Date   : Wed, 17 Apr 1985 19:44:34 CST
From   : mknox <mknox@UT-NGP.ARPA>
Subject: Reply to: cp/m bios blues...

The scheme you are using [not bringing in the CCP until the system is
up] *should* work just fine.  "There must be a bug there somewhere ..."
[Big help, right?]

Anyway, there is another scheme which CCS uses and might be of use to
you.  If you measure closely, CP/M-2.2 will fit in two tracks on a single
sided, single density diskette *JUST BARELY*.  I believe it has between
384 and 512 bytes left free, depending on bootstrap.

What CCS does is put the system out there with an absolutely minimal
BIOS, just big enough to force BDOS to run a program which reads in
BIOS.SYS into a memory buffer, copy it up over the mini-bios, and exit
with a cold or warm boot (as you choose).  You don't need 
any disk write, fancy error checking, serial port, or printer support.
You don't even HAVE to have a CON: driver.

Obviously the system is
loaded at an address which leaves room at the top of memory for the
full size BIOS.

An advantage over the CCP scheme is that is simplifies warm-starts after
every ^C, the CCP and BDOS are in the system tracks where they belong.
Another advantage (if you play with the BIOS like I do) is that all you
have to do to test out a new BIOS is simply replace the BIOS.SYS file.
No mucking with PUTSYS, GETSYS, or the like.