Instructions followed. E.D.
________________________________________ From: Kevin O'Connor <ke...@koconnor.net> Sent: Tuesday, October 29, 2019 5:36 PM To: Eli Duttman Subject: Re: Can SeaBIOS Work for Me? FYI, you'll need to send this to: seabios@seabios.org -Kevin On Tue, Oct 29, 2019 at 08:43:02PM +0000, Eli Duttman wrote: > Folks, please be very gentle with me. I'm a retired IBM mainframe system > programmer and, other than a few lines of COBOL and assembler written YEARS > ago, know essentially nada about 8x86 programming. > > I want to reactivate an "ancient" ISA bus PC. The machine uses a VTI > "Topcat" chipset, in the 386DX version. The chipset reference PDF is at > https://ia800603.us.archive.org/0/items/bitsavers_vtiVTITOPCTChipsetOct90_14572924/VTI_TOPCAT_VL82C286_82C386_PC_AT_Chipset_Oct90.pdf > > The CPU is currently a 486DX-33, but will be upgraded to an already on hand > 3X clock multiplying 586. The installed BIOS suffers from a Y2K defect and, > no surprise, doesn't begin to support high capacity HDDs. I recall a 1/2 GB > PATA drive giving me trouble. > > What I'd like to do is have SeaBIOS burned into an appropriate set of (E)PROM > chips and modernize things. PATA support could be pared back to only work > with optical drives, including the boot possibility or (for that matter) > totally. HDD BIOS support will come from an on hand Adaptec AHA1540 bus > mastering SCSI controller, which (IIRC) at 10 MB/S. is about as fast as ISA > can get. Floppy disk capability, in both the 3.5 & 5.25 inch sizes, is > available. > > Can my scheming be brought to fruition? Can minimal PNP support be provided, > given ISA limitations? > > BTW, Win-95 has previously run on the machine populated with 20 MB of RAM. > RAM can definitely be increased to 32 MB and, if I read the chipset > documentation correctly, 64 MB may be possible. > > TIA for your replies. > > > > Eli D.
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