Not-genius here: I've actually come across this problem trying to boot Linux on enigmatic hardware. If you look in the Linux code it's actually reasonably simple to work out what it's waiting for.

This guy is definitely a genius for other reasons, though!

I actually had to go back and check, and it seems you're correctly quoting his mis-quoting of the startup log.

It's "delay loop", which at least gives some clue that it has to do with timing. I'm sure the OP at least knows this, but just had a typo in his blog post.

Either that and/or really experienced.