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From: bryan@galbp.LBP.HARRIS.COM (Bryan Ivey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: OS-9/ST in ROM (was Re: The IBM emulator (R.I.P.))
Message-ID: <1476@galbp.LBP.HARRIS.COM>
Date: Thu, 3-Sep-87 20:11:47 EDT
Article-I.D.: galbp.1476
Posted: Thu Sep  3 20:11:47 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 5-Sep-87 15:29:50 EDT
References: <42@bnl.UUCP> <1468@galbp.LBP.HARRIS.COM> <295@mks.UUCP>
Reply-To: bryan@galbp.UUCP (Bryan Ivey)
Organization: Harris/Lanier, Atlanta, GA
Lines: 37

In article <295@mks.UUCP> wheels@mks.UUCP (Gerry Wheeler) writes:
>In article <1468@galbp.LBP.HARRIS.COM>, bryan@galbp.LBP.HARRIS.COM (Bryan Ivey) writes:
>I mentioned the same thing to one of the people at Microware, but his
>response was that it was much easier to update, etc, if booted from
>disk. However, given the modularity of OS-9, and the way ROM'ed modules
>are found at boot time, I would think almost anyone could put most of
>OS-9 into a ROM cartridge and save some of the RAM for other things.
>Even if some of the modules in ROM become outdated, all you have to do
>is boot a replacement with a higher revision number. (At least, that
>was the case in my very old copy of OS-9 for the 6809 -- is it still
>true?)

I was not thinking quite clearly or quite deep enough!  Seems to me that
the boot up code checks to see if there is a cartridge present and jumps
to the cartridge prior to doing anything else with the TOS ROM if the
cartridge	 is of a certain type???  Correct??  If so, issue cartridges
for OS9 systems.  Then if any changes are made (fixes / enhancements),
offer the user's a choice:

1.	Buy a new ROM and install it yourself.

2.	Buy a floppy with the updated ROM in binary format suitable for
	burning yourself.

3.	Buy a floppy with the updated modules to be loaded into memory
	(Possibly by STARTUP???).

4.	All of the above.

Naturally, some of the above choices would not be suitable for everyone,
but it would give everyone a chance at their preference.

As far as I know, any module loaded in under OS9 replaces the previous
module in memory IFF the version is higher.  I would assume that the 68K
version is the same.

Bryan Ivey