Subj : Re: Modern instant-on sys
To : Tom Lake
From : Daniel
Date : Sun May 31 2020 10:01 am
-=> Tom Lake wrote to Daniel <=-
TL> You can get almost instant-on by turning on a fast boot switch which is
TL> available in most BIOS. Fast boot eliminates a lot of the checking
TL> (such as a RAM test) the regular boot does. Remember, for the old
TL> systems, the ROM was written for just that particular hardware. There
TL> was no need to try to identify all sorts of different hard drives, USB
TL> devices, etc. The ROM knew exactly what was there and only needed to
TL> start BASIC or an rudimentary menu. Modern systems then have to load a
TL> very complex OS from some device. When everything is in ROM, there's no
TL> need to do that.
Thank you for the reply. Let met phrase the question a different way because I
don't think I properly conveyed the question.
Imagine if Commodore continued releasing faster and more advanced versions of
the C64. System still loads on ROM and, with a flip of a switch the user is
welcomed with either a basic screen or a basic menu UI.
David, of the 8 bit guy, is actually building a souped up Vic 20 with off the
shelf components and getting help on his pursuit from a variety of people
including an old Commodore engineer. His dream machine, as he calls it. I think
he's naming it the Commander X16. He's intending to mass produce it for the
retro computing scene. Yeah he's a small guy with very little funding but the
pursuit is similar in concept to my question the one i asked about. Every copy
will be on identical hardware and software so OS complexity shouldn't be much
more complex than the original system.
while he's building a modern 8bit machine, I'm wondering if it would be
possible to do this very thing with a modern 32 or 64 bit processor with modern
storage, memory, video/audio, and input/output yet be instant on. And the
developer would be responsible for the look and feel of the application.
Daniel Traechin
... Visit me at
gopher://gcpp.world
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