Re: locore.s' history?

["Thomas E. Spanjaard" <tgen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Zera William Holladay wrote:
> Hi, I've been reading "Operating System Source Code Secrets Volume."  The
> authors imply (I can't remember the exact quote) that locore has a
> history.  Does anyone know where this name came from, or where it first
> appeared?  My intuition tells me "locore" means low memory (as in old
> magnetic core memory)?  Just curious.

"locore" means "low core", and core refers to the RAM which used to be 
magnetic drums. It was called "core memory" because it was closer to the 
processing hardware than the tapes, disks et al. It got this name due to 
the place in the memory address space where the code in this file got 
loaded: the lowermost part of RAM, address 0 usually. This was some 
requirement in the early days, although I'm not sure why.

Cheers,
		-- Thomas E. Spanjaard
		   tgen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx