Hardware Initializations

                        Hardware initialization is simple but the most important part of any system initialization. The links below takes you to various hardware for which the initialization is important. I only talk about the two important ones. Later, if I get time, I will come back here and put some more about other hardware out there.

8259 Family Interrupt Controller

                        This is micro chip that controls all interrupts to the CPU from external devices like keyboard, mouse, IDE controllers etc. The chip controls the interrupts from these devices through IRQ lines. System designers can reprogram the IRQ according to the way a kernel is set up. Click here to read more about the controller.

8042 Family Keyboard Controller

                        Keyboard controller is a little bit confusing because of the fact that it uses a lot more ports than the Interrupt Controller. Also, Keyboard is also used to do some other unexpected stuffs. Since we plan to provide User interface to a kernel, Keyboard is a must. Mouse and other controllers are optional at this time. Click here to read more about the controller.