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Full Open Firmware Support

The recommended option is for every PCI card to include an expansion ROM containing run-time drivers and full Open Firmware support, including Open Firmware properties and FCode boot driver software that supports the startup process. With this option, the associated device can be used at startup time by Open Firmware and by any operating system for which the PCI card's expansion ROM provides a native run-time driver.

IMPORTANT

Full Open Firmware support in the expansion ROM is mandatory for PCI cards supporting devices that expect to participate in the startup boot process on Macintosh computers designed around the NewWorld architecture.

An expansion ROM that supports Open Firmware booting delivers these benefits:

full plug-and-play performance with any operating system for which the card provides a run-time driver
unambiguous matching of each run-time driver to its device