Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!ginosko!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!sun-barr!newstop!sun!concertina!fiddler From: fiddler%concertina@Sun.COM (Steve Hix) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: Re: Slot Assignments Message-ID: <126258@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> Date: 12 Oct 89 23:21:47 GMT References: <8910101231.AA13463@trout.nosc.mil> Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM Lines: 24 In article <8910101231.AA13463@trout.nosc.mil>, rlw@pro-embassy.UUCP (Ron Wilson) writes: > Network Comment: to #151 by obsolete!asuvax!hrc!gtephx!campbellb%handies.ucar.edu > > The firmware on the old ]['s was smart enough to not try to boot > from a printer card - I know - I once put a printer card in slot 7 > with a Disk ][ card in 6 - it booted just fine. The firmware, on startup, would (still does, I suppose) scan all the slots, from 7 down, for a bootable device. Said device has a signature (value) in *its* ROM telling the //'s firmware routine to begin executing the card's ROM at address . It won't try to boot off a printer or video card, but a disk or ROM card would be fair game. > Besides, what if you had a printer card but no disk? The // would quickly scan the slots, find no boot device, then jump into Applesoft (or Integer BASIC, if you had a ][ with no Applesoft card) and wait for you to type something. ------------ "...I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing: and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress, while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization." - Petronius Arbiter, 210 B.C.