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From: mike@odgate.odesta.com (Mike J. Kelly)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: Connectix MODE32
Keywords: 32 Bits ROMs 'Dirty' More Stuff
Message-ID: <1991May23.192221.21509@odgate.odesta.com>
Date: 23 May 91 19:22:21 GMT
References: <1991May21.032658.5617@umbc3.umbc.edu> <33042@usc> <1991May21.215839.20198@umbc3.umbc.edu>
Organization: Odesta Corporation, Northbrook IL.
Lines: 28

In article <1991May21.215839.20198@umbc3.umbc.edu>
   cs421317@umbc5.umbc.edu (cs421317) writes:
>I spoke to a techrep at Connectix today (05/21). He said that MODE32 is
>designed to be a 'drop in the System Folder' fix for dirty ROMs and that it
>will allow full 32 bit addressing and everything else we have wanted from
>Apple.
>
>It'd be nice if we had a hardware solution, but at least this may be a 
>solution. I still agree with every argument that has gone down the pike about
>this problem, but this may be the best we get. Will this always work? Who
>knows? Is it a slower solution? Maybe. Why should we pay for this fix? I
>wish we didn't have to, but it seems to me there have been lots of inits
>that were designed to fix problems, like HeapTool. Just now they're making us
>pay to fix them.

I don't mind paying (new ROMS won't be free).  What worries me is how
Connectix does it (and I haven't heard anything but generalities here).
My uniformed guess is that they simply replace the dirty ROM code with
RAM-based versions.  That makes me nervous because at least ROM-based
code can't be overwritten or destroyed.  If this is in fact what
Connectix is doing (and I repeat: I don't really know), I believe having
key system routines in unprotected RAM would make the Mac even more of 
an unstable development platform than it already is.  
-- 
--
Mike Kelly               Odesta Corporation, Northbrook, Illinois, USA
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