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Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!uunet!olivea!hal.com!decwrl!pa.dec.com!engage.pko.dec.com!irenaeus.mlo.dec.com!eje From: eje@irenaeus.mlo.dec.com (Eric James Ewanco) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Subject: 386bsd: Doesn't use BIOS? Message-ID: <1992Sep3.194427.14251@engage.pko.dec.com> Date: 3 Sep 92 19:44:27 GMT Sender: newsdaemon@engage.pko.dec.com (USENET News Daemon) Reply-To: ewanco@kalvin.enet.dec.com Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Lines: 27 I saw mentioned in the thread on the Diamond Speedstar 24[X] interface problems that said that 386bsd does not use BIOS and hence needs the code for the Speedstar. This struck me as odd; I can understand skipping the BIOS for the sake of speed on certain devices, but why can't 386bsd use BIOS for proprietary devices like the Speedstar? Is it an all-or-nothing thing, that is, either we forgo using BIOS at all or incur horrible disadvantages? I'd like to understand why exactly 386bsd cannot use the BIOS at all. I guess I could understand Diamond's hesitance to give us direct access to their hardware, especially when everyone else probably goes the standard way and uses the BIOS to access it. (Then again, it is news to me that you could take advantage of hi-res accelerated boards through the BIOS, but that's another issue.) Eric -- /=============================================================================\ | Eric Ewanco - Software Engineer For the rash and outrageous opinions ex-| | Digital Equipment Corp, Maynard MA pressed herein I alone am responsible; | | ewanco@kalvin.enet.dec.com they do not belong to DIGITAL(TM). | \==============================- 2 Th 2:15 -==================================/ "...[T]he greatest and most ancient Church known to all, founded and organized at Rome by [] Peter and Paul, [is] that Church which has the tradition and faith which comes down to us after having been announced to men by the Apostles. For with this Church, because of its superior origin, all Churches must agree ... and it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the Apostolic tradition." -- St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies, c. 180 A.D., 3,3,3.