Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!cbmvax!ditto
From: ditto@cbmvax.UUCP (Michael "Ford" Ditto)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Enhancer 1.3 package
Summary: Have rom-based Amigas boot from kickstart disk if present?
Keywords: NO ROMS!?
Message-ID: <5183@cbmvax.UUCP>
Date: 4 Nov 88 18:47:39 GMT
References: <12839@eecae.UUCP> <6531@xanth.cs.odu.edu> <622@quintus.UUCP> <5053@thorin.cs.unc.edu>
Reply-To: ditto@cbmvax.UUCP (Michael "Ford" Ditto)
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 24

In article <5053@thorin.cs.unc.edu> bell@unc.UUCP (Andrew Bell) writes:
>So why not compromise for the 3000:  EEPROMs?  The kernel would be
>distributed on disk, and you'd run a special program to load it into
>the EEPROMs, but thereafter you wouldn't need the floppy to power up.

>In article <622@quintus.UUCP> pds@quintus.UUCP (Peter Schachte) writes:
>Aren't you going to have incredibly horrible virus problems [ ... ] ?

How about a safer and cheaper (maybe) method:  Have the OS in ordinary
ROMS, but if a kickstart disk is in df0: it is loaded into some ram
which is made read-only.  That way, developers and such could test
new releases at the expense of having 512K less RAM, and if new OS
releases are available on floppy before they come out on ROM, those
people who really need the new featuers can live with floppy-kickstart
until the ROMs are available?

This could even be done right now on systems with MMUs (like the 2620).
-- 
					-=] Ford [=-

"The number of Unix installations	(In Real Life:  Mike Ditto)
has grown to 10, with more expected."	ford@kenobi.cts.com
- The Unix Programmer's Manual,		...!sdcsvax!crash!elgar!ford
  2nd Edition, June, 1972.		ditto@cbmvax.commodore.com