Determining system configuration

Depending on the nature of the embedded system, you may wish to dynamically determine the configuration on startup or (in the case of a deeply embedded system) simply "hardcode" the configuration information.

Regardless of the source of the information, the configuration part of the startup code needs to store this information into a set of well-defined data structures that the OS will then look at when it starts. Collectively known as the system page area, these data structures contain information about: