Amiga 1000 boot ROM & Kickstart 27.5(!)

From: Ethan Dicks <erd_at_infinet.com>
Date: Wed Feb 24 14:37:24 1999

>
> At 07:27 PM 2/24/99 -0000, you wrote:
> >> I want to try and get the data from the boot ROM dumped to disk; it will be
> >> interesting to disassemble this and see how it works.
> >
> >So it wouldn't be useful to you if I simply pulled the ROMs out of the Amiga
> >and read them using an EPROM programmer?
>
> No, that's the point - Amiga Kickstart was the ROM, loaded from disk
> into RAM. The Workbench OS disk was loaded second, after the Kickstart.

No, _you_ missed the point. The boot ROMs in the A1000 are only smart enough
to suck in the KickStart disk. Amiga KickStart _behaves_ like a ROM does in
other machines, but isn't. Same goes for the A3000 (although the original
A3K ROMs happened to have an embedded 1.4 image). The Kickstart image gets
stuffed into the WCS daughter card in the A1000 (or into FAST RAM in the
A3000), then a flag gets flipped to map the newly loaded Kickstart image
over top of the boot ROMs.

If you are trying to read the physical ROMs to a disk, then pulling them
and sticking them in an EPROM reader/writer will do what you need.
If you are trying to suck Kickstart out of the machine, then the real
ROMs are irrelevant.

-ethan
Received on Wed Feb 24 1999 - 14:37:24 GMT