OS dev links

LINKS

Here are some selected links to sites useful to OS developers (much of this is specific to PC- style hardware architectures). 

http://www.osdev.org/wiki/Main_Page

 

General
Questions For an OS Designer	So, why are you doing this anyway?  This should be required reading for anyone contemplating starting an OS project
The OS Ring	Good collection of links to general things
Creating your own Operating System	Dark Fiber's FAQ about OS development
The Operating Systems Resource Center	Great collection of technical information and tutorials
SigOps: Create Your Own Operating System	This is a broadly focused site about OS theory
Protected mode and operating systems	x86-specific site for protected mode operating systems
Ralf Brown's Interrupt List (also try this HTML Version)	Don't start any OS project on an x86 machine without getting this first.
HelpPC WWW conversion (or download the actual HelpPC application)	Likewise.
The PC Game Programmer's Encyclopedia	More useful x86 programming information.
sandpile.org -- 80x86 index	Lots of good information about x86 processors.
NASM - The Netwide Assembler Project - FREE 80x86 assembler	A GREAT little open- source assembler for x86 machines.

 

Filesystems
Programming Long File Names	FAT Long filename information
Design and Implementation of the Second Extended File System	The original EXT2 white paper
The Second Extended File System	Another EXT2 doc from a Linux site
The Filesystems HOWTO	Info about lots of different filesystems
File System Info	HPFS, FAT, NTFS info
The Second Extended (EXT2) File System	An EXT2 "book" by Dave Poirier.  Very good.
The Extended-2 (EXT2) Filesystem Overview	A white paper by Gadi Oxman.  A bit dated, but good as an alternative source of EXT2 information.
CD formats ISO 9660 File Systems	CD-ROM filesystem format information
Joliet Specification	Bootable CD-ROM specification
UDF (DVD) filesystem	DVD-ROM filesystem format specifications
UDF (DVD) filesystem	Good intoduction to UDF

 

File Formats
Wotsit's Format: The programmer's file formats and data formats resource.	This site is a godsend.  Information on file formats of almost any kind.   Look here before you go anywhere else.
Standard Disk Format (Maverick)	All about the format of the x86 Master Boot Sector
All About GIF89a	Info about the GIF file format
DJGPP COFF Spec	About the COFF object file format
The Graphics File Format Page	Info about lots of graphic file formats

 

PC Hardware References
Pentium(r)Processor - Manuals	You need this if you're going to do any coding in x86 Assembly language
x86 Assembly Language FAQ	Ray Moon's FAQ for comp.lang.asm.x86
IBM Floppy disk specification 82078 64 Pin CHMOS Single-Chip Floppy Disk Controller Programming the NEC µPD765 and Intel 82072/7 Floppy Disk Controller	Programming the PC's floppy disk controller
ATA-ATAPI.COM -- ATA ATAPI IDE EIDE Fil's FAQ-Link-In Corner: IDE Ref. Phoenix Technologies Ltd. - Products and Solutions ATA/ATAPI Errata	Programming the PC's IDE controller
ATA Packet Interface For CD-ROMs	Programming the PC's CD-ROM via the ATAPI (ATA/IDE) packet interface
SATA development resources SATA on Linux Linux SATA home page	Programming the PC's SATA controller
VGA graphics Programming VGA Programming model High-res high-speed VESA tutorial Game Programming and graphics programming 256-Color VGA Programming in C - Home Graphics and sound - The Hornet Archive	Programming the PC's video hardware
The PS/2 Keyboard Interface	Programming the PC keyboard
PS/2 Mouse Interfacing The PS/2 Mouse Interface	Programming the PC mouse
Interfacing The Serial / RS-232 Port Serial Links using RS-232 and RS-485	Serial port programming information
Interfacing The PIC : Using Interrupts	Programming the PC's Programmable Interrupt Controller
PCI Vendor & Device IDs	PCI bus information
/pub/usenet/news.answers/pc-hardware-faq	PC hardware Usenet FAQ

 

Networking
The IP Protocol	The IP networking protocol (you need to implement this before TCP, UDP, etc.)
Choosing an Ethernet NIC	Some Linux-related general info about network cards

 

Graphics
Wikipedia's JPEG page Calvin Hass's JPEG decoding pages      - Huffman coding      - MCUs      - Chroma subsampling      - JPEGsnoop (dumps JPEG data)      - Lossless rotation      - Lossless rotation of partial MCUs JPEG baseline compression Dr. Dobb's JPEG-like image compression	JPEG image decoding and the JFIF file format
Wikipedia's bicubic interpolation page Wikipedia's bilinear filtering page PCI Geomatics' resampling theory	Image resizing

 

Miscellaneous
RFC 1321 - The MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm	The MD5 hashing algorithm (for passwords, etc.)
EFI: 64-bit System Design	Documents and links describing EFI firmware, GPT partition tables, etc. from Microsoft