Re: [pc110] Windows CE on PC110 ?

Fringe Ryder (fringe nospam at ai.net)
Fri, 11 Dec 1998 15:57:41 -0500 (EST)

You can run ROM-based OSs on x86 processors. Most desktops, and virtually
all pre-486 ones, came with empty sockets for that purpose. IBM BASIC
was exactly that. If no DOS was found, BASIC was booted from ROM.

The BIOS still supports this. It's exactly how your video card can add
it's support to your BIOS. During the POST, the first paragraph of all
memory is checked for a specific signature (something like FF55). If
found, that code is run. And then the next paragraph is checked.

I doubt the PC110 has a ROM socket availible though. But... you don't
need one. The running can be done from DOS just as easily. Just load
the code into memory and jump to it. Same way partitions are booted
(as in my Laptop Labeller.)

Regards
------------------------------
Funny, I asked the same thing of a friend. He is of the opinion that WinCE
is not a "D"OS- but rather ROM-based, and not siutable for x86 processors.