Maintenance Commands                                 firmware(1M)

NAME
     firmware - bootable firmware programs and firmware commands

DESCRIPTION
     Between the time most computers are turned on and  the  boot
     program  is loaded to bootstrap the machine, the computer is
     in an operating state known as the firmware  state.  In  the
     firmware  state,  a  small program in non-volatile memory is
     running on the machine, and the  user  can  perform  certain
     system   operations  usually  unavailable  from  single-  or
     multi-user operating states.

     There are two basic kinds of  firmware  operations:  running
     firmward commands and  running bootable programs.

     Running firmware commands
           These commands include  commands  for  displaying  the
           Equipped  Device  Table,  performing  a  system memory
           dump, displaying  the  firmware  version,  creating  a
           floppy key, and so forth.  These commands are executed
           by the firmware program.

     Running bootable programs
           These programs include the operating system and  other
           bootable  programs (for example, a program to fill the
           Equipped Device Table). These programs are located  in
           the   /stand  file  system. When a bootable program is
           requested from firmware, the  firmware  program  loads
           and  executes the program, passing control of the sys-
           tem to the bootable program.

     Some firmware programs, allow you to request the  configura-
     tion  of  a  new  bootable operating system from firmware by
     specifying  the  name  of  a  configuration  file   (usually
     /stand/system)  as  the  name  of  the  program to boot; see
     system(4).

     See the hardware guide that accompanies  your  computer  for
     descriptions of the firmware commands and programs available
     with your machine.

ATTRIBUTES
     See attributes(5) for descriptions of the  following  attri-
     butes:

     ____________________________________________________________
    |       ATTRIBUTE TYPE        |       ATTRIBUTE VALUE       |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | Architecture                | SPARC                       |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|

SunOS 5.8            Last change: 3 Jul 1990                    1

Maintenance Commands                                 firmware(1M)

SEE ALSO
     system(4), attributes(5)

     Writing FCode 3.x Programs

WARNINGS
     The firmware program typically does not know if a  requested
     program  is  bootable  or not;  requesting a program that is
     not  bootable  from  firmware  can  lead  to   unpredictable
     results.

SunOS 5.8            Last change: 3 Jul 1990                    2