Adam Talbot wrote:
Speed in ns: What controls that? Can I set/change the access speed to my "bios chip"?
The timing of the Flash BIOS read and write cycles are hardwired into the chipset and clock synthesizer. At most there is a pinstrap (Pinstrap = A signal line on a chipset that is read only after RESET that is used to configure the chipset. The line is either tied to a High or Low via a resistor.) to chose the type of firmware interface, x8, x16, LPC or FWH.
For an example, see page #3 of this schematic: http://www.amd.com/epd/desiging/evalboards/8.am186ccev/22002_1/22002_1.pdf
I have a few boards that had Eon chips(120ns), I have replaced them with SST's(45ns), they work fine. Are they running faster?
No. The chipset spec may just require a flash device of 120ns or less. Dropping in a faster flash device doesn't change the read access speed, since the speed is driven by the chipset.
-Bari