ROM disk [ was Re: RAM disk ]

[George Pajari]

>From ubc-cs!uw-beaver!mit-eddie!bbn!oberon!cit-vax!cit-vlsi!wen-king Sat Apr  9 15:52:18 PDT 1988
Article 393 of comp.unix.microport:
Path: ubc-cs!uw-beaver!mit-eddie!bbn!oberon!cit-vax!cit-vlsi!wen-king
>From: wen-king at cit-vlsi.Caltech.Edu (Wen-King Su)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.microport,comp.unix.xenix
Subject: ROM disk [ was Re: RAM disk ]
Date: 9 Apr 88 05:11:30 GMT
References: <1010 at daisy.UUCP> <802 at spdcc.COM> <1962 at ubc-cs.UUCP>
Sender: news at cit-vax.Caltech.Edu
Organization: California Institute of Technology
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Xref: ubc-cs comp.unix.microport:393 comp.unix.xenix:1769

Article <6052 at cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> by wen-king at cit-vlsi.UUCP (Wen-King Su)
> Reading about RAM-DISK drivers gave me an idea about building a
> ...virtually indestructible :-) UNIX box, whose root resides on a ROM-DISK.
> ....  Does anyone know whether UNIX can be booted off a ROM disk?  Does
> Driver Design Labs plan to provide ROM-DISK drivers?

(a) with some mods it certainly is possible to put UNIX in ROM...it has been
    done several times...most recently by HP with their Integral personal
    computer which has a relatively full System V UNIX + utilities + root
    partition in ROM.  If you are looking for a virtually indestructible 
    UNIX box (including built-ink ThinkJet printer) check this one out.

    It was also done in the days of Version 6 and minimal UNIX (which ran 
    on 64Kb PDP-11 computers) when some University (I forget which/whom) put 
    most of the kernel in ROM and ran with only floppies on a PDP-11/03.

(b) Driver Design Labs will write driver for any device for any (reasonable)
    O/S for anybody...given enough reason (i.e. $$$).  So far no one has
    asked for ROM-DISKs...but we're willing.

George Pajari (part-time M.Sc. student, part-time device driver writer)