SUMMARY: PCI motherboard
PAT DUFFY
REPLYTO 1:377/15.1 UUCP
REPLYADDR du...@theory.chem.ubc.ca
PID GIGO unreg at tbos2cla vsn 0.99.950801
SPLIT: 09 Sep 95 02:49:09 @377/15 564 01/05 ++++++++++
From: du...@theory.chem.ubc.ca (Pat Duffy)
Subject: SUMMARY: PCI motherboards for OS/2
Organization: The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Document: PCI Motherboards for OS/2 list
Maintainer: Patrick Duffy, du...@theory.chem.ubc.ca
Last Revision Date: Sept. 4, 1995
Archived at: ftp.netcom.com, in directory /pub/ab/abe/
CompuServe (GO BENCHMARK)
Web pages: http://warp.eecs.berkeley.edu/os2/workbench/work.htm
This document is intended for use by individuals and corporations in a
non-commercial manner. It may be distributed freely within those
limitations. Commercial use of this document in any manner requires
prior written permission of the author.
This is the PCI motherboards for OS/2 list. For detailed descriptions
of PCI chipset problems and workarounds, please refer to the PCI
chipsets list. For detailed descriptions of problems with built-in IDE
controllers on some motherboards, please refer to the PCI IDE
controllers for OS/2 list. As usual, '*' indicates the recommended
motherboards, and '**' indicates that I would choose this motherboard
myself when picking a PCI motherboard for my own PCI system.
Also as usual, please feel free to correct any continuing misconceptions
I might have, to insist that I should recommend a motherboard I don't,
or to add a new motherboard/bit of information to what's here already.
Your contributions and/or corrections are always welcome and certainly
appreciated. Please, when reporting problems or successes, try to be as
detailed as possible in your hardware descriptions. BIOS rev. numbers
are especially useful. I've added the PCI vendor IDs of the motherboard
manufacturer in brackets after the description of each board and before
the set-up tips. The first number is in HEX and the second in decimal.
Useful Numbers: (8/27/95)
---------------
AIR: (408) 428-0800
Asus: (408) 956-9077 (tech. support)
ftp.asustek.asus.com.tw (ftp site)
http://192.72.126.1 (WWW site)
gopher.asus.com.tw (gopher site)
t...@asus.com.tw (tech. support E-Mail)
alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (internet newsgroup)
Award: (415) 968-4433 (Voice)
(415) 968-0274 (FAX)
(415) 968-0249 (BBS - 8,N,1)
1:143/2...@fidonet.org
EliteGroup: (510) 226-0434 (faxback)
Gigabyte: (818) 854-9338 (tech. support)
Intel: (800) 628-8686 (tech. support)
(916) 356-3600 (BBS -- N,8,1)
+44-793-496340 (U.K. BBS -- N,8,1)
(800) 628-2283 (faxback -- order catalogue 7 for a list
of PCI-related documents)
J-Bond: (408) 946-9622
Lexar: (408) 748-9199 (voice)
(408) 748-1040 (FAX)
Micronics (510) 651-2300 (Office -- Faxback after hours)
(510) 651-6985 (BBS)
Washburn (AMI): (800) 836-9026 / (716) 248-3627 (General inquiries)
(800) 836-8027 (Motherboard Hotline)
(800) 836-8028 (faxback and information about specials)
(716) 383-6086 (tech. support)
(404) 246-8600 (tech. support)
(716) 381-7549 (FAX)
(404) 246-8780 (BBS - V.34)
(404) 246-8781 (BBS - V.34)
(404) 246-8782 (BBS - V.32 or HST)
(404) 246-8783 (BBS - V.32)
PART ONE: 80486-based motherboards
-----------------------------------
Manufacturer Model Comments
------------------------------------------------------
AIR 486VP This is AIR's PCI/VL/ISA '486
board. It uses the Contaq chipset
and the Award (4.50g) flash BIOS. It will take all the different CPUs,
up to the DX4/100s and Pentium Overdrive processors. It comes with 256
kB of 15 ns cache. The board has been reported to work properly under
OS/2 2.1/2.11/Warp. This board has, apparently, recently been
discontinued.
(Advanced Integration Research: 1075/4213) (8/27/95)
Setup tips: None so far.
Possible problems: None so far.
AMI Super Voyager This is AMI's 486 board. It uses
PCI II the SIS chipset and will
accommodate up to a Pentium
Overdrive processor. It is, apparently, plug-and-play 1.0A-compliant.
The board will accommodate up to 128 MB of 72-pin SIMMs on board, and
comes with 128 kB (upgradable to 256 kB) of cache. The flash BIOS (by
AMI, of course) uses the WinBIOS interface, and supports IDE,
auto-configuring of PCI slots, and all the green features. The PCI
slots (there are three) are all busmaster-enabled and 2.0-compliant.
There are four ISA slots. Presumably there is one shared PCI/ISA slot,
though I've no indication of this. Floppy/serial/parallel support is
built in. I've had no reports of success with this board under OS/2 as
yet.
(American Megatrends: 101E/4126) (8/27/95)
Setup tips: None so far.
Possible problems: None so far.
Asus PCI/I-486** This board uses the Saturn rev. 4
SP3G chipset, and will accommodate both
the Intel and Cyrix CPUs, up to the
DX4s. In addition, the socket will also accommodate a P24T/P24D. It
also has all the 'green' features. It co-exists with the SP3, but since
it has the newer Saturn chipset I'm recommending it instead. (Make sure
to be very clear when specifying your motherboard that you want the SP3G
and not the SP3.) The board (currently at rev. 1.8) will accommodate up
to 128 MB of RAM (four sockets which must be filled in pairs) and 512 kB
of write-through L2 cache (256 kB is standard). This board has the NCR
53c810 SCSI controller on-board (with a standard internal 50-pin socket
for internal SCSI devices), as well as super multi-I/O
(IDE/serial/parallel) and BIOS support for 2.88 MB drives. There is
BIOS support for up to four IDE drives, though the board will only
accommodate two (on the ISA bus). (Internal IDE must be disabled and an
EIDE controller obtained if support for four EIDE drives is desired.)
The board has 4 ISA/3 PCI slots (one slot is shared between the PCI and
ISA bus and so effectively you have 5/2 or 4/3 slots) and a built-in
floppy controller. There is also a socket for a mouse (either a
header-style socket or a PS2 style) which takes up IRQ 12 if enabled.
I've had reports of success with OS/2 2.1, 2.11, Warp Beta II, and Warp
GA and this board. The AWARD Flash-BIOS on board is at revision 4.50G,
and the NCR .ADD file is dated 28/4/94. It should also be noted that
the jumpers in these motherboards must be set up carefully, and by
consulting with the manual which comes with the board. Apparently, Asus
has just released an update to the flash BIOS for this board. Everything
is reported to work, with the exception that OS/2 apparently does not
start from the boot manager. OS/2 still boots from floppy, and
downgrading to the 301 bios fixes the problem.
(Asustek Computer Inc.: 1043/4163) (8/27/95)
Setup tips: All 3 PCI slots on this board are fixed at
PCI INT A for level triggering assignment. IRQ to
PCI INT for each PCI slot is done in the BIOS. For
edge trigging, assignment of the IRQ is done with
the on-board jumper settings for the actual slot.
If you're running the board with an AMD DX4 (3x33)
CPU, it is necessary to set your jumpers as for a
non-SL enhanced DX4, except set J36 to 1&2 rather
than 2&3. The AMD DX4 will run in 2x mode (2x33) if
pin B13 is not grounded.
Possible problems: apparently the on-board SCSI-controller has problems
co-existing with OS/2 2.1 and a Quantum Prodrive 540S,
as synchronous communication must be disabled in order
for the system to boot. Other drives seem to work
well with the NCR chip (I have a Quantum Empire
1080S).
Asus PVI/486AP4* Asus may finally have it right with
their line of 486 PCI boards. This
particular board has the Aries (rev. 2) chipset and was reviewed very
favourably by C't. This board will take all the different 486 chips,
including the new DX4 (at 75 or 100 MHz), and has a spot for a Pentium
Overdrive P24T via a ZIF socket. It comes with 256 kB of cache
(write-back, L2), and will accommodate 128 MB (4x32 MB 72 pin SIMMs). It
has the latest Green features (Award BIOS, etc.), and has the NCR SCSI
BIOS built in (though there is no 53c810 chip itself). EIDE (PCI) is
built in as well. The board has 1 combination ISA/VL/PCI slot (only one
of the three slots may be used), 3 ISA and 3 PCI slots. I have had a
couple of reports of success with this board and OS/2 (2.1/2.11/Warp)
and NT. Revision 1.6 of the board still requires you to use the reset
button to reboot your machine if you have a SCSI controller installed.
(Asustek Computer Inc.: 1043/4163) (8/27/95)
Setup tips: One person has suggested that it would be better to
not use the VL slot in the board (to just disable
it). Upon doing this, the board is said to be very
stable. If you get an NCR SCSI card, put it in slot
1 to get the system to boot.
Possible problems: One person has reported that the chipset ID
procedure given in the chipset list does not work
for this board. In addition, apparently the Aries
chipset has problems with zero wait-state caches and
protected-mode code. Set your cache timing to
"normal" (instead of fast) for stable operation.
Asus PVI/486SP3* This motherboard uses the SIS
chipset and takes all the different
486 CPUs. Like the SIS Pentium chipset, the chipset used here will
allow many different external clock settings, so that DX2-80s and DX-40s
are well-supported. The board has 3 PCI slots, 3 16-bit ISA slots, and
a (shared) PCI/VL slot, and all the on-board integrated I/O (2 VL IDE
ports, 1 floppy port, 2 serial poarts, a mouse port, and one ECP/EPP
parallel port). The board uses the Award BIOS (which has the NCR SCSI
BIOS built in), though a Flash EPROM is apparently only optional. The
board will take up to 128 MB of RAM (in two sockets, if you can find a
64 MB SIMM). The board is reported to work very well under DOS, Windows
(3.1), and Warp.
(Asustek Computer Inc.: 1043/4163) (9/4/95)
Setup tips: None so far.
Possible problems: The B2 revision of the SIS chipset apparently does
not support mode 3 IDE well. Running a DX4 CPU at
50 MHz instead of 33 is reported to improve
performance substantially.
Useful information:
This board comes in five slightly different varieties, corresponding to
different revisions of the SIS chipset used: A4, B2, B3, B4, and B5.
The A4 chipset supports IDE up to PIO mode 2. All later chipsets
support PIO mode 3 and (in later revisions) above, though not always
very well. The various chipset revisions can be identified by their
labels:
A4 Version chipset: SIS 496 MU, SIS 497 MW
B2 Version chipset: SIS 496 NU, SIS 497 NS
B3 Version chipset: SIS 496 NV, SIS 497 NS
B4 Version chipset: SIS 496 NV, SIS 497 NU
B4 Version chipset: SIS 496 OR, SIS 497 OT
EliteGroup SA486P AIO-U Uses the Saturn chipset and has both
(STD) IDE and NCR SCSI onboard. Current crop
now has revision 4 of the Saturn
chipset. OS/2 2.1 has apparently been installed with all caches on and
runs (using the NCR controller) with no problems according to reports.
Apparently too rev. 0.4 of the board hangs if the cache is set to
"write-back". This board uses the SMC 37C665 I/O controller, so make
sure yours has 'GT' at the end of the model number, to fix problems with
system crashes when using comm. programs.
(Elitegroup Computer Systems: 1019/4121) (8/27/95)
Setup tips: The board has many jumpers and, apparently, nearly no
documentation to tell you how to set them. (Two pages
of photocopied jumper settings, I'm told, are all that
you get.) It may be necessary to set the on-board
NCR SCSI controller to IRQ 15 to get it to work.
Possible problems: Apparently the BIOS that ships with the board (burned
in, not flash) will not allow the user to change the
settings for 'Host-to-PCI'-Posting,
'Host-to-Memory'-Posting, or 'PCI-to-memory'-posting,
altthough this is possible via CTPCI.EXE, a small
program which is avaiblable from the German magazine
C't. (Flash BiOSes are available as an option.)
EliteGroup UM8810P AIO** This board takes all the Intel and
Cyrix CPUs, including the Pentium
Overdrive series. It takes up to 64 MB of RAM (in either 4x16
single-sided or 2x32 double-sided) and takes up to 512 kB of L2 cache.
There are 3 PCI slots (all of which permit busmastering, one of which is
shared) and 4 ISA slots (one of which must also be shared, presumably).
It uses the CMD chipset for PCI IDE, and the SMC chip for built-in
serial/parallel I/O. Support is built-in for up to 2.88 MB drives. The
board uses the Phoenix BIOS and supports all the green features. The
board uses the UMC 888X chipset for PCI support. I've had a report of
success with Warp and this board. In addition to this, this board has
passed all (except multimedia) certification tests in combination with
an S3 Trio64-based card and BIOS version 1.4-01. An EIDE HD (WD
AC2540F) was also used in the certification tests.
(Elitegroup Computer Systems: 1019/4121) (9/4/95)
Setup tips: None so far.
Possible problems: The BIOS allows you to run the PCI bus at either
half or all of the external CPU clock. This might
cause problems for DX40s, where you'll either be
able to run it at 20 or 40 MHz. The ISA bridge
(using these CPUs) will also not allow you to set
the bus speed to close to 8 MHz. Enabling the APM
(green) features of the board may cause it to not
reboot properly. Disable them for trouble-free
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