HiNT chipset, Metheus
Brad Hines
I was at a swap meet this weekend and saw a number of motherboards
using the HiNT chipset. These motherboards were impressively
configured and priced - 3 VESA slots, 3 EISA slots, and a couple of
standard ISA slots, capability for 16 MB SIMMs, AMI BIOS, and
486DX2-66, all for about $650 typically (including CPU) (prices are
usually about $75-$100 less at one of these swap meets than the lowest
prices you find normally). With the HiNT chipset, there was virtually
no premium for the EISA functionality over a non-EISA VLB motherboard.
VLB was only about $30-$50 more than an ISA motherboard.
At any rate, my question is, does anyone have any experience with the
HiNT chipset? Has anyone used it with Windows NT?
My other question regards the video board maker Metheus. Does anyone
have a phone number for them?
Thanks for any help you can provide,
Brad
--
Brad Hines
Internet: br...@huey.jpl.nasa.gov
Jet Propulsion Lab, Pasadena, California
Gary Upchurch
There are 3 of us in the networks group that have 486dx2-50 with the HiNT
G486HVL motherboards. We purchased our PCs from Cornell Computer Systems. The
board supports the following:
1. 3 EISA slots
2. 5 ISA slots
3. 2 VLB slots
4. 8 16mB simms
5. 64/128/256 kB direct map cache with either write back or write through
All of us are running MS-DOS, Windows, and Windows-NT successfully.
--
The opinions expressed above are my own and do not necessarily represent
those of Digital Equipment Corporation.
Gary Upchurch G_upc...@csc32.enet.dec.com
Network Support G_upc...@runhot.enet.dec.com
Gary Upchurch
Patrick Torre
>
>I was at a swap meet this weekend and saw a number of motherboards
>using the HiNT chipset. These motherboards were impressively
>configured and priced - 3 VESA slots, 3 EISA slots, and a couple of
>standard ISA slots, capability for 16 MB SIMMs, AMI BIOS, and
>486DX2-66, all for about $650 typically (including CPU) (prices are
>usually about $75-$100 less at one of these swap meets than the lowest
>prices you find normally). With the HiNT chipset, there was virtually
>no premium for the EISA functionality over a non-EISA VLB motherboard.
>VLB was only about $30-$50 more than an ISA motherboard.
>
>At any rate, my question is, does anyone have any experience with the
>HiNT chipset? Has anyone used it with Windows NT?
>
>
If I recall correctly the HiNT chipset is NOT really EISA. It is a subset
of EISA. They call it something like "P-EISA ? ". If you use a true EISA
card in one of these machines it has to be crippled into an ISA
compatability mode to function properly.
If someone has a manual for a motherboard with this chipset and can
elaborate on this I'm sure it would be appreciated.
This does cause problems with some EISA cards that expect to be able to
use level triggered interrupts and such.
David Watson
Hmmmm... where did you find the information that the HiNT chipset in
"NOT really EISA"?
I have a DX2/66 HiNT G486HVL motherboard (EISA/ISA/VL-BUS), and the
following is from the manual:
"With the Caesar Chipset, the G486HVL supports all main EISA features
such as down-shift masters and 32bit Master DMA capable of bursting to
33MB/sec transfer rate, EISA specfication configuration, Refresh,
Extended NMI status and controls, EISA bus master and command timeout,
software NMI generation. Direct Map Cache and Write-back or
Write-through scheme."
Now with all that said, my position is that I am not necessarily
doubting that there isn't a problem with the motherboard (though
others have posted success with Windows NT). In my case, I have not
been able to install Windows NT (either October or March) using this
motherboard. I have not pinned the problem down to the motherboard
at this point though. I am using an Ultrastor 24F EISA SCSI host
adapter with a 520MB Fujitsu hard drive and a Texel 3024 CD-ROM drive.
I also have a PAS-16 which has an unsupported SCSI adapter on the
board. I have tried every installation combination I can think of,
and I have never gotten a clean installation.
I have posted several messages regarding this to this newsgroup and
I've posted a message on Compuserve, and to date, I have not received
any information that would help. That is one reason I would like to
know the source of your information. This is the first time I have
seen reference to a possible problem with the HiNT chipset.
David
--
DAVID EDWARD WATSON Internet: de...@Virginia.EDU
Voice: 804-295-6736 BITNET : dew2w@VIRGINIA
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James A. Mullens
|> to...@atldbs.dbsoftware.com writes:
|> > In article <C76y1...@huey.jpl.nasa.gov> br...@huey.Jpl.Nasa.GOV (Brad Hines) writes:
|> >
|> > >
|> > >I was at a swap meet this weekend and saw a number of motherboards
|> > >using the HiNT chipset. These motherboards were impressively
|> > If someone has a manual for a motherboard with this chipset and can
|> > elaborate on this I'm sure it would be appreciated.
|> >
|> > This does cause problems with some EISA cards that expect to be able to
|> > use level triggered interrupts and such.
|>
|> Hmmmm... where did you find the information that the HiNT chipset in
|> "NOT really EISA"?
Section 4-3 of my manual:
"HiNT Caesar Chipset does not support the following functions:
Non-ISA compatible DMA
Non-ISA compatible Interrupts
Non-ISA compatible Timers"
followed by a list of EISA LAN cards not supported with some notes
about supporting only 32-bit DMA transfer and only level triggered
interrupt on a couple of the cards.
Section 4-4:
"HiNT's P-EISA architecture is unique in its design such that we harness
the performance of EISA at cost similar to that of ISA. ... and therefore
HiNT decided to abandon Non-ISA compatible redundant features defined
by EISA. ... HiNT chose not to implement the sanity timer because it
is not an ISA function and its function in EISA applications are not
obvious. The sanity timer does nothing but generates periodic interrupts
which may slow down system performance. At the BIOS level, the timer
is turned off upon system power-up. No applications have been known
to use this feature yet."
Appendix I:
Instructions to modify AHA-1742A's !ADP0002.CFG to change
SHARE = "AHA1740" to SHARE = NO
TRIGGER = LEVEL to TRIGGER = EDGE
The manual refers to the board as a "Super ISA" instead of an EISA.
jim mullens
Internet: j...@ornl.gov (128.219.128.17)
mul...@jamsun.ic.ornl.gov (128.219.64.31)