SECTION 7
System Information
PEN*KEY
R
6200/6300 Hand-Held Computer Programmer’s Reference Guide 7-9
The Master Mode boot process also affects the drive B: support provided by the
ROM BIOS. Since drive B: now refers to the same data as the ROM drive (D:),
drive B: is writeĆprotected by the BIOS. It is still accessible for a very important
reason. The ROM drive provided by a Master Mode reboot is limited to 512 KB.
If a larger card is prepared as a Master Mode boot card, only the first 512 KB of
data on that card can be accessed using drive D:. However, the remainder of
that card can still be accessed using drive B:.
Memory Map: Flash Memory Versus Shadow
RAM
See the Table 7Ć1
listing on page 7Ć10.
Boot Drive Selection
The PEN*KEY computer always boots DOS 5 from ROM, (that is, it never loads
IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS from a boot drive). CONFIG.SYS and
AUTOEXEC.BAT files are read from the default drive whenever the files are
present. The default drive used to load these startup files is controlled by a
CMOS variable. The CMOS variable has one bit that indicates whether a
Master Mode boot has been performed and two bits that define the default drive.
If the Master Mode boot bit is set, the other two bits are ignored and the default
drive is drive B:. If the Master Mode bit is not set, the other two bits are used to
define a drive that could
possibly
be used as the default drive.
Before a default drive is selected, a driveĆready test is performed. If media is
present and the drive is ready, it becomes the default drive. Note that this test
applies only to drives A: and B:, since they are the only drives that are associated
with removable media. When the default boot drive is not ready, the ROM drive
is selected as the default drive.
To obtain the ROM DOS bootĆup menu, press and release the reset button, then:
"
On a 6200 Computer, press hold the
[F4]
key;
"
On a 6300 Computer, hold down the
[Next]
key.
Use the bootĆup menu to override the CMOS setting by manually selecting the
drive that is to be the default drive. This menu is available even when Master
Mode booting. The drive selected at the bootĆup menu is still tested to ensure
that it is ready before that drive is selected as the default drive. If the selected
drive is not ready, the ROM drive is used instead.
H8 Downloads: H8PROG.EXT
H8 refers to a coprocessor in the PEN*KEY Computer and handles bootĆup. A
programmable chip, the H8 carries a version number that reflects the software
version burned into it at the factory.
Updated software is downloaded to the H8. The ability to upgrade the H8/300
coprocessor program allows for enhancements and modifications to the H8 and
system power management functionality. Updates to the H8 software are
performed by the BIOS extension H8PROG.EXT and are done automatically at
system reset. This BIOS extension resides permanently in flash and replaces the
previous method of using H8DNL.EXE to download H8APP.BIN.
"
NOTE:
If you currently use H8DNL.EXE in your AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS file to download
H8APP.BIN, remove the statement from the file for flash versions 1.29 and later.
7. System Information
