What's in a Board Support Package (BSP)?

Now this is a question I hadn't heard for a long time and also a question I wasn't expecting to hear again. I mean haven't we all gone through this over and over again? Well obviously not, so I figured this is worth a post - no, not to stop people ringing me up but rather more to have a starting point on which everybody agrees.

Ok, so yes there are some parts of a BSP which are optional and which are subject to the specific requirements of either the underlying OS or the respective project but I hope you are on my side when I say that some parts are simply not negotiable, i.e. are a required part of a BSP. And yes, a bootloader does belong to a BSP!

Now if you're someone who is saying to themselves "Well what does he know all about it?" I can point you and anybody else interested to some further information, which at least from a Windows Embedded point of view sets this starting point: http://channel9.msdn.com/wiki/cedeveloper/bsp/

Look forward to reading your thoughts on this.

So long and thanks for all the fish!