Hardware number (and "service number") both describe the hardware, that's correct.

To find out which operating system is installed on the hardware, you'd have to use software to connect to it and ask. With PCM Hammer, clicking the "Get Properties" button will list a few things, including the operating system ID. I'm pretty sure LS Droid has a way to do this as well but I haven't tried it myself yet.

If I remember right, the '896 hardware is a little different from the rest of the family, so it may not work with all operating systems. I don't really know though.

The best place I know of to search for bin and xdf files is here:
https://github.com/BoredTruckOwner/L...ine_Repository

There might be other stuff that isn't in there yet, so it's still worth doing some web searching on the hardware number / service number / operating system ID plus "bin" and/or "xdf" and see if you can find anything. and if you do find something that isn't in there, please submit it to the repository, or just post it here and I'll submit it.