MIPS Bootstrapping
Bootstrapping is the process of taking a CPU just out of reset, fetching and executing instructions serially, to a more complex running environment. The program that does that is called a "Boot loader" or "Boot strap code" or simply "Boot code". First Instruction Fetch When power is applied to a processor and it comes out of reset, it fetches its first instruction from an address that is hardwired. This address is known as the " Boot Vector " or the " Reset Vector ". The MIPS processors' boot vector is located at physical address 0x1FC00000. The MIPS processors have MMU enabled as soon as they are powered on. The MIPS core thus presents a virtual address of 0xBFC00000. The MMU translates this address to physical address of 0x1FC00000, the boot vector. This translation again is hardwired. Typically, a boot device is present at this address and responds to the read request of the processor2. See Firgure 1. The offset 0 of bootstr...