512-byte OS Contest

[VolTeK]

well theres the problm, i already know what to do, what to use, so i might have it done tommarow... but i will try to add little by little. btw why use grub? why dont most people use their own bootloader? its easy if you know how fat works

i will probaly be in 3rd, but hey i am going to have fun!!

[Troy Martin]

I'm not shooting for winning myself, I think 01000101 will get first or second

[VolTeK]

reallly, with his 64 bit ideas i think his code will be very complex, mine will be so simple ha ha!



but a true way of filling all 512 bytes is without usng the padding, just to tell us that every bit is filed, but no ones code can be that perfect so leave the padding or times 510 - ($-$$) db 0 in. other wse someone will try it and their code will be 513 bytes or 511 bytes. so leave it in.

[inflater]

Count me in. I will be the first! counting from the bottom.

For a "512-byte OS", only 512 bytes of *ALL CODE* allowed right? No 512-byte bootloaders to load the 512-byte OS?

January 6th, midnight, PST. Now let me see... that's 24:00 at GMT-8... GMT-7 is 23:00, then GMT+1 must be 15:00.

[mrnoob]

Ill try to enter, ive spent a lot of time optimising my 440 byte fat16+pmode bootloader so hopefully thatll come in handy. Now to think of some cool features that dont require a lot of code >.>

[mrnoob]

actually, can data be stored in space over 512 bytes or must the entire shebang fit inside a sector?

[inflater]

I think you're allowed to access, address or store whatever you like in the system RAM with any size, but all your executable code (your 512 byte "OS") must not be larger than 512 bytes in sum.

[Love4Boobies]

I'll be returning from my holiday in 3 days but will only have time to write anything in about 5 days, I think. I just *might* send something. Good luck to the rest of you!

[xyjamepa]

I wish I can join,but unfortunatelly the comming mounth I have my first semester exams,
any way,good luck guys...

[Troy Martin]

The whole beast must fit in a sector, but if you have extremely awesome lossless compression that's allowed.

You can do whatever the hell you want to with memory though, that's completely fine!

This 512-byte OS is the boot sector, inflater, so no creepy recursing.

[Troy Martin]

Sorry for the double but some people think we need more time, so the due date is February 7th.

[inflater]

I think it's better to leave it at Jan 6th or sooner... why that long?

[Troy Martin]

Well, this could get into some odd flamewar...

A few people PM'd me saying that they'd like more time or that they need it. So, we're putting up a poll with two dates. The one with more votes wins.

[VolTeK]

well troy, here we start. lets have some fun

[quok]

Man, and I had just finished my entry... an el-torito bootsector coded entirely in Forth.

I won't really be submitting it, though.