printf - How does it work?

Hi,

 

Can some one point me to an URL or some thing that explains how exactly
the characters from printf in user program gets printed on to the
console. Some thing like "it goes to /dev/console, and kernel reads from
....." would be great, so that I can trace it out.

 

Is there any way, we can get access to those prints from the kernel?

 

Thanks

Siva