Booting 7.0.1 From:ROM (Mac IIsi) /W Apps! My New Toaster:-)

[uniserver]

This thing boots sick fast,

I would say fully booted to the desktop in about 4 seconds.

love it because i have everything i want and need, don't have to worry about a SCSI hard drives going bad on me.

Don't Have to wait, for anything.

The computer runs silent,

At-least originally, the idea behind first macintosh to be like an appliance that just works, like a toaster. Steve Jobs would have thought this is perfect.

If i want the scsi zip drive, it works, or a floppy disk, pop in shows up on the desktop,

if i need write access, for an application or networking, i just boot holding keys R+A and it throws all 8 megs into ram disk,

there are still a few bugs were trying to work out here and there,

but over all this idea is rockin!

There is 2 guys that get all the credit! i wont mention their names unless they want to be known

But thanks guys for makin my friday!

images are high rez:

In Order to use this new ROM you must jumper pins as shown, to ignore on board rom.



Everything you see here is in ROM, no disks or hard drives connected, no network.



Very tidy look, /WO hard disk, Hey nice logo on the ROM

 

[uniserver]

Having this rom almost makes it like a Mac Gaming console

 

[uniserver]

picture of the Custom ROM, It's like vintage and modern technology come together!

 

[directive0]

That is SUPER cool.

 

[uniserver]

here is simcity, made sure that was on the rom

i built a city, i am going to let it sit for a few hours, see how stable this thing is.

so far its been rock solid.

 

[markyb86]

Thats 's awesome! Is this something that can be run on a smaller macintosh like the quadra? Or even a compact? This would be something I would love to have if I had the resource. I'm working on getting the imac to boot from a CF card for the silent type as well.. not as cool as what youre doing though.. :b&w: have fun

 

[CelGen]

That's ALL in ROM? 8-o

That's f%*! That has to be one of the most brilliant things I have seen done with the custom ROM SIMM.

 

[uniserver]

i know , it takes you a second to realize how cool this is.

In My testing:

When you choose RA boot keys,(Copy Rom to Ram Disk) it takes like 30 full seconds before it boots.

This is only with the Macintosh IIsi, Macintosh IIci only takes like 5 full seconds.

Haven't tried the SE/30 yet, should work in that as well!

ok well norton utilities tops out at 398 on the "test volume" benchmark

its pegged, but it should be, its a ram disk. it won't let me run the test from ROM because it cant write.

 

[uniserver]

PM me if you are interested in one of these,i can get you in-touch with the right guys!

This ROM works with the following:

IIx, IIsi, IIci, and SE/30

 

[tlc630]

I feel like I've stumbled in on the middle of conversation. What, exactly, is going on here? What is in this IIsi?

 

[uniserver]

This Macintosh IIsi has a Custom ROM Simm installed, This SIMM contains A Modified IIsi ROM, Mac OS and Applications. The custom simm has an 8mb capacity.

By Holding "R" down at power on, it will boot from rom to MacOS in Locked Read Only mode

By Holding "RA" down at power on, It copy's MacOS and Applications to an 8mb ramdisk, and is read and writable.

IF you use "RA" you want to make sure you have atleast 16 or so megs of ram because 8mb of it gets eaten up off the bat.

 

[uniserver]

the Mac IIsi has been running (from rom only) for 24 hours straight, just now, i'd say its pretty stable.

pretty awesome!

 

[uniserver]

Ok, I'v been thinking, Why would you want to buy one of these ROM SIMMS, and install it in your:

(IIx, IIsi, IIci, and SE/30)

- 32bit Clean! This simm will take your dirty 32bit machine and make it clean!

- Noise, With out the scsi hard drive in there, there is no noise at all.

- New Life, Even if you throw this in your SE/30 with a bad SCSI chip, Your machine is now up and booted, Apps running.

- Energy, if your aging PSU is already slightly weak, poping this rom in, and removing HD will relive your poor psu

- Speed, This thing is GD fast, were talking 4 second boot up times. Apps open as fast as you let off the mouse button, Instantly.

- Cost, Compared to CF2SCSI these simms are cheap! PM Dougg3 he will let you know the cost of a blank ROM 8mb simm

- 100% Fully customizable! you can put what ever you want on this thing, you got 8 mb's of space Talk to Dougg3 he sells a programmer for this 8mb simm, witch is also very reasonable in price.

- Reliability, your new rom is never going to develop bad sectors like Flash or Rotating media.

- Heat, the simm never even gets warm to the touch.

- Clutter, in the case of my IIsi, with out the HD, SCSI Cable, Power Cable, The inside of the case is now very tidy!

- Development, once you get this Rom Simm and programmer, you are open to options that were never available, including

changing boot up sound, and changing boot ICON, Etc

- Support, buying this will help continue the project, allows Dougg3 to continue making these simms

The only con I can think of is space, 8meg, however with 7.0.1 loaded on it, and Vintage apps, it seems like 8mb is plenty of room, you can always change what is on it, Taylor it to your liking!

 

[olePigeon]

If you have a IIci, you can stick 128MBs in that puppy. So if you use the ROM+RAM combo, that machine will be crazy fast with plenty of storage!

 

[uniserver]

my only issue is getting ahold of some 16mb 30pin simms,

i'm absolutely not going to pay the robbery prices on epay.

 

[Bunsen]

It occurs to me that something handy to have in ROM on a compact Mac (SE/30 for example) would be a good serial terminal emulator.

 

[register]

Now that there can anything be preinstalled on that ROM, including the set up of a RAM disk with preconfigured contents, one could automate any task that formerly was doable with a warm restart, only. Hwo fast it works! Think of custom drivers for peripherals to boot from alternativley, like originally unsupported drives and removable media. I admit that I have no clue about the level of reverse engineering skills required for such a nice hack, but how about invoking a choice of available boot options by using the Option-Key ("Alt"), like in recent machines?

Btw.: Might this be related to the concept of a Helper Disk like used in XpostFacto, which enables old G3 Macs to boot from nearly any connected storage?

 

[ClassicHasClass]

I missed something. Who's making these?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

dougg3

uniserver, is that 7.0.1 w/tuneup? I may need to get one earlier than anticipated . . .

Setting the SIMM up with a full suite of diagnostic/troubleshooting tools, basic apps like ClarisWorks, Z-Term and a GraphicConverter/SlideShow/Pictureframe app with a few simple games thrown in could be very interesting indeed.