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From: ali@rocky.STANFORD.EDU (Ali Ozer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: hardware 'upgrades'
Message-ID: <171@rocky.STANFORD.EDU>
Date: Mon, 9-Mar-87 13:07:42 EST
Article-I.D.: rocky.171
Posted: Mon Mar  9 13:07:42 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 10-Mar-87 06:30:07 EST
References: <8703031635.AA09265@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Reply-To: ali@rocky.UUCP (Ali Ozer)
Distribution: world
Organization: Stanford University Computer Science Department
Lines: 23
Keywords: mac/amiga/ATARI

In article <369@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> Adam C. Engst writes:
>
>While I agree entirely that having the ROM image on disk makes it very easy
>to uprade, it also chews up a great deal of disk space in most cases.  
>I don't know exactly how the Amiga works in this regard, but everything 
>I've been hearing has pointed towards it being similar to the Mac.
>                                         Adam Engst

Amiga's OS lies in a disk of its own, known as the "kickstart" disk. 
When you turn the system on, you stick in the kickstart disk, and the
OS is loaded from the disk into 256 kilobytes of "protected" memory.
I say "protected," because it is impossible for your software to do 
anything to this memory space. Thus, once the OS is loaded, as long as you
don't turn your Amiga off (and you can reset the Amiga fully without 
turning it off) the OS remains in the machine and doesn't have to be 
reloaded. I have some friends who haven't kickstarted their machines
in weeks.

I agree with you - putting the 256 k OS in a disk with applications would've
been real horrible. As it is, "cold boot" takes an extra few seconds,
but you have all of 880 k free on your application disks.

Ali Ozer, ali@rocky.stanford.edu