Custom Kickstart ROMs

[psxphill]

So this does not allow you to write to the roms from software need hardware ?

 
 That is what it says.
 
 However it should be possible to modify your motherboard to allow writing to the flash chip. At the very least you'd need to hook up a write strobe from the cpu to the flash chip, because by default the kickstart socket doesn't have any way of signalling a write.
 
 You might want to put in a "write protect" switch so that software couldn't accidentally (or deliberately) rewrite your kickstart without you realising. It's easier safer to require you to remove the rom and put it in a programmer.
 
 I'm not that jazzed about the optical sensor. I preferred the ctrl amiga amiga for 10 seconds switching that I had on my old (unfortunately dead) kickstart switcher. I don't know how that worked as there is no reset line to the roms either, it possibly just monitored the address bus???

[psxphill]

I think at the time, dealers were very worried about licencing

What issue is there with licensing if they are shipped blank? Would it help if they were shipped programmed with aros 68k?

[psxphill]

It makes installation a bit nasty because the users have a bootstrap problem.

They don't. A bootstrap problem would be:

1. To flash it you need a bootable system
2. To boot the system you first need to flash it.

Point 1 doesn't apply because you can flash it in an eprom programmer.
Point 2 doesn't apply because you can only flash it in an eprom programmer.

If an in place flashing solution was developed then you could still say it needed to be bootstrapped using an eprom programmer, you could make the flashing programmer compatible with a kickstart switcher & boot the computer off the real rom or you could ship it with aros 68k (or even go for a combination of all three).

If the flash becomes corrupt then you'll need to be able to bootstrap it again, shipping copyright roms doesn't gain anything.
 
 There is obviously more of a market for a chip that supports in place flashing compared to one that doesn't. I'm hoping that once people get their hands on it then a modification will be done that allows it, which will then raise the issue. But right now it's a product aimed purely at people who want to be able to burn their own roms, but don't want to wait for an eprom eraser. It's a start.

[psxphill]

Like hard drives, floppies, USB sticks, CD-RWs, DVD-RWs.... or maybe our countries should just levy a tax on all blank media. (:sealed: before someone hears me.)

You mean like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_copying_levy?