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From: daveh@cbmvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Info on planned ROM upgrades-A2000?
Message-ID: <2878@cbmvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 30-Nov-87 12:00:03 EST
Article-I.D.: cbmvax.2878
Posted: Mon Nov 30 12:00:03 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 2-Dec-87 07:01:13 EST
References: 
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 41

in article , mp1u+@andrew.cmu.edu (Michael Portuesi) says:
> In-Reply-To: <45600039@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu>

> 	* If Commodore provides a future upgrade to Kickstart in ROM, will it
> work directly with either/both of these kits or will I have to go to the
> manufacturer for an update?

From what I've seen, these kits use 4 x 512K ROMs, while the A2000-style ROM
is a single 2Meg ROM.  So you'd probably have to get the ROM from them, not
Amiga.  Or make them yourself if you have an EPROM burner (I'd expect the
ROMs they give you are EPROMs, not masked ROMs, so you could erase the old
ones and put in the new code with access to the proper hardware).

> 	* What happens if Commodore starts using the second half of the
> Kickstart ROM space?  The CMI product uses that space to map the Kickstart
> RAM to.  

I expect that's a problem to some degree.  If a 512K KickStart ROM came
along, you might put the 256K version in ROM, then put most of the extra
stuff in that special 256K with a custom boot disk.  Kind of like a half
KickStart boot disk.

> 	* Is there any way to provide 512K Kickstart ROM space on the A1000?
> The comments from the Commodore folk so far have indicated that if the extra
> Kickstart ROM gets used, it would more than likely be for stuff that would
> otherwise reside on the Workbench disk, rather than introduce
> incompatibilities between the 1000 and the 500/2000.  Nevertheless, it would
> be convenient to have the whole thing in ROM on the A1000 too.

512K of ROM on the A1000 would need some special hardware of some kind.  The
4 x 512K EPROMs are just about all that fits in the allocated space, but if
the daughterboard is gone anyway, I'm sure that 1 x 4meg or 2 x 2meg ROMs
could be put in place.  It's already decoded for that, just a matter of
hooking everything up properly.  Though it's probably going to be awhile 
before there's a 512K KickStart.

> Michael Portuesi / Carnegie Mellon University
-- 
Dave Haynie     Commodore-Amiga    Usenet: {ihnp4|uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh
   "The B2000 Guy"              PLINK : D-DAVE H             BIX   : hazy
		"I can't relax, 'cause I'm a Boinger!"