=> => >... the bootstrap loader is virtually the same as DOS ... => >HALinNY => => wrote one of those once (for the IBM 360) - that really was => getting down to the nitty gritty. => Not everyone realised it but you could punch hex machine => code into an 80 col card by hand; the machine was hard wired => to read in iirc 40 bytes and execute it. 40 bytes of machine => code was just about enough to write a 'channel' program to => read the remaining 40 bytes followed by the next card. => IBM supplied pre-written 'lace punched' cards to duplicate a => card deck or print a card deck. I wrote one to do both => (amazing things these computers!!!). => I am prepared to wager as much as a couple of pints that => it's not possible to get more functionality on one 80 col card <bg> => => Andrew Davies MBCS CITP
Dammit, Andrew. You gave away the secret. Now no one will take my $5 bet and I will have to by my own dinner :( On the Univac 1100 series, you could punch the binary code into the maintenance panel and boot the system either from disk or from tape, depending on how you set the bits. For those who are not aware, every cpu has to have a bootstrap function or instruction. Typically it will read several hundred bytes off a predetermined device at a predetermined address and load it into memory at a predetermined physical location and pass control to a predetermined address in memory. Then it is up to the programmer to immediately start trapping interrupts and take control of the CPU. The rest is either DOS or Windows or Linux or whatever you like. That is why I could safely bet that the Vista bootstrap is virtually the same as DOS, because all x86 processors have to boot the same way. HALinNY HALinNY _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
