AMI 286 and 386 BIOS new release Release notes Release date : 02/25/1989 This release of AMI 286 and 386 BIOS will have the following new features and corrections over the previous release which was 12/15/1988. new features 82C302-C chip support This release of AMI BIOS for will support 82C302-C chip which uses 4KB page size instead of 2KB page size supported by 82C302. This same copy of BIOS will support both the chips as the BIOS will automatically find out the type of chip used. Changes related to both C&T 386 chipset and NEAT Chipset Chipset register program bypass at soft reset... Previous releases of the AMI BIOS programed the C&T 386 and NEAT Chipset register either with BIOS default values or values set by user in the Extended CMOS in cold boot as well as soft reset. This version will bypass the Chipset programming in soft reset so that if the user runs any program to alter the chipset registers, it will remain unchanged till the machine is switched off. Compatibility issues resolved Western Digital WD1003V-MM2 controller and Miniscribe drives... The problems AMI BIOS had with the above combination of hard disk controller and hard drives have been solved. Problems in using hard drives with more than 1024 cylinders... All the previous releases of AMI BIOS supported more than 1024 cylinders directly through the BIOS. However the support in AMI BIOS was such that, the BIOS always use to return actual # of cylinders with the return disk parameter function call (function 8, interrupt 13h). This caused problem with DOS in using hard drives with more than 1024 cylinders because DOS can not handle more than 1024 cylinders. Also programs like Speedstore did not expect the BIOS to return more than 1024 cylinders with this function call. This release of AMI BIOS is modified to return maximum 1024 as # of cylinders in response to the return drive parameter function call(function 8, interrupt 13h). This will take care of the problem with DOS, Speedstore while using a drive more than 1024 cylinders. AMI BIOS Future release AMI, well known for its innovative ideas in making AMI BIOS more and more user friendly, will add the following new features in the AMI BIOS. The BIOS with these new features will be available in 3rd/4th week of March 1989. Modified CMOS SETUP Program Options to bypass Keyboard/Video/Floppy errors for Dedicated file servers and similar applications... The AMI BIOS will now have the option to configure the BIOS to bypass Keyboard and/or Video and/or Floppy tests through the CMOS SETUP program. This option is at present available through the AMIGEN program. User defined drive type... The AMI BIOS supports 46 predefined drive parameters. There will be occasions when you have a drive which does not match with any one of these 46 drive types. In these cases, you can use this new feature in AMI BIOS by which you can specify drive parameters through the CMOS SETUP program. These parameters will be stored in the CMOS. The type of drive will be type 47 which will be referred to as "USER DEFINED DRIVE TYPE". Features in last release(12/15/88) of AMI BIOS Options to bypass Keyboard/Video/floppy errors for Dedicated file servers or similar applications... This release of AMI BIOS can be configured to do one of the following:- - Bypass testing Keyboard and/or Video and/or Floppy controller during Power on self test. - Test all during Power on self test but in case of Keyboard and/or Video and/or Floppy controller errors do not wait for user to press the "F1" key. To configure the BIOS as above at your facility, you need the new AMIGEN program. You can buy the AMIGEN program from AMI if you do not have one. If you already have an AMIGEN program you can get the updated AMIGEN program and new release of the BIOS by paying nominal charges. Please refer to the price list for BIOS update for details. Support for additional serial ports... AMI BIOS will now look for additional on board or off board serial ports upto a maximum 4 ports. These serial ports will be assigned port numbers 3F8,2F8,3E8,2E8 as COM1, COM2, CMO3, COM4 respectively. However, the BIOS support for COM3, COM4 is limited to integrating them into the system. The BIOS will support data transfer and programmability for COM1 and COM2 only. Boot up screen... We have added a boot up screen for all types of BIOS with diagnostics program or extended setup program. This screen will contain data pertaining to system configuration. Changes related to both C&T 386 chipset and NEAT Chipset Additional memory configuration... In this release of C&T 386 and NEAT BIOS from AMI, you can have the following physical memory configuration which was not available in the earlier relases:- Bank 0,1 256KB chips Bank 2,3 1Meg chips BIOS will automatically assign physical bank 2,3 as logical bank 0,1 and make all the memory available to you. Changes in POST... In C&T 386 and NEAT BIOS the POST will always be performed with a memory wait state of 1 and it will be changed according to the EXTENDED CMOS settings before system boot. Clock Switching... The clock switching techniques for C&T 386 and NEAT is made more general. Now the AMI BIOS will support the following:- - Clock switching Using Keyboard controller pin - Clock switching programming processor clock speed - Clock switching programming processor clock and bus clock speed In last two cases the keyboard controller pin can also be used to bring the turbo led on or off. Changes related to AMI NEAT BIOS only 386 SX support in the AMI NEAT BIOS... AMI NEAT BIOS will now support 386 SX processor and the associated 387 SX co-processor. Contact AMI for an evaluation copy of this BIOS. 82C212B support... The AMI BIOS will now support 82C212 and 82C212B chip in the same copy of the BIOS. The BIOS will automatically find out the type of chip and program the chipset registers accordingly. The built in EXTENDED CMOS Setup program will also support both 82C212 and 82C212B.