Niklas Ekström wrote:
I have been in contact with Intel about obtaining the BIOS specifications for various chipsets (in particular the 430FX which is the chipset of my testing environment), but they seem very reluctant to give them away. I guess it might depend on that a) you normally have to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement to obtain them (which doesn't go well with the fact that I will make the source for the BIOS publicly available) and possibly b) that I'm a private person and not a well recogized BIOS manufacturing company.
Does anyone have a good suggestion as how to solve this issue? I think this is quite a major issue. Even though I think I have a clue on how to do most things (detecting memory size and type (FPM/EDO)), I also believe there are some things that you would actually need the BIOS specification for (atleast so I don't have to _guess_ how to do some things).
I believe some of you here (professional BIOS programmers) have read these specifications. Can you give any hint to how much information these specifications contain and how vital that information is? Also, is it possible to obtain that information for any other source?
/ Niklas
I provide consulting services to Intel, many times concerning chipsets. I am bound by non-disclosure agreement so I could not provide you with any information that you cannot receive by other means. However, Intel does not want to hide information regarding released chipsets, only to protect pre-release products. I believe that the best avenue for you is to request a developer CD-ROM subscription, which is free of charge, if you qualify and includes regular quarterly updates. refer to Developers' Insight CD-ROM at
The last issue I received was May 1999. The August issue is due any day now. The information is usually delivered on several (last one was three) CD-ROMs. You should be able to find the register-level description of all released chipsets. If you cannot find a particular chipset, please let me know and I'll try to figure out if the information is not available for a good reason.
Good luck,
Ron.