OS's In ROM's (was: Re: Mac Classic prob (was Macintoshes...)) - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

26 Jun 1998

Would it be possible to have a control chip and a OS chip?  You've got the
control chip, which contains address information on the OS chip, as well as
other EXTREMELY basic ssytem info.  Then you've got the OS chip, which
contains the OS.  Because of the control chip, it could be as large as you
wanted it.
    I've also heard of a "Windows 98 on a chip" system, with 75MBPS through
put.  Sounds like the first decent way to load Windows...
    Ciao,

Tim D. Hotze
PS-Did any computers have GUI's built in?  I think that I recall that a
Tandy did, but nothing else...
-----Original Message-----
From: Pete Turnbull &lt;pete(a)dunnington.u-net.com&gt;
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
&lt;classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu&gt;
Date: Saturday, June 27, 1998 2:09 PM
Subject: Re: OS's In ROM's (was: Re: Mac Classic prob (was Macintoshes...))

...
 On Jun 26, 21:15, Hotze wrote:
  I LOVE that idea.  Now, it'd need to be
EPROM, especially nowadays with bug
  fixes, a new version every other day of the week,
etc. but still, it's a way
  cool concept.  Which computers did this? 
Acorn's RISC PC has the OS (RISC OS 3.7) in ROM, about 4MB IIRC.  The
original Archimedes range (1987) had RISC OS 2.0 in ROM (512K, IIRC).
 Usually they're mask ROMs or OTPROMs.  The OS is structured as a series of
about 80 relocatable modules, so if an upgrade is required, you load the
relevant replacement module into RAM, and the kernel changes the links that
point to it.  Of course, changing the kernel module itself is a little more
tricky, but it can be done -- the first RISC OS 2 upgrades had instructions
on how to boot the system from a disk to load a new "utility module".

--

Pete Peter Turnbull
 Dept. of Computer Science
 University of York 