From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Dan Olson Subject: Re: Ram , Flash requirements? Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2002 12:45:48 -0700 (PDT) Sender: linux-8086-owner@vger.kernel.org Message-ID: <20020611124147.N20181-100000@agora.rdrop.com> References: <3D06BA94.5DCD@havn.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Return-path: In-Reply-To: <3D06BA94.5DCD@havn.com> List-Id: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: linux-8086@vger.kernel.org > 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