[OpenBIOS] Introduction

[Jim Stewart]

Hello all,

I've been lurking on the mailing list for about a week now and I'd like
to say hi.  I have an interest in Bios code because I've written the
Bios for our Flashlite series of controllers and I'm interested in
building an embedded Linux machine.

As far as contributions go, I can't give you my code, but I do have the
source to a PC/XT Bios, written in Masm, that was freely circulated a
few years ago.  It does work, I've burned it into eproms and booted from
it and I've used just a little code from it.  It's not very pretty, but
if there is any demand, I'll post it for downloading.

Concerning Microsoft OS's and Bios, at least in the case of Win95, I
have it on pretty good authority that the OS uses *none* of the Bios
functions. This is documented in "Unauthorized Windows 95" and confirmed
by the VP of engineering at Award Software.  What I got from my
discussions with him is that the current microsoft philosophy is for the
Bios to initialize the hardware and sorta give the os clues as to what's
out there and nothing more.

Whether this is relevent to your efforts is not real clear yet as I
haven't been on the list very long.

In any case, I'll be lurking, and if I can be of any help, let me know.

Regards,
Jim

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