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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: daniel_swe on February 12, 2009, 09:14:49 AM

Title: kickstart?
Post by: daniel_swe on February 12, 2009, 09:14:49 AM

Hello! Ive just came back to amigas, and have read this forum for almost a week now..


Since it is such a long time since i used amiga, i cant really remember very much about the hardware and tweaks..

I have read much about the kickstart-chips.. What is it they do? Is it somekind of bootloader, or am i totaly off?


Thank you very much! :-)

Title: Re: kickstart?
Post by: motorollin on February 12, 2009, 09:16:30 AM

They contain the parts of the Amiga operating system required to get the machine to a point where it can boot from either floppy or hard drive. They also contain some other things which are used after the Amiga boots.

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moto

Title: Re: kickstart?
Post by: daniel_swe on February 12, 2009, 09:20:07 AM

oh okey! Basic instructions for reading floppys, and using the screen?


Could it compare to a PC´s BIOS?

Title: Re: kickstart?
Post by: motorollin on February 12, 2009, 09:30:03 AM

Quote

daniel_swe wrote:
oh okey! Basic instructions for reading floppys, and using the screen?

Yes, among other things.

Quote

daniel_swe wrote:
Could it compare to a PC´s BIOS?

I was going to make that comparison, but IMO they're not really the same thing. Yes they both provide the basics for the machine to start an OS, but really that's all the BIOS is. The OS is then something completely different. On the Amiga, parts of kickstart are actually parts of AmigaOS. So kickstart does more than the BIOS since it actually provides bits of the OS which are used for more than just booting the machine.

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moto