Hardware

Non-volatile RAM vector

Under earlier versions of the operating system the non-volatile RAM ('NVRAM', also referred to as CMOS RAM, or battery backed RAM) was handled entirely by the Kernel. From Kernel 9.48, the handling of NVRAM is delegated to hardware support modules. The Kernel communicates with these modules through the vector NVRAMV.

Vector NVRAMV (&3E)

On entry

   R0 = reason code :
         0 = fill cache with values
         1 = read single value
         2 = write single value
         Others reserved
   R1 = parameters

On exit

   R0 = -1 if handled,
   Others according to reason code

This vector is called by the Kernel to control the configuration data stored in the NVRAM.

NVRAMV 0 (Fill cache)

On entry

   R0 = 0
   R1 = pointer to cache block to fill
   R2 = number of bytes to fill On exit
   R2 = amount of NVRAM available

This vector is called by the Kernel to fill in its cache of NVRAM values. A cache is provided in order to reduce the impact of repeated reading of configuration data by clients. Clients should write 0 to the cache for unsupported values. The number of bytes to fill may take any value. The total amount of NVRAM should be returned, not the amount of NVRAM filled. Only the first 240 bytes of NVRAM will be used by the Kernel initially.

NVRAMV 1 (Read single value)

On entry

   R0 = 1
   R1 = byte to read On exit
   R1 = value read, or 0 if byte is out of range

This vector is called by the Kernel to read a single value. It will usually only be used before the NVRAM cache has been populated during system initialisation.

NVRAMV 2 (Write single value)

On entry

   R0 = 2
   R1 = byte to write
   R2 = value to write

This vector is called by the Kernel to write a single value to the NVRAM.

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