From:	Lehlan Decker <decker@****.FSU.EDU>
Subject:	Re: ASIST assistance?
Date:	Mon, 4 May 1998 09:53:08 -0500

<SNIP>
> BIOS: Basic Input/Output System (?). Basically it's responsible for
> handling signals from hardware and letting the CPU access them IIRC.
> Naturally, software drivers or additional hardware drivers are needed
> for most things anyway. This is all working off of memory from
> reading too many manuals when I was younger so anyone with more
> up-to-date knowledge refresh me.
>
> > the ASIST being part of the BIOS, but I don't know that I'd say that
> > it is the BIOS. You can take the ASIST out of a cyberdeck, slap a
> > monitor and a keyboard on it, and you have a turtle. You take the
> > BIOS out of a PC, and you've got an useless assembly of glass,
> > plastic, and metal.
>
> ACtually, I have a book "101 things to do with a dead computer".
> Pretty funny. My favorite is turning the monitor into a fishtank.
>

Yes! Boat anchors are also a valid use.

> But to get to your point, I'd say that the differences between the
> hardware of a Turtle and a 'deck go beyond running ASIST...they work
> on different principles. Sadly, I have nothing to back me up.
> Anyone want to help me out?
>
Just my interpretation of course. A turtle, would be similiar
to our modern day desktops. You aren't plugged in, your still
typing, moving some sort of pointer etc.
Decking seems to be based on differing principals then modern
day computers. There the ASIST is your Input/Output, and the MPCP
translate this into the matrix. But here you have access to heardware
memory, task pools, etc. This is why your so much faster when decking
and of course why IC can fry you. I don't see decks as having an OS
per se. An OS is just an abstraction, so you or I don't have to deal
directly with the computer hardware. I'm thinking ASIST does away
this, or it and the MPCP replace the concept.
--
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Lehlan Decker 644-4534 Systems Development
decker@****.fsu.edu http://www.scri.fsu.edu/~decker
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The universe doesn't have laws, it has habits. And habits can be broken.