On Wednesday 08 January 2003 9:37 pm, Alessio Sangalli wrote:
> what about that disc on chip device: how much does it cost more or less?
In the UK they cost about GBP20 - so I guess that's about EUR30 / USD30 in
the rest of the world...
> Why can't we use a normal FLASH memory like the ones used to store a
> standard BIOS?
Because they do not have a large enough capacity. Standard BIOS chips are
2megabits (= 32 kilobytes), which is not neough to hold a Linux kernel.
> I can think those chips provide particular features, but
> which ones exactly?
The main thing which DoC does which you can't do with standard Flash Roms is
to format them as a Silicon Disc, and put a file system into them.
> Aren't common flash/eeprom chips much easier to find
> and cheaper to buy?
Yes, but they're too small.
> An external programmer could be needed (like for the
> eproms of etherboot) but most people could have access to such a device.
You can program a Flash Rom chip on your motherboard - no external programmer
needed - that's how you upgrade the BIOS even if you're not doing anything
with LinuxBIOS.
Antony.
--
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