Re: Ram , Flash requirements?

[Dan Olson <dano@agora.rdrop.com>]

> No it doesn't; the only bit that _needs_ BIOS to work is BIOS HD/FH
> driver (d'oh) - if flash is mapped to 186's memory there's no need for
> such a driver, slightly modified ramdisk driver will do the trick. Other
> bits (serial, parallel, direct console) don't need BIOS to work, they
> just get port addresses from it (but these can be hardcoded anyway) ..
> and console driver will be replaced with serial console in embedded
> application.

True, I was thinking of console I/O mainly, but you're right, it wouldn't
be needed if a serial console is used.  I don't remember any mention of
what kind of I/O this system has, serial is a reasonable assumption but I
guess there could be a keyboard/monitor interface, or ISA bus or something
too.  Has anyone done a modified ramdisk driver as of yet?  There are some
embedded systems out there that people have been working on.  I don't know
if the kernal would need modification to do so, but it would be possible
to use the ram drive as the data memory, as it wouldn't need to be loaded
into RAM to be executed as is the case with a disk or port based RAM
drive.

	Dan