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Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!uunet!gatech!purdue!yuma!csn!teal!jks From: jks@teal.csn.org (John Stevenson) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Subject: Re: new boot roms Message-ID: <jks.715814745@teal> Date: 6 Sep 92 21:25:45 GMT References: <183c4vINNfit@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu> <1992Sep3.144421.575@engage.pko.dec.com> Sender: news@csn.org (news) Organization: Colorado SuperNet, Inc. Lines: 50 eje@irenaeus.mlo.dec.com (Eric James Ewanco) writes: >In article <183c4vINNfit@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu>, brtmac@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu (Brett McCoy) writes: >> From: brtmac@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu (Brett McCoy) >> Subject: new boot roms >> Date: 2 Sep 1992 16:36:31 -0500 >> Okay, here's a thought. Why doesn't someone write up some new boot >> room code that would make a PC act a lot like a Sun when you turn it >> on. Get rid of all the gunky MS-DOS support. Put in a nice little >> monitor to examine memory and various registers and i/o ports and >> allow easy booting from any device and any partition on that device. >I think that is an excellent idea -- in fact I think hosing the BIOS is going >to be a necessary step in moving to more advanced operating systems. BIOS is >out of date. We need SCSI support in the ROMs, a monitor, and flexible booting >choices. We need BIOS code written in protected mode (like IBM's PS/2 code), >not in real mode. We need support for seven disk drives and other things. >> This is far, far beyond any skills I have, but it seems like it might >> be worthwhile and would solve a lot of the problems and workarounds >> that people are having and using now. Maybe someone should get on >> AMI's or Phoenix's back and get them to add some support for other >> OS's than MS-DOS in their boot code. >Some company should propose a standard. Maybe Digital. IBM if they don't try >to extract license fees from everyone. >With 1 MB flash ROMs 1 mm thick, 8 mm wide and 15 cm long, we can afford to put >a lot of ROM in PCs and put lots of stuff in it. With memory management we can >swap unused ROM out or compatibility ROM in. >It is certainly something desparately needed. >-- >/=============================================================================\ >| 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 -================================== There is just such a standard currently in the works. It is called IEEE Draft Std p1275/d3 "Standard for boot firmware" and is similar to the sun booting system. Check with Ieee for a draft copy.. This does seem to be the way of the future for firmware. good luck. ..sig file when I grow up. bye . /