Wiki logic
Rick Murray (539) 13806 posts |
I tweaked a few out of date things on The History of RISC OS on Wiki-Wiki; and I have a few comments:
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Steve Pampling (1551) 8155 posts |
Plus inaccurate elements like stating that RO4 is in flash – if that were so I’d be able to reflash the spare RPC board upstairs to RO5.19… The Select section seems to wander from present to past tense and back, as does the RO6 section. Both appear to be pretty direct lifts of promotional material from ROL which is probably the reason for the citations comment. |
Tank (53) 374 posts |
I’ve still got two RPC’s with RO4 in flash. It was on carrier boards that plugged into the ROM sockets. |
Steve Pampling (1551) 8155 posts |
There’s always one isn’t there? :P |
Rick Murray (539) 13806 posts |
I know nothing about the Select/ROLtd stuff, so I just left well alone. Actually, truth be told, given the current level of development there, I didn’t even bother reading those sections. ;-) |
Rick Murray (539) 13806 posts |
I can’t imagine there is any actual point or benefit to the end-user in this, so the “RISC OS 4 is in Flash” is technically correct, but erroneous. It is useful for ROL. They don’t have to commit so many units of a specific version of RO4 to masked ROMs, they can erase and reprogram them with newer versions if necessary, and they can make any quantity down to one-offs (as opposed to whatever bulk volume makes sense for a masked ROM). However, given the lack of Flash capabilities of the RiscPC, plus the memory mapping overlaying parts of ROM area with some I/O stuff (could possibly be worked around), I think it is safe to say that a RiscPC user just isn’t going to be capable of reflashing the OS. It was never for your convenience, it was for ROLs (and to keep your price down). |
Dave Lawton (309) 87 posts |
Ok, my memory might be faulty on this but … My recollection of the activity around Black Friday, that the only time that RO4 was supplied in Flash ROMS, was to installers, and that this was V4.0 Masked ROMS have never been used for 4, 4.02 & later were and are (?) supplied on OTP ROMS, which although dearer than masked for an individual ROM, have a much lower minimum quantity, so the total funding required is much smaller. |
Steffen Huber (91) 1949 posts |
RISC OS 4.00 was supplied to end users as flash, on a carrier board. RISC OS 4.02 was supplied exclusively as OTP ROMs. ISTR that 4.39 (“Adjust”) was produced as masked ROMs, but can’t find evidence for that now. |