HP Vectra Technical Reference Manual page 278

Bucket Pointer-The
bucket pointer consists of a series of offsets to the strings in the
bucket. There must be one offset for every index in the range specified in the bucket
header. The actual address of the string is determined by the segment (which is stored in
the bucket header) and the offset stored in the bucket pointer. Note that all strings in a
bucket must be in the same segment.
Bucket-The
bucket contains the actual strings. Each string consists of a byte containing the
number of characters in the string, the string itself, and a null byte
(OOH)
which serves as a
string terminator.
String control is accomplished through the appropriate functions in the V_SYSTEM driver. These
functions provide complete control over system strings.
9.1.4 CMOS Memory Control
The system contains a CMOS Memory/Clock chip that serves as a real-time clock and provides 64
bytes of non-volatile memory storage. The CMOS RAM is used to store system parameters. The
contents of the CMOS RAM are listed in Appendix C.
The CMOS Memory/Clock is accessed through two I/O ports. One port selects the clock register
or memory byte to access, and the other is a bidirectional data port. There are a total of 64
addresses in the CMOS Memory/Clock chip; the first 14 are the clock registers, while the
remaining 50 are the CMOS RAM.
The V_SYSTEM driver contains two functions which support reading and writing data to the
CMOS Memory/Clock. These functions provide a simple access to the contents of the chip.
9.1.5 System Clock Functions
The system employs two separate clock systems to keep track of the time and date. The first is
the CMOS Memory/Clock. The CMOS clock has a battery back-up which allows it to keep track
of the current time when the system is turned off.
System Drivers 269