Technical Q&A

HW 39 - How does Open Firmware generate the name property? (15-February-99)

Q: How does Open Firmware generate the name property?

A: It first looks to see if the device has an expansion ROM. If not, it uses the subsystem ID and the system vendor ID from the device configuration header space to construct the name, given these values are non-zero. If these values are zero, it uses the device-id and vendor-id from the device configuration header space. If the device has an expansion ROM, the ROM FCode is executed. This code must include at a minimum the name and reg properties.