Technotes


Macintosh Plus ROM Versions



Technote HW 11July 1987



Revised by: March 1988
Written by: Cameron Birse July 1987



Readers Digest condensed version of Macintosh Plus ROM history, or the truth according to Bo3bdar the everpresent:

1st version (Lonely Hearts, checksum 4D 1E EE E1):

Bug in the SCSI driver; won't boot if external drive is turned off. We only produced about one and a half months worth of these.

2nd version (Lonely Heifers, checksum 4D 1E EA E1):

Fixed boot bug. This version is the vast majority of beige Macintosh Pluses.

3rd version (Loud Harmonicas, checksum 4D 1F 81 72):

Fixed bug for drives that return Unit Attention on power up or reset. Basically took the SCSI bus Reset command out of the boot sequence loop, so it will only reset once during boot sequence. This version shipped with the platinum Macintosh Pluses.

And Bo3bdar saith: "Thou shalt not rev them damn ROMs no more!"

Later that same day...

Bo3bdar Saith Also:

Lonely Heifer was about a 2 byte change,

Loud Harmonica was about 30 byte change.

No other bug fixes in SCSI or elsewhere.

Modified object code directly.

Not possible to get a specific ROM since they are all the same part number.

Shouldn't rely on a specific ROM, there will be no upgrade.

Bo3b Bo3b a boola, a wiff Ba2m Bo1om.




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