Ring 2

Ring 2 (リング2, Ringu 2) (1999), directed by Hideo Nakata, is the sequel to the Japanese horror film, Ring.

Ring was originally a novel written by Koji Suzuki; its sequel, Rasen (aka Spiral), was also adapted into a movie as the Ring movie's sequel. However, due to the poor response to Rasen, Ring 2 was made as a new sequel to Ring, not based on Suzuki's works, and thus ultimately ignores the story of Rasen.

Ring 2 takes place a couple of weeks after the first film, directly continuing the story and features most of the cast from Ring reprising their roles.

Plot

After the body of Sadako Yamamura is retrieved from a well, her uncle Takaishi is summoned by police to identify her. Detective Omuta explains to Takaishi that forensics concluded Sadako may have survived in the well for thirty years. Forensics experts reconstruct her body, giving it to Takaishi, who gives his niece a burial at sea, hoping to be free from the guilt he has carried since her mother Shizuko committed suicide because of his actions. The police search for Reiko Asakawa following the sudden death of her ex-husband Ryuji Takayama and her father Koichi a week later. Mai Takano, Ryuji’s university assistant, investigates his death, visiting Reiko’s news office where her colleague Okazaki joins Mai in her search for answers. They find a burnt out videotape in Reiko’s apartment, Mai sensing Reiko’s father died the same way as Ryuji.

System Management Mode

System Management Mode (SMM, sometimes called ring -2) is an operating mode of x86 central processor units (CPUs) in which all normal execution, including the operating system, is suspended and special separate software, which is usually part of the firmware or a hardware-assisted debugger, is executed with high privileges.

It was first released with the Intel 386SL. While initially special SL versions were required for SMM, Intel incorporated SMM in its mainline 486 and Pentium processors in 1993. AMD implemented Intel's SMM with the Enhanced Am486 processors in 1994. It is available in all later microprocessors in the x86 architecture.

Operation

SMM is a special-purpose operating mode provided for handling system-wide functions like power management, system hardware control, or proprietary OEM designed code. It is intended for use only by system firmware, not by applications software or general-purpose systems software. The main benefit of SMM is that it offers a distinct and easily isolated processor environment that operates transparently to the operating system or executive and software applications.

Protection ring

In computer science, hierarchical protection domains, often called protection rings, are mechanisms to protect data and functionality from faults (by improving fault tolerance) and malicious behaviour (by providing computer security). This approach is diametrically opposite to that of capability-based security.

Computer operating systems provide different levels of access to resources. A protection ring is one of two or more hierarchical levels or layers of privilege within the architecture of a computer system. This is generally hardware-enforced by some CPU architectures that provide different CPU modes at the hardware or microcode level. Rings are arranged in a hierarchy from most privileged (most trusted, usually numbered zero) to least privileged (least trusted, usually with the highest ring number). On most operating systems, Ring 0 is the level with the most privileges and interacts most directly with the physical hardware such as the CPU and memory.

Special gates between rings are provided to allow an outer ring to access an inner ring's resources in a predefined manner, as opposed to allowing arbitrary usage. Correctly gating access between rings can improve security by preventing programs from one ring or privilege level from misusing resources intended for programs in another. For example, spyware running as a user program in Ring 3 should be prevented from turning on a web camera without informing the user, since hardware access should be a Ring 1 function reserved for device drivers. Programs such as web browsers running in higher numbered rings must request access to the network, a resource restricted to a lower numbered ring.