IRIX Kernel documentation

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• Kernel Processes in IRIX 5.3 and IRIX 6.1, Pipeline, March/April 1996 1996
  provides a brief description of some of the most commonly asked about IRIX kernel processes in IRIX 5.3 and IRIX 6.1: shaked, bdflush, vfs_sync, pdflush, bpqueue and xfsd. None of these kernel processes have manual pages, and the information offered in the on-line manuals is limited. All of these kernel processes deal with freeing up dynamically allocated kernel memory.

• IRIX Dynamically Loadable Kernel Modules, Pipeline, March/April 1995
  IRIX dynamically loadable kernel modules were introduced with the release of IRIX 5.0. The necessary steps to create and load dynamic loadable kernel modules is documented in the mload(4), ml(1M), and lboot(1M) manual pages and the IRIX Device Driver Programming Guide for IRIX 5.0 and later releases. This article will only focus on the following issues related to dynamic loadable kernel modules:
  • What are dynamic loadable kernel modules
  • Which versions of IRIX support dynamic loadable kernel modules
  • Which IRIX modules are dynamic loadable kernel modules
  • When is it appropriate to use dynamic loadable kernel modules
  • Performance related issues
  • How to tell if a dynamic loadable kernel module functions properly
  • Debugging a dynamic loadable kernel module
  The term module refers to any of the following in this article: a character or block device driver, streams device driver, streams module, library module, and kernel debug module (kernel debug modules are only supported in IRIX 5.2 and above). Modules are either provided with IRIX or can be developed by users.

• Kernel Tuning in IRIX 5.x and IRIX 6.0.x, Pipeline, July/August 1995
  This article will present a general discussion on tuning IRIX kernels as well as the preparation for, and recovery from, an unbootable kernel. It is not an exhaustive study of the subject, and system administrators are encouraged to read the references listed at the end of this article.
  This article assumes that the reader is an experienced system administrator on SGI platforms. Although many of the concepts and concerns presented in this article are common to all Unix systems, the procedures are specific to IRIX.
  The reader should be familiar with chapter 11, "System Performance Tuning" in the IRIX Admin: System Configuration and Operation Manual, as well as the IRIX Admin: Software Installation and Licensing Manual (both of which are available on-line with InSight(1)).
  Note that although some references will be made to IRIX 4.0.x, this article is primarily concerned with IRIX 5.x and IRIX 6.0.x. In addition, all examples in this article will assume SCSI devices.
  Finally, modifying a kernel under IRIX should not be done lightly. Care is taken by Silicon Graphics to ensure that the kernel is well tuned for most environments when delivered from the factory.