资料来源 : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

PROM monitor
     
         a small program stored in {PROM} (or
        {ROM}), responsible for both loading the {OS} and providing
        some means to analyse OS {crashes}.  It may also have some
        sort of {user interface} which can be used to examine and
        change the contents of memory, control the boot process
        (specifying arguments to the {kernel}, or changing where to
        look for the it), and so forth.
     
        The main difference between a PROM monitor and a {bootstrap
        loader} is that the PROM monitor regains control when the OS
        terminates.  This may enable a {wizard} to find out what went
        wrong if the OS crashed, although it is usually of little help
        for the average {sysadmin}.
     
        (1996-12-03)