[comp.sys.amiga.hardware] Jumpers

jms@tardis.Tymnet.COM (Joe Smith) (08/26/90)

In article <24885@boulder.Colorado.EDU> hunt@tramp.Colorado.EDU (Lee Cameron Hunt) writes:
>p.s:  (to Dave Haynie and the hardware bunch) Jumpers, overall, are a pain.
>I realize that they are, in general, cheaper to use that software registers;
>but I sure like the functionality of software-selected hardware features.

Software jumpers have a problem if there's no software.   That is, when a
self-booting program (game) runs on the fancy new machine, it doesn't know
about the existence of any software registers that did not exist on the old
machines.  For certain things (like the NTSC vs PAL setting) it makes sense
to have a mechanical jumper (or EEPROM) so the right values are set up
at power-on.  I agree there should be a way for intelligent software to
later on override the defaults set by the jumpers.
-- 
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