4 ms·
Really shows how approachable it would have been to have just a tiny bit more added to the API of 'PC BIOS' to make for an extremely portable driver platform sy
by mjevans 1mo ago
Really shows how approachable it would have been to have just a tiny bit more added to the API of 'PC BIOS' to make for an extremely portable driver platform system to allow OS independent arbitrary hardware drivers as Forth that the system BIOS could compile at boot and run beneath the OS. Though of course the PC BIOS API from when that mattered isn't in anything like a modern protect mode operating profile.
- jacquesm 1mo agoPC BIOS was mostly just for DOS and bringup, it also helped in moving stuff across the barrier during 32 bit boot but afterwards the only thing you would normally use it for is to call hardware specific ROMs for instance for mode changes and such. The rest of the time you'd avoid it like the plague (also because of the expensive switch back to 'real' mode).