Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!rutgers!mtunx!mtune!westmark!dave
From: dave@westmark.UUCP (Dave Levenson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Diskless booting (bubble? battery backup ram?)
Message-ID: <163@westmark.UUCP>
Date: 5 May 88 23:24:56 GMT
References: <171@focsys.UUCP>
Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA
Lines: 24
Keywords: diskless booting bubble memory nonvolatile memory

In article <171@focsys.UUCP>, larry@focsys.UUCP (Larry Williamson ) writes:
> We are installing a network of industrial XT's in a factory. These XT's
> will be acting as dumb colour terminals connected to a Unix system.
> Because of the industrial environment, we would like to have these
> XT's diskless. 
...
> Booting over the serial line would be acceptable, except that the
> boot times could become rather lengthy. The serial channel will be
> running at 9600 baud max. 

IBM offers a net-boot option -- requiring their LAN card, I think,
and a replacement BIOS rom.  Note, they do not put MS-DOS in ROM,
but they make the system boot from the network server.  This ought
to be faster than using the serial port, which you can then still
use to communicate with your UNIX host.  You'd probably also need a
single disk-equipped MS-DOS machine somewhere to play server to the
net, but if it's only used for booting, it probably doesn't have to
be a super-expensive device.

-- 
Dave Levenson
Westmark, Inc.		The Man in the Mooney
Warren, NJ USA
{rutgers | clyde | mtune | ihnp4}!westmark!dave