#Instrumentation without distortion

Early boot telemetry is useful only while it remains quieter than the system it observes.

#Capture points

SystemMonitor treats boot events as fixed-width records emitted at explicit phase boundaries.

#Timing pressure

Every additional branch, timestamp read, and buffer write must be weighed against the timing signal it claims to preserve.

#Operating rule

The useful trace is the one that survives first contact with firmware reality without becoming the dominant cost.