Subject: Re: se30 rom
To: SUNAGAWA Keiki <kei_sun@ba2.so-net.ne.jp>
From: Nathan Raymond <nate@portents.com>
List: port-mac68k
Date: 07/14/2000 14:24:22
At 3:00 AM +0900 7/15/00, SUNAGAWA Keiki wrote:

>Bill Studenmund <wrstuden@zembu.com> wrote:
>
>Bill> On Wed, 12 Jul 2000, Jean-Francois Fortier wrote:
>
>>>  Is it possible to put IIsi rom in SE30 computer ? If yes,
>>>  howto ?
>
>Bill> No. They had different hardware, so the rom won't
>Bill> contain the right routines to drive the present
>Bill> hardware. Plus, AFAIK the se/30 didn't have an
>Bill> upgradable ROM.
>
>If the IIsi's ROM is ROM-SIMM type, it can be attached into
>SE/30 and make it have 32 bit clean ROM.  I read article
>about that on a magazine several years ago.
>
>I wanted to try this since then, but could not find ROM-SIMM
>model IIsi.  It appears to be vary rare.

Speaking of ROM SIMMs, does anyone have the definitive reason why 
Apple did things so differently with regards to their ROMs?  Some 
machines have the ROM soldered with no slot, some have it soldered 
with a slot and a jumper to select slot or soldered, some have no 
jumper but a slot and soldered, and some have just the slot with a 
ROM SIMM in place.  I've read that Apple intended all their 32-bit 
dirty machines (pre-IIci) to be able to be upgraded to 32-bit clean 
with a ROM SIMM upgrade, but they canned the idea, were later sued, 
and had to buy the rights to Mode32 from Connectix and distribute it 
free as a fix.

And then there's the real oddities: my Q605 has a ROM SIMM slot that 
my LC475 doesn't, and the Q605 also has what looks like a CUDA reset 
button on the motherboard!  Same board otherwise.  Oh, and I should 
mention that the LC475 video hack in the NetBSD booter doesn't work 
if the machine gestalt is a Q605 (i.e. there's a jumper on J18 on the 
motherboard, which I've read changes ROM vectors across the machine 
as well as changing the gestalt).  Is this documented anywhere?  If 
not, it should be mentioned for folks with Q605 trying to get video 
to display properly, or the booter should be updated with another 
checkbox and hack.

Anyway, the only machine in my experience where a ROM upgrade is both 
possible and gives you some tangible benefit is my original revision 
platinum G3, where I bought a later-revision aftermarket ROM DIMM 
from OWC for $50 that enabled slave EIDE drive capability and 
supposedly increases ZIF CPU upgrade compatibility.

--
Nathan Raymond



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