REX: Difference between revisions
| Line 34: | Line 34: | ||
With a single wire soldered in place, REX permits BASIC ROM replacement! | With a single wire soldered in place, REX permits BASIC ROM replacement! | ||
This means that you can disable the | This means that you can disable the built-in BASIC/TEXT/TELCOM ROM | ||
on your motherboard and replace it with a specific block of REX flash memory. | on your motherboard and replace it with a specific block of REX flash memory. | ||
So, you can | Typically, this will be the same BASIC/TEXT/TELCOM ROM image we know and | ||
love, with a few changes. So, you can | |||
upgrade your OS with little tweaks like Y2K, the lomem patch, new | upgrade your OS with little tweaks like Y2K, the lomem patch, new | ||
character sets, put your name on the main menu, etc. | character sets, put your name on the main menu, etc. | ||
Revision as of 14:12, 7 February 2008
What Is REX
REX is completely plug and play flash memory upgrade. REX plugs into the Option ROM slot, with no soldering or necessity to open the laptop case.
Rex provides support for up to 8 in-circuit selectable option roms. That means, you can have 8 different software packages on one Option ROM, and select between them without physically unplugging anything.
In addition, REX is in-circuit, software reprogrammable. That means you can change, patch, or replace replace an Option ROM image without any special hardware or physically unplugging REX.
REX Manager
REX comes pre-programmed with release 1 REX Manager software. REX Manager allows you to pick which of the 8 ROM images is the one currently in use.
REX Manager operates "behind the scenes" to make sure the currently selected Option ROM image is automatically enabled on every power cycle. This is an impressive trick since REX does not receive power while the laptop is off (unlike the RAM memory circuit).
Also, REX Manager is able to do this without using up any precious RAM space!
Advanced Main ROM Replacement Mode (OPTIONAL)
For users that with the do-it-yourself spirit, an optional feature of REX can be enabled.
With a single wire soldered in place, REX permits BASIC ROM replacement!
This means that you can disable the built-in BASIC/TEXT/TELCOM ROM on your motherboard and replace it with a specific block of REX flash memory. Typically, this will be the same BASIC/TEXT/TELCOM ROM image we know and love, with a few changes. So, you can upgrade your OS with little tweaks like Y2K, the lomem patch, new character sets, put your name on the main menu, etc.
Installing REX Manager
From a cold restart, simply typing
CALL 63012
will install the REX system.
To start REX Manager, press reset and hold the ESC key. Then from basic type:
CALL 911
REX Manager will start, allowing you to manage which ROMs stored in REX can be used, and when.
Additional Utilities
A separately loadable utility will allow you to burn rom images into REX.
Future Roadmap
Future releases of REX will have a built in file system for managing REX files, TPDD files and RAM files.
There will be approx. 512K of file storage.
