diff --git a/drivers/memory/Makefile b/drivers/memory/Makefile
index 3b4bfb063..e5d8ed687 100644
--- a/drivers/memory/Makefile
+++ b/drivers/memory/Makefile
@@ -16,7 +16,13 @@ CFLAGS = -I$i
 LDFLAGS = -i
 LIBS = -lsys -lsysutil
 
-OBJ = memory.o imgrd.o
+# imgrd_s.s is the ACK assembler version of the ramdisk. For more portability,
+# use the C version imgrd.c. However, the C compiler takes too much memory
+# compiling imgrd.c.
+IMGRD=imgrd_s.o
+#IMGRD=imgrd.c
+
+OBJ = memory.o $(IMGRD)
 LIBDRIVER = $d/libdriver/driver.o
 
 
@@ -28,13 +34,13 @@ $(DRIVER):	ramdisk_image $(OBJ) $(LIBDRIVER)
 	install -S 8k $(DRIVER)
 
 imgrd.o:        ramdisk/image.c
+imgrd_s.o:      ramdisk/image.s
 
 $(LIBDRIVER): 
 	cd $d/libdriver && $(MAKE) 
 
 ramdisk_image:
 	cd ramdisk && make
-	binsizes big
 
 # install with other drivers
 install: /usr/sbin/$(DRIVER)
diff --git a/drivers/memory/imgrd_s.s b/drivers/memory/imgrd_s.s
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..08e4e030f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/drivers/memory/imgrd_s.s
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+#
+.sect .text; .sect .rom; .sect .data
+
+! export symbols
+.define _imgrd, _imgrd_size
+
+.sect .data
+_imgrd:
+0:
+#include "ramdisk/image.s"
+1:
+
+! Use local labels to compute the size of _imgrd.
+_imgrd_size:
+	.data4	[1b] - [0b]
diff --git a/drivers/memory/ramdisk/Makefile b/drivers/memory/ramdisk/Makefile
index c33446014..815eae33c 100644
--- a/drivers/memory/ramdisk/Makefile
+++ b/drivers/memory/ramdisk/Makefile
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 PROGRAMS=at_wini bios_wini cdprobe dev2name floppy loadramdisk newroot \
 	pci sh service sysenv
 
-all:	image.c
+all:	image.c image.s
 
 clean:
 	rm -f $(PROGRAMS) bintoc image image.c
@@ -11,6 +11,9 @@ clean:
 image.c:	bintoc image
 	./bintoc -o $@ image
 
+image.s:	image.c
+	sed < image.c > $@ 's/^/.data1 /;s/,$$//' || { rm -f $@; false; }
+
 # Note for cross compilation: this executable has to be compiled for the
 # host system
 bintoc:	bintoc.c