HP-UX 11i Internals

Chapter 15. System Initialization

The first step in the system boot process is controlled by processor-dependent code (PDC). On a multiprocessor system, PDC must first identify the controlling native processor, or monarch. The monarch is the first processor initialized, and it handles all of the early boot process. Each processor on the bus has a value called BOOT_ID, which is set at the factory to 2. Monarch selection begins by looking for the processor with the highest BOOT_ID. If there are multiple processors with the same BOOT_ID, the one with the lowest slot number becomes the monarch. BOOT_IDs are rarely changed, so the monarch is almost always the processor in the lowest slot. The monarch processor then continues with the boot process ...