Re: thanks from elks newbie...!!

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

I somehow seem to have gotten this directly, not from the mail list.  Hope
it's okay to copy the list with a reply.

On Tue, 30 Jul 2002, Paul Nasrat wrote:

> > i am a student of Electronics engg. going to undertake a project work in
> > elks ...i want to embed elks in old computer mother boards, which are
>
> OK, that's quite ambitious.

Hmm, I don't know for sure, but my guess is that no, it's not ambitious at
all.  I've been told that there's nothing special in ELKS that causes
problems when running it from ROM, and it shouldn't be too tough to add a
ROM to an old computer (keep reading).

> > 1. ok i have dev86, i also have an old 286 or 386 motherboard with the
> > cpu....but how do i interface the rom or flash rom with it...in short..how
> > do i make the system boot from my elks kernel?
>
> Is it a PC?

I'm assuming a PC/clone, of course there are as many other answers as
there are other platforms if we're talking non-PCs.

> If it is a pc I really recommend you try first off booting of a
> floppy.  You might want to look at the following locations for images:

Good suggestion, it's easier to write floppies than ROMs (usually).

> > 2.so i have elksemu with me now...i can emulate my programs now..but is
> > there any mechanism by way of which i can directly embed my programs into
> > my board... like some hardware emulators or some software to directly send
> > the code into the rom chip thru the com or parallel port??
>
> umm, unsure - you may be able to do it via etherboot (a network boot
> rom)

Do you just want to install a pre-programmed ROM into the computer so that
it will boot from that ROM?  There are a few ways to do this.  Actually,
etherboot or something along those lines is a great way to go.  Network
cards, hard drive/scsi controllers, and other cards that have their own
adaptor ROM would have that ROM code executed by the computer before
booting.  I don't know for sure if there's a special format for the data,
but I don't think so.  The ROM has address space in upper memory, and the
BIOS jumps execution there, so it's ideal for this type of project.  Also,
IBM, and some clone makers, have ROM sockets on the motherboard for
"optional ROMs".  I don't know for sure how these were intended to be
used, but I suspect it's not any different than the adaptor ROMs, just
that the socket is in a different place.

> I'm using an old 8086 laptop and booting from floppy.  Others are using
> osimilar systems. If you have a old computer motherboard, start by
> building a system, then get it working on that, then look at ways of
> embedding it.

I'm using an origional IBM PCXT :)

Good luck!  Having a ROM based PC is really a neat idea, and probably
something you could get working with a little work.

	Dan