Boot architecture for microkernel-based systems

A data processing system having an operating system environment, an operating system kernel, and a plurality of device drivers, wherein the plurality of device drivers are programs separate from the kernel, the data processing system comprising:

• a kernel, excluding device driver functions;
• a boot volume stored in a storage device, wherein the
• boot volume includes:
• a file anchor, indicating a starting point to find files associated with the boot volume;
• a plurality of file headers associated with the file anchor, each file header including an identification of files associated with the boot volume;
• and a plurality of block list elements, each block list element identifying a contiguous block of data in a storage device, wherein data structures comprising a file may be identified as accessed using at least one block list element;
• a boot strap task, wherein the bootstrap task uses the boot volume to load files specified by the boot volume into a memory from the storage device, wherein the operating system environment may be initialized.

A data processing system having an operating system environment, an operating system kernel, and a plurality of device drivers, wherein the plurality of device drivers are programs separate from the kernel, the data processing system comprising:

• means for placing a boot volume in a memory, wherein the boot volume includes parameters identifying a plurality of files and locations of data structures comprising the plurality of files on a storage device;
• and
• means for loading a plurality of files associated with initialization of an operating system environment into the memory using the boot volume, whereby initialization of the operating system environment may be accomplished, wherein the parameters include:
• a file anchor, indicating a starting point to find files associated with the boot volume
• a plurality of file headers associated with the file anchor, each file header including an identification of files associated with the boot volume;
• and
• a plurality of block list elements, each block list element identifying a contiguous block of data in a storage device, wherein data structures comprising a file may be identified and accessed using at least one block list element.

A data processing system comprising:

• a boot volume located in the memory, wherein the boot volume includes:
• a file anchor, indicating a starting point to find files associated with the boot volume;
• a plurality of file headers associated with the file anchor, each file header including an identification of files associated with the boot volume;
• and
• a plurality of block list elements, each block list element identifying a contiguous block of data in a storage device, wherein data structures comprising a file may be identified in access using at least one block list element;
• and
• loading means for loading a plurality of files associated with initialization of an operating system into the memory using the boot volume, wherein the boot volume design and layout is independent of the file system for the operating system environment to be loaded.