Date: Thu, 29 May 1997 12:21:34 -0700
From: Bill Currie <billc AT blackmagic DOT tait DOT co DOT nz>
Subject: Re: BIG suggestion for Opendos Features
To: randir <goehrigd AT gort DOT canisius DOT edu>
Cc: Perry Lorier <pl5 AT waikato DOT ac DOT nz>,
        "Mike A. Harris" <mharris AT blackwidow DOT saultc DOT on DOT ca>, pierre AT tycho DOT com,
        OpenDOS Mailing List <opendos AT delorie DOT com>
Reply-to: billc AT blackmagic DOT tait DOT co DOT nz
Message-id: <338DD73E.39FA@blackmagic.tait.co.nz>
Organization: Tait Electronics NZ
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References: <Pine DOT GSO DOT 3 DOT 96 DOT 970528195603 DOT 19984B-100000 AT gort DOT canisius DOT edu>
Precedence: bulk

randir wrote:
>         Remeber you are either going to have to multi-stage this entire
>         process or scrunch this all into one segment.. (thats all the
>         PC Bios loads.  This ofcourse takes up more memory, makes booting
>         a lot slower, and isn't all that useful at times..

It't amazing what you can do in 512 bytes if you're good at assembly
coding.  I managed to test the cpu type (whether it was 386+ or not),
load and test (basic magic numbers) a coff file, go into 32 bit
protected mode and jump into the loaded coff file all in less than 512
bytes (I think I have about 60-100 bytes free). If you want proof, have
a look at http://www.abwillms.demon.co.uk/prog/kernel.zip (Alaric was
kind enough to host it for me, thanks).

Bill
-- 
Leave others their otherness.