19 Jan
2007
19 Jan
'07
4:13 p.m.
--- Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
You know, a little google goes a long way.
I found this in the google cache at:
http://www.electrocution.com/biosc.htm
"On an IBM-compatible, you will find the BIOS
embedded into a ROM on
the motherboard, together with hard disk utilities
and a CMOS setup
program, although this will depend on the
manufacturer. The ROM will
usually occupy a 64K segment of upper memory at F000
if you have an
ISA system, and a 128K segment starting at E000 with
EISA or similar.
It's on a chip so it doesn't get damaged if a disk
fails, as
sometimes used to happen on the Victor 9000/Sirius,
which had both
the BIOS and the system on the boot floppy."
So, you've got your work cut out for you if you're
going to bootstrap
from nothing.
There's sufficient code to load the boot record from
a disk present in the firmware, this we know for a
fact. We can get into definitions of bootstrapping,
and you would be far more qualified to give it
accurate and thorough justice, but "boot code" has to
be present in any computer. But again there is the
possibility that the bios code, *whoops* that resides
on disk just like a Tandy 2000, could be burned to an
eprom. And I only say possiblity because the though
images that are floating around doubtless contain the
necessary bios routines, neither I nor anyone I've
spoken to have made *effective* use of them. I haven't
even tried yet.
Thanks for pointing out that there's more work
involved with the hack then I initially thought.
Thanks an awful lot grrrr.
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