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DR-DOS in ROM

Agent Orange

Agent Orange

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I ran across an article from Caldera about programming DR-DOS into ROM, similar to what IBM did with BASIC back in the day. If it was a great thing, then I'm guessing it would already be out there (maybe it is). But, it sure sounds intriguing, and I'm wondering what kind of interest, if any, is out there, and what it would take to implement for it for boxes running say 8088/8086/386/486/etc.

http://www.drdos.net/documentation/romhtml/romch2.htm
 
My Brother NB-60 GeoBook has Datalight ROM-DOS, but as far as I can tell it's based on MS-DOS, not DR-DOS. It has an AMD Elan SC300 processor (an embedded version of the 386SX) running at 33 MHz.
 
vwestlife said:
My Brother NB-60 GeoBook has Datalight ROM-DOS, but as far as I can tell it's based on MS-DOS, not DR-DOS. It has an AMD Elan SC300 processor (an embedded version of the 386SX) running at 33 MHz.
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Do you know what type of chip it's on and how the system implements it? MS-DOS is fine, but I happen to have DR-DOS and think it's a cut above. I like the way you can selectively load drivers and utilities by stepping them though.
 
I've seen industrial controllers that had DR-DOS in ROM. I didn't realise it was unusual.
 
KC9UDX said:
I've seen industrial controllers that had DR-DOS in ROM. I didn't realise it was unusual.
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Probably not so unusual until you try to get your hands on one. I'm thinking it would be a nice project if all you had to do was drop a chip into a socket or piggyback it somehow.
 
I have an Emerson 8088 with MS-DOS 3.31 in ROM. The only (non-hidden) file on the ROM disk is command.com so you have the built-in commands only. But it boots really fast. Probably was useful for people who just wanted to "run programs" without swapping floppies or investing in a hard drive. The EPROM is a 27C010. I can dump it if you're interested.
 
Plasma said:
I have an Emerson 8088 with MS-DOS 3.31 in ROM. The only (non-hidden) file on the ROM disk is command.com so you have the built-in commands only. But it boots really fast. Probably was useful for people who just wanted to "run programs" without swapping floppies or investing in a hard drive. The EPROM is a 27C010. I can dump it if you're interested.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input. I'm real interested and that would be a good place to start.

Late note: I guess it stands to reason that you would need a modified BIOS in order to get the thing to boot and such.
 
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This might be what you're looking for: http://rayer.g6.cz/romos/romose.htm

Although this technically won't run DOS from ROM, it only emulates a floppy drive with a boot disk. DOS and the shell are still loaded into conventional memory before running. Im not sure if other ROM-DOS implementations do actually keep DOS in ROM (or if this is even possible).
 
jwt27 said:
This might be what you're looking for: http://rayer.g6.cz/romos/romose.htm

Although this technically won't run DOS from ROM, it only emulates a floppy drive with a boot disk. DOS and the shell are still loaded into conventional memory before running. Im not sure if other ROM-DOS implementations do actually keep DOS in ROM (or if this is even possible).
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link. I think it's possible but the implementation will most likely be tricky.
 
Would it be worth having a look at rom dumps from the early PS/1 which had PC Dos 4.01 in rom? They also had that Quadrant menu set up in rom. Models 2011 & 2121.
 
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My first question is space. A standard 27256 slot only has 32KB of address space - so you'd need a hardware solution to allow the system to page the ROM? I haven't looked in to how other systems do it.
 
Cal & Web,

I've found commercial papers on the process. Looks like Caldera is going by Caldera Thin and has a shared interest with an outfit in the UK. So, somebody is still embedding systems in ROM (I'm on my laptop right now so I don't have the links available - will post later). What about a hybrid of some sort? Why not an EPROM? From what I've read so far, it seems the embedded OS process is alive and well in the industrial arena.

Late Edit: Here's the pertinent links that I found so far:

http://rayer.g6.cz/romos/romose.htm

http://www.drdos.net/documentation/romhtml/romch1.htm

http://www.datalight.com/products/rom-dos

http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-re...-embedded-os-and-embedded-bios-156824385.html

http://www.wirelessdesignonline.com/doc/caldera-general-software-to-provide-embedded-0001
 
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I think that press release was optimistic. There is no sound beyond the PC speaker. The only ports on the back are video, serial, and parallel.
 
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