> > I don't think you understand, the whole point of having a BIOS file is
> > because different systems *aren't* the same, instead of having to
> re-write
> > or re-compile the OS for each system, a BIOS file is used instead which
> > has the correct information for that given system. Like you said, all
> > C128s were the same, so there was one BIOS for them, but they are
> > different from the TRS-80 model IV, which has a different BIOS, which is
> > different from a Kaypro, which has a different BIOS, etc. I suspect that
> > with ELKs, a macine with a ROM BIOS could somehow have a file that made
> > use of that BIOS instead of starting from scratch. I would also think
> > that any machine that's hardware compatable with an IBM could more or
> less
> > use the same BIOS file, I believe the issue is simple what hardware
> > addresses to use for different things, right?
> >
> > Dan
> >
>
> I think I DO understand. A BIOS is writting specificly for one and only one
> chipset type.
I thought you mis-understood me as saying that one identical BIOS was used
by all machines, where that's not the case.
> So using a bios for a chipset XXX on a chipset YYY system would seriously
> damage your whole system (if it would even boot(what it won't do)).
I don't know if it would damage hardware, but you're right in that it'd be
a bad idea and probably wouldn't even boot.
And you
> don't have to re-write/compile ELKs to run on different systems. My
> bootfloppy works on my system (a commodore 286) and my friends a Tulip
> XT-III.
I think it's safe to assume that it boots on these different systems
because a) they are 100% IBM compatable, b) Elks is using the bios instead
of direct hardware access on the machines, or probably c) a combination of
both. The origional message was regarding accessing video driectly
instead of using a driver, which may cause a problem on a machine which is
not truly IBM compatable, and especially if that machine has no BIOS (ie
embeded). You said you were new to the list, right? If so, you probably
missed messages that were here a while ago stating that ELKs won't
correctly run on the IBM PCjr and Tandy 1000, because they aren't
compatable with the IBM PC and I believe that video memory was getting
trashed...if I remember right. My whole point in suggesting the BIOS as a
file was simply to allow ELKs to run on any machine that was 8088
compatable, regardless of IBM compatability, and regardless of a ROM BIOS
being present. Maybe that's not the best answer, but it's just a
suggestion to think about.
Dan
