Volume 3A: System Programming Guide, Part 1

  • Volume 3B: System Programming Guide, Part 2

  • Volume 3C: System Programming Guide, Part 3

• Multiprocessor references:

  • MP specification

  • IO APIC

• AMD64 Architecture Programmer's Manual.

  • Covers both the "classic" 32-bit x86 architecture and the new 64-bit extensions supported by the latest AMD and Intel processors.

• Writing inline assembly language with GCC:

  • Brennan's Guide to Inline Assembly

  • Inline assembly for x86 in Linux

  • GCC-Inline-Assembly-HOWTO

• Loading x86 executables in the ELF format:

  • Wikipedia: ELF

  • Tool Interface Standard (TIS) Executable and Linking Format (ELF)

PC hardware programming

• General PC architecture information:

  • Phil Storrs PC Hardware book, Phil Storrs, December 1998.

  • Bochs technical hardware specifications directory.

• General BIOS and PC bootstrap:

  • Wikipedia: BIOS

  • BIOS Services and Software Interrupts, Roger Morgan, 1997.

  • "El Torito" Bootable CD-ROM Format Specification, Phoenix/IBM, January 1995.

• VGA display - kern/console.c

  • OS-Dev, Wikipedia: VGA, Wikipedia: CGA

  • Wikipedia: VESA, VESA BIOS Extension (VBE) 3.0, Video Electronics Standards Association, September 1998. (local copy)

  • VGADOC, Finn Thøgersen, 2000. (local copy - text), (local copy - ZIP)

  • Free VGA Project, J.D. Neal, 1998.

• Keyboard and Mouse - kern/console.c

  • Adam Chapweske's resources.

• 8253/8254 Programmable Interval Timer (PIT) - inc/timerreg.h

  • 82C54 CHMOS Programmable Interval Timer, Intel, October 1994. (local copy)

  • Data Solutions 8253/8254 Tutorial, Data Solutions.

• 8259/8259A Programmable Interrupt Controller (PIC) - kern/picirq.*

  • 8259A Programmable Interrupt Controller, Intel, December 1988.

• Real-Time Clock (RTC) - kern/kclock.*

  • Wikipedia:Nonvolatile BIOS memory

  • Phil Storrs PC Hardware book, Phil Storrs, December 1998. In particular:

    • Understanding the CMOS

    • A list of what is in the CMOS

  • CMOS Map Table, CMOS Map (by Padgett Peterson, May 1996).

  • M48T86 PC Real-Time Clock

• 16550 UART Serial Port - kern/console.c

  • Wikipedia: Serial port

  • PC16550D Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter with FIFOs, National Semiconductor, 1995.

  • Technical Data on 16550, Byterunner Technologies.

  • Interfacing the Serial / RS232 Port, CraigPeacock, August 2001.

• IEEE 1284 Parallel Port - kern/console.c

  • Parallel Port Central, Jan Axelson.

  • Parallel Port Background,Warp Nine Engineering.

  • IEEE 1284 - Updating the PC Parallel Port, National Instruments.

  • Interfacing the Standard Parallel Port, Craig Peacock, August 2001.

• IDE hard drive controller - fs/ide.c

  • [ATA8-ACS]: AT Attachment 8 - ATA/ATAPI Command Set, ANSI, May 2007.

  • Programming Interface for Bus Master IDE Controller, Brad Hosler, Intel, May 1994.

  • The Guide to ATA/ATAPI documentation, Constantine Sapuntzakis, January 2002.

• Sound cards: (not supported in 6.828 kernel, but you're welcome to do it as a challenge problem!)

  • Sound Blaster Series Hardware Programming Guide, Creative Technology, 1996.

  • 8237A High Performance Programmable DMA Controller, Intel, September 1993.

  • Sound Blaster 16 Programming Document, Ethan Brodsky, June 1997.

  • Sound Programming, Inverse Reality.

• E100 Network Interface Card:

  • Intel 8255x 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller Family Open Source Software Developer Manual

  • 82559ER Fast Ethernet PCI Controller Datasheet

• E1000 Network Interface Card:

  • PCI/PCI-X Family of Gigabit Ethernet Controllers Software Developer's Manual

• Booting:

  • Multiboot

  • Minimal Intel Architecture Boot Loader