bare metal

2 definitions found

bare metal - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  bare metal
  
     1. New computer hardware, unadorned with such snares and
     delusions as an operating system, an HLL, or even
     assembler.  Commonly used in the phrase "programming on the
     bare metal", which refers to the arduous work of bit bashing
     needed to create these basic tools for a new computer.  Real
     bare-metal programming involves things like building boot PROMs
      and BIOS chips, implementing basic monitors used to
     test device drivers, and writing the assemblers that will be
     used to write the compiler back ends that will give the new
     computer a real development environment.
  
     2. "Programming on the bare metal" is also used to describe a
     style of hand-hacking that relies on bit-level peculiarities
     of a particular hardware design, especially tricks for speed
     and space optimisation that rely on crocks such as overlapping
     instructions (or, as in the famous case described in The Story of Mel
     , interleaving of opcodes on a magnetic drum to
     minimise fetch delays due to the device's rotational latency).
     This sort of thing has become less common as the relative
     costs of programming time and computer resources have changed,
     but is still found in heavily constrained environments such as
     industrial embedded systems, and in the code of hackers who
     just can't let go of that low-level control.  See Real Programmer
     .
  
     In the world of personal computing, bare metal programming is
     often considered a Good Thing, or at least a necessary evil
     (because these computers have often been sufficiently slow and
     poorly designed to make it necessary; see ill-behaved).
     There, the term usually refers to bypassing the BIOS or OS
     interface and writing the application to directly access
     device registers and computer addresses.  "To get 19.2
     kilobaud on the serial port, you need to get down to the bare
     metal."  People who can do this sort of thing well are held in
     high regard.
  
     [Jargon File]
  

bare metal - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  bare metal
   n.
  
     1. [common] New computer hardware, unadorned with such snares and
     delusions as an operating system, an HLL, or even assembler.
     Commonly used in the phrase programming on the bare metal, which
     refers to the arduous work of bit bashing needed to create these
     basic tools for a new machine. Real bare-metal programming involves
     things like building boot proms and BIOS chips, implementing basic
     monitors used to test device drivers, and writing the assemblers that
     will be used to write the compiler back ends that will give the new
     machine a real development environment.
  
     2. "Programming on the bare metal" is also used to describe a style
  of
     hand-hacking that relies on bit-level peculiarities of a particular
     hardware design, esp. tricks for speed and space optimization that
     rely on crocks such as overlapping instructions (or, as in the famous
     case described in The Story of Mel' (in Appendix A), interleaving of
     opcodes on a magnetic drum to minimize fetch delays due to the
     device's rotational latency). This sort of thing has become rare as
     the relative costs of programming time and machine resources have
     changed, but is still found in heavily constrained environments such
     as industrial embedded systems. See Real Programmer.