On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 02:26:33PM +0100, Rudolf Marek wrote:
I have now received datasheets+pg for: K8M890 and VT8237A
..
Asus M2V-MX SE, K8M890 (38 ?) MSI K9VGM-V, K8M890 (38 ?)
M2V-MX SE has VT8237S, K9VGM-V has VT8237A.
I'll get either.
Don't worry too much about soldered SPI flash.
--8<-- http://www.darkwire.com.au/via8237s.pdf On-Board BIOS update Methodology
Applicable chipsets: P4M900+VT8237S and K8M890+VT8237S
In order to perform on-board programming to the serial flash soldered on motherboard, south bridge SPI bus has to be in high impedance states while applying external SPI signals to the soldered serial flash memory. VIA VT8237S embeds such high impedance capability. The following figure details the reference schematic for serial flash on-board solution with VIA VT8237S chipset.
[..schematic..] -->8--
Of course any SPI flash programmer will work, and it would be easy enough to add support for http://www.design-wings.com/i2c/u2c12.html boards (USD 69) to flashrom for remote programming.
//Peter