Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!sunic!fuug!news.funet.fi!hydra!cc.helsinki.fi!torvalds
From: torva...@cc.helsinki.fi
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Good PC/AT-hardware books around?
Message-ID: <1991Mar11.224911.5506@cc.helsinki.fi>
Date: 11 Mar 91 22:49:11 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki
Lines: 23

Well today I was browsing (sp?) through the books available at the local
book-store (which has a relatively good selection on computer-related
books), and noticed a definite lack in hardware-ralated PC-books. I'm
new to the PC (having programmed 68k before), and have little or no idea
how the actual hardware is programmed. I need help!!
(S)VGA cards and the processor are easy to find books for (Ferraro's:
Programming EGA and VGA cards and various 386-books), but somehow it
seems there is a vacuum concerning PC/AT-related hardware (ie 8529 (?)
interrupt controller, clock chip programming, disk I/O etc). Can anybody
fill me in on what books are needed/useful (I'm a hardware programmer -
BIOS and DOS calls aren't interesting, I need real bit by bit
information).
I found a couple of books that mentioned IO-ports and hardware
interrupts, but none that really told you how to reprogram the 8529 (is
it even possible?) or what the a20-confusion is all about. Is there some
book out there that allows you to use all the features of an AT386
without using BIOS for ANYTHING? The bios is clearly braindamaged, and
cannot be used outside dos (especially in protected mode) for any real
work. Is there some way to move int8 etc to another interrupt by
reprogramming the interrupt chips? etc. 

Any help appreciated, Linus Torvalds
torva...@cc.helsinki.fi