Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!uwmcsd1!marque!lakesys!mikes
From: mikes@lakesys.UUCP (Mike Shawaluk)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Kickstart Eliminator
Message-ID: <402@lakesys.UUCP>
Date: 18 Feb 89 02:32:20 GMT
References: <5948@leadsv.UUCP: <1372@agora.UUCP> <11074@s.ms.uky.edu> <2909@m2-net.UUCP>
Reply-To: mikes@lakesys.UUCP (Mike Shawaluk)
Organization: Lake Systems - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Lines: 31

In article <2909@m2-net.UUCP> ba@m-net.UUCP (Bill Allen) writes:
>
>What I would like to see to combat the 2-disk-boot-1000 and
>must-buy-new-1.3-ROM-500 is battery backed-up RAM.  KS is
>booted from disk into battery backed-up RAM chips.  Which
>ever version is current is stored there throughout every
>coldstart.  When a new version of KS comes out you boot with
>it (ONCE) and that becomes your new operating system.  The
>speed and convience of a ROM boot with the ease of disk-
>based updates.  Has anyone seen such a animal?  Is this
>possible?

Actually, the above SHOULD BE possible, and not even that difficult!  I can
think of two variations on the theme; first of all, a static-RAM version of
the WCS daughterboard in the 1000, with lithium cells.  That's easy enough,
right?  Only it'd be a tad expensive, since static CMOS RAMs got pretty
expensive about the same time as dynamic ones.  You'd need 256KBytes worth,
which would be 4 64K x 8's or 8 32K x 8's...  Anyways, I also can see a
second variation, which would be an autoboot RAM board, which goes on the
bus, but is in fact a sort of external WCS board.  I'm not very well versed
on the details of the expansion bus, but maybe someone else out there is; is
it possible for a memory board (or other peripheral) to supercede internal
memory at a particular address?  That is, can an external board unmap the
internal ROMs in a 500 or 2000 (or 1000 for that matter)?  I'm betting that
the answer to this question is "no", or else there would be external add-on
Kickstart eliminators out there...


-- 
   - Mike Shawaluk
     ...!uunet!marque!lakesys!mikes