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Chapter 2 15
Hardware Support Tools Overview
Initial System Loader (ISL) Standalone Environment
Initial System Loader (ISL) Standalone Environment
The ISL standalone environment consists of the Initial System Loader, ISL-based tools
which run directly from ISL, and the Offline Diagnostic Environment (ODE). On most
PA-RISC machines, ISL is the first program run after execution of the firmware. ISL
implements a command line interface which allows the user to obtain information on the
bootup characteristics of the system; to modify these characteristics; and to load and
execute programs such as the operating system, ISL-based tools, and the Offline
Diagnostics Environment.
ISL-based tools consist of a set of diagnostics that diagnose the Central Processing Unit
(CPU), memory, and portions of the I/O system on older series 700, 800, and 900 machines;
and the Offline Diagnostics Environment (ODE).
The Offline Diagnostics Environment is an offline support tools platform that is run from
ISL and is available on series 700, 800, and 900 machines. ODE provides a common
user-friendly interface for diagnostics and utilities developed to run in this environment.
Diagnostics and utilities provided under ODE include:
• MAPPER - a utility for mapping out the physical layout of the SPU and its peripherals
• IOTEST - a utility for testing I/O cards using IODC
• PERFVER - a utility for testing peripherals attached to the boot path
• A set of diagnostics/utilities for testing disks.
• A set of diagnostics for testing CPU, memory, and selected I/O modules.
A license is required to run most of the ODE diagnostics and utilities.
The main purpose of the offline tools is to enable the user to troubleshoot a system which
cannot be tested via the online tools, generally because a hardware problem exists which
prevents the system from booting. The offline environment is also useful for some types of
testing in which it is not desirable to have to boot the system first, as is often the case in
manufacturing applications.