Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 22:53:33 -0800 (PST) From: Simon Shapiro <Shimon@i-Connect.Net> To: Charles Mott <cmott@srv.net> Cc: freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: RE: Booting off PCMCIA Flash EEProm Message-ID: <XFMail.971031225333.Shimon@i-Connect.Net> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.96.971031230549.23407A-100000@darkstar.home>
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Hi Charles Mott; On 01-Nov-97 you wrote: > What is the possibility of getting a PC (either > a laptop or conventional chassis) to boot off of > a PCMCIA card? > > The first problem that is apparent is that the > rom bios looks to a conventional hard drive or > floppy for the boot record. How feasible is it > to hack a bios, or are there new bios implementations > which will boot off of an flash ATA virtual hard > drive? That is already available, from various vendors. Popular thing amoung industrial computers people (noise, dust, vibrations, corosives, you know... An EXPENSIVE source for these is ICS (Industrial Computer Source) form San Diego, CA. they have few which look like IDE drives, few that look like floppies, etc. If I remember right (wrote a couple of drivers...), most PCMCIA FLASH disks can be had either as memory or as IDE. Some are pretty clever about write operations, so flash ``wear'' is not as bad. --- If Microsoft Built Cars: Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you'd have to buy a new car. Sincerely Yours, Simon Shapiro Atlas Telecom Senior Architect 14355 SW Allen Blvd., Suite 130 Beaverton OR 97005 Shimon@i-Connect.Net Voice: 503.799.2313
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