Thanks Bari.
Bari Ari wrote:
Phil Endecott wrote:
So my first question is, will higher-capacity flash chips "just work", or does the motherboard design limit them to the flash size that they are supplied with?
Motherboard designs that use a serial LPC or FWH interface have all the control and address lines required routed from the chipset to the BIOS flash socket, but may still not be able to access memory windows of larger than 256KB, unless the chipset pin straps are set for 512KB, 1MB or larger. There may be other chipset dependent issues with accessing flash control register space (e.g., block locking) that require hardware and/or firmware workarounds.
So the answer looks like "maybe". Perhaps someone can suggest a motherboard where this is known to work? I have recently done some things using VIA mini- and nano-itx boards (I've just finished a digital picture frame based on a 500 MHz nano-itx) and they would be ideal for what I have in mind now, but if they are known to not work then I would consider something else. The nano-itx has a 512 Mbyte LPC flash chip; presumably there is no freely-available documentation about how it is connected up. Is there a way to know what will work apart from trying it?
Thanks,
Phil.