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IOS is not a hypervisor, it's a form of access control. As far as I am aware, IOS enforced only hardware access restrictions and didn't check licenses. Downgrading is sometimes a generally useful thing to do, so preventing it is a form of restriction, not protection.
'''IOS''' (internally known as '''IOP-OS''' and '''boot3''') is the Wii's operating system running on the [[IOP]] (Starlet) ARM9 core inside the [[Hollywood]]/[[Bollywood]] package, developed by [[BroadOn]]. It handles I/O and security tasks, providing hardware access to the [[Broadway]] as well as serving as a barebones 'hypervisor' for the system upholding content licensing restrictions. This article lists all of the known IOS versions, and their details/differences.
'''IOS''' (internally known as '''IOP-OS''' and '''boot3''') is the Wii's operating system running on the [[IOP]] (Starlet) ARM9 core inside the [[Hollywood]]/[[Bollywood]] package, developed by [[BroadOn]]. It handles I/O and security tasks, providing hardware access to the [[Broadway]] as well as serving as a barebones access control for the system, upholding hardware access restrictions. This article lists all of the known IOS versions, and their details/differences.
==General Notes==
==General Notes==
*There are around 253 possible IOS "slots", referring to the IOS's major version, which is, aside from one known exception, also the IOS's title ID in hex form. (IOS1 and IOS2 would not be possible without using different title IDs, as those title IDs would conflict with those for boot2 and the System Menu, respectively. IOS0 may also not be a valid title ID.) However, the highest slot number that Nintendo ever assigned a non-stub IOS was 80, meaning that all IOS slots above 80 can only ever be filled with unofficial IOSes, official IOSes with their title IDs changed, or Nintendo's stubs designed to overwrite unofficial IOSes.
*There are around 253 possible IOS "slots", referring to the IOS's major version, which is, aside from one known exception, also the IOS's title ID in hex form. (IOS1 and IOS2 would not be possible without using different title IDs, as those title IDs would conflict with those for boot2 and the System Menu, respectively. IOS0 may also not be a valid title ID.) However, the highest slot number that Nintendo ever assigned a non-stub IOS was 80, meaning that all IOS slots above 80 can only ever be filled with unofficial IOSes, official IOSes with their title IDs changed, or Nintendo's stubs designed to overwrite unofficial IOSes.
*Stubs are "dummy" IOSes, that are installable but not usable and contain only a few kilobytes of content. These were intended to save space on NAND after updates, but also served as anti-downgrade protection.
*Stubs are "dummy" IOSes, that are installable but not usable and contain only a few kilobytes of content. These were intended to save space on NAND after updates, but also served as a anti-downgrade restriction.
*For unknown reasons, Nintendo stubbed almost every System Menu IOS after updating the System Menu to a new version which didn't use it. It's possible that this was meant to be anti-downgrade protection of some sort.
*For unknown reasons, Nintendo stubbed almost every System Menu IOS after updating the System Menu to a new version which didn't use it. It's possible that this was meant to be anti-downgrade restrictions of some sort.
**System Menu versions are independent of IOS versions aside from the one set in their TMD, and when this document mentions an IOS coming with a System Menu version, that just means it was part of the same NUS update batch, not that the actual System Menu version has any relation to that IOS.
**System Menu versions are independent of IOS versions aside from the one set in their TMD, and when this document mentions an IOS coming with a System Menu version, that just means it was part of the same NUS update batch, not that the actual System Menu version has any relation to that IOS.
