Re: Big Apple question

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

Supertimer <supertimer@aol.com> wrote:

> david@uow.edu.au (David Wilson) wrote:
> 
> >johnw@Southcoast.net (John Wolf) writes:
> >
> >>PC still all have DOS on the ROM, and that is why you have extended memory
> >
> >Very few PCs have DOS in ROM. All they have is the lower level BIOS that
> >DOS can use to control disks/video/ports etc.
> 
> I think John is more likely refering to what DOS uses as opposed to what
> Windows uses.  Every PC has an ASCII character set built into ROM,
> just like every Apple II, but no Mac.
> 
> The Mac only has a Toolbox in ROM.

Not any more.  The iMac and B&W G3 only have Open Firmware in ROM.  The
traditional Mac Toolbox "ROM" is loaded from a disk file at boot time,
and lives in write-protected RAM.  It uses up about 3MB of RAM, but it
is a lot easier for Apple to release updated "ROMs" now!

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand