[LinuxBIOS] [Fwd: Re: Intel 440bx] - coreboot

14 Nov 2006


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From: Svante Signell svante.signell@telia.com
To: linuxibios@linuxbios.org
Cc: svante.signell@telia.com
Subject: Re: [LinuxBIOS] Intel 440bx
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 11:34:16 +0100
I'm very interested in the development for 440BX in V2. I have a Dual
CPU MSI-6120 with overclocked P2 Celerons. Below are some excerpts from
emails exchanged between the list and me in January this year.  I also
have at least 2 more boxes with the same chipset if everything works out
OK with the Dual CPU box I would replace the BIOS in these too. BTW: How
to backup the old BIOS to a replacement chip before starting? Is that
supported by flashrom?
Thanks,
Svante Signell
On Tue, 2006-11-14 at 10:32 +0100, Peter Stuge wrote:
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On Tue, Nov 14, 2006 at 01:43:13AM -0500, Corey wrote:
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On Mon, 2006-11-13 at 17:45 +0100, Shaddam Corrino IV wrote:
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I was looking around today and all that I could find was "certified
pre-owned" 256KiB flash ROMs for around $6 each.
[..]
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board). Did manage to find out that FrozenCPU.com carries the Bios
Saviors, and I've never had a bad experience with them, I've used
them several times over the years, and when you figure in shipping,
they're quite a bit cheaper than direct from ioss.
The BIOS savior $25 is definately worthwhile. Zero risk of shorting
the mainboard out while hotswapping flash chips then.
//Peter
==================================================
Hello,
I have been communicating with the Linuxbios mailing list on and off
(mostly off lately). I'm interested to try out the linuxBIOS on my old
dual CPU board MSI-6120. The current MSI/AMI BIOS V2.0 does not support
newer CPUs than Coppermine.
Currently I have two old PII processors (Mendocino) installed and would
like to upgrade to one Celeron 2 or dual PIIIs (Tualatin) using one or
two "Upgradeware SLOT-T" slot 1 to socket 370 adapters. A 1.3GHz Celeron
2 boots with this new CPU but runs _extremely_ slow, at around 8MHz
compared to expected 1.3GHz. This has been reported before in the thread
'Level 2 cache activation code' in late 2003.
Where can I purchase a replacement BIOS chip? Placed in a socket on the
main board is a 2x16 pin DIL labeled: 686 AMI BIOS 1995 CS 92222.
lspci shows:
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host
bridge (rev 03)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP
bridge (rev 03)
0000:00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
0000:00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
0000:00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev
01)
0000:00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02)
0000:00:0f.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905B 100BaseTX
[Cyclone] (rev 30)
0000:00:10.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1
(rev 05)
0000:00:10.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! MIDI/Game
Port (rev 05)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Graphics, Inc. MGA G400
AGP (rev 04)
=======================================================
On Wed, 2005-01-12 at 18:12 +0100, Peter Stuge wrote:
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On Wed, Jan 12, 2005 at 10:38:57AM +0100, Svante Signell wrote:
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Where can I purchase a replacement BIOS chip? Placed in a socket on
the main board is a 2x16 pin DIL labeled: 686 AMI BIOS 1995 CS
92222.
Please remove the shiny sticker and check how the actual package is
marked. You're looking for thin letters and numbers "engraved" on
top of the black plastic. Look for 29F020 or something similar.
I found the BIOS chip brand and version: Its a Winbond W29C020-90
(84400M282325601VA). Any suppliers available somehere?
Is it large enough to host LinuxBIOS?
My dual-CPU MSI-6120 MOBO has on-board dual channel Adaptec 7895 SCSI
support. Does V1 support this? What about the FSB settings avalaible in
the MSI/AMI BIOS v2.0: 100MHz, 103MHz, 112MHz, 133MHz?
It would be nice to run the board at 133MHz, eqipped with an 1.4GHz
Tualatin Celeron 2 or dual PIIIs. (Or VIA C3 1.0-1.4GHz, currently
single CPU, and hopefully soon dual CPU)
===========================================================
On Thu, 2005-01-13 at 16:23 -0600, Richard Smith wrote:
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no idea on the FSB settings -- I think linuxbios always goes with
the
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fastest :-)
The FSB is set via the clock chip.  The clock chip we have is set via
straps.  I'm not sure what your commercial bios is doing but the 440bx
is not rated for over 100Mhz.  So those other settings are
overclockings.  And they will change the speed of your PCI bus as
well.
I know about the 100MHz rating for 440BX. However, on the board you can
select 66/100 MHz FSB and the BIOS supports the higher FSB speeds. Also
the board has multiplier settings (3-5) x (66,100) MHz = 200-500 MHz for
CPUs with changable clock multipliers. The board runs today with dual
Celeron (Mendocino, 300MHz, before Intel disabled dual on Celerons) at
103/66*300MHz = 466MHz stably for many years now.
BTW: The memories I have installed are all PC133 parts.
...
I suspect your board has a small microcontroller on it with eeprom
that sets the strap settings on boot and then de-asserts reset.  That
or it boots in 66Mhz and then sets the clock chip after that.
Anybody know what clock chip is on that board?
Where to look for that chip?
The board also has a system manager jumper: Selectable between the
SuperIO chip (default) vs. the PIIX4E (southbridge). Wht is the meaning
of this choice?
I have the board description in pdf-format available if someone is
interested.
-- 
Svante Signell svante.signell@telia.com