Date: Thu, 14 May 1998 09:09:35 -0400 From: sbabkin@dcn.att.com To: abial@nask.pl Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG, al@cn.ua Subject: RE: Q. Work on boot code for Intel Flash 2 PCMCIA card? Message-ID: <C50B6FBA632FD111AF0F0000C0AD71EEACDF3A@dcn71.dcn.att.com>
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> ---------- > From: Andrzej Bialecki[SMTP:abial@nask.pl] > > > I think the best solution would be to make an ISA card (yes, ISA, > > not PCI because there are many other good things to insert into > > PCI slots while ISA slots are commonly unused) that makes interface > > to a flash card through a 8K (or some other small) window, exposing > > the first 8K of flash memory at boot up. It must be mapped into ISA > > hole. This will allow to put the bootstrap code into this area of > the > > flash memory, that will be automatically called by any BIOS during > > boot-up. This bootstrap can then do anything from immediate boot > > to simulating a floppy drive. May be a good idea would be to have > > two independently mapped 8K or 4K sized windows for convenience of > > the bootstrap code. > > Have you done any testing with something similar, or written some > code...? > No. That's why I wrote "would be". But writing the bootstrap code in case such a card would exist would be very straightforward. Simulation of a floppy drive will require to intercept interrupt 14h (if I remember correctly) and then you can use the ordinary floppy boot code. Bootstrapping immediately from the flash would not be difficult either, just take the standard boot code, replace calls to BIOS with flash memory reads and write a small piece of code that brings the main bootstrap to memory. -Serge To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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