ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» º º º Classic Above Board Video Board Compatibility: S º º º ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ SIGMA SIGMA COLOR 400 SIGMA COLOR 400 & ABS *FIELD REPORTS* of compatibility with Above Boards. Compatible with ABs providing expanded memory if D0000 block of reserved memory is free. If the AB is providing extended or conventional memory there won't be any conditions to compatibility. Tech Notes: Sigma Board uses B8000 to BFFFF for its Video RAM page and CC000-CDFFF for its Video BIOS ROM. The 6K block used for the Video BIOS prevents use of C0000 block for AB's expanded memory page frame. This means you MUST use D0000 for the AB page frame. Sigma 400 board I/O ports are 2D0-2DF which do not conflict w/AB I/O ports. Field report that Sigma 400 BIOS Version 2.50H is incompatible with AB AT in the Compaq Deskpro 286. Sigma reports this version works with the AB in the IBM AT. SIGMA COLOR 400 - BIOS VER & POWER CONSUMPTION The Sigma Color 400 with Bios version 2.52 (and possibly others) uses a 'significant' amount of power according to tech support a Sigma. Watch for power supply overload problems with AB, or IB along with Sigma Color 400. IBM ADVANCED DIAGNOSTICS & SIGMA COLOR 400 BOARD The Sigma Color 400 board causes IBM's Advanced Diagnostics to lock up when running. SIGMA COLOR 400 & INSTALL, SETBOARD, TESTAB INSTALL, SETBOARD, and TESTAB cause a blank screen soon after loading if a Sigma 400 is present in the system. EMM works fine with the Sigma 400. SOLUTIONS: SETBOARD; there isn't one. The display will go away although the program is still active. It is not practical to walk through SETBOARD without seeing where the display is, since SETBOARD is smart enough to choose it's current selections from the way the board is currently configured. INSTALL; it would be necessary to manually install the Intel software without the use of the INSTALL program, or use a different video adapter. TESTAB; Sigma 400 will cause a blank screen after asking operator to choose either 1 - for a PC system, or 2 - for an AT system. It then (invisibly) diplays the switch settings for the AB with the LOWEST I/O port address, and asks a question. For a PC system: "Do you want to continue? (Y or N)" For an AT system: "Is there a piggy attached? (Y or N)" If the operator chooses a response to the above question, the program will continue and the screens will become visible again. The remainder of the test program should run correctly. If the program fails to continue, then it is possible that the system is not totally IBM compatible, and the invisible screen contained the error message, "Your system is not totally IBM compatible." SIGMA LASERVIEW *FIELD REPORTS* of compatibility with Above Boards, though there might not be enough reserved memory space available for expanded memory to load. Extended memory has no compatibility issues with this card. The Sigma Laserview board uses memory at D0000. Set the AB page frame at C0000 in an AT or E0000 in a PC. If the C0000 & D0000 addresses are unavailable (due to network cards, EGA/VGAs, or other boards in their system), have them call Sigma Designs tech support. They have a special driver set that MAY help some users with conflicts. (It probably will NOT help with EGA/VGA problems.) Can also be set for address A0000, but some software (e.g. Publisher's Paintbrush and PC PaintBrush) expects the D0000 address and will not work unless the EXPL=CC00 option is used on the EMM line in Config.sys (AB Plus or Classic Bus EMM 4.0 Rev C only!). The screen goes blank on invocation if EMM is using anything in the D000 segment. (CUSTOMER REPORT) Some versions also use I/O port 248 and will show up as an occupied AB I/O port in SETBOARD. This version of the Laserview is not compatible with INSTALL. (CUSTOMER REPORT) Sigma Designs Technical Support: ph: 15-770-0100. SOTA VGA *FIELD REPORTS* of compatibility with Above Boards, although there are some issues to be aware of when setting up the Above Board to provide expanded memory. Extended memory has no compatibility issues with this card. The Sota VGA adapter is a 16-bit VGA board. When trying to install Expanded memory into a system that had this board, Install gave the message, "There is no Expanded memory to manage." The Sota manual explains there is a PAL located in socket location U-29 on the SOTA board that can be removed to put the SOTA board in 8-bit mode. This will allow the two boards to work together. STB STB CHAUFFEUR This is an IBM Color Graphics Adapter (CGA) compatible video adapter. We have one unconfirmed field report in July of 1986 of a Parity Check 2 with an Above providing expanded memory with this video card installed. STB VGA EM16 *FIELD REPORTS* of compatibility with Above Boards, although there is an issue to be aware of when setting up the Above Board to provide expanded memory. Since this 16bit VGA card doesn't do a true 16bit reserved memory access (it fluctuates between 8bit and 16bit reserved memory accesses), the VGA card needs to be set to an 8bit mode in order to work with our Expanded Memory Manager. If it did a true 16bit access we could add the 16BIT=03 parameter to the EMM.SYS device driver line to get this working, but this parameter will lock up the system the first time this VGA card does an 8bit access of reserved memory. This 16-bit VGA board runs in 16-bit or 8-bit mode by switching jumper J-3. Jumper settings are on page 21 in the STB manual. STB supplies RAPIDBIO.COM program that caches the VGA ROM into conventional memory. Put this as the first command in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file to alleviate performance degradation in 8-bit mode. SYSDYNE VGA 800 *FIELD REPORTS* of compatibility with Above Boards but must turn off the Autoswitching functions of the Sysdyne VGA in order to get expanded memory to work (switch #5 on the back of the Sysdyne VGA card). VGA MEMORY USAGE Some general info: VGA's in general use ALL of A0000 to BFFFF for video data. These guys tend to be in EGA mode most of the time because software has to be rewritten to use REAL VGA capabilities. There are more and more REAL VGA applications being written daily. VGA mode itself has several modes i.e. 640 x 480 w/sixteen colors, 320 x 200 w/256 colors (WOW the shading) and some others. The VGA board has TWO eproms located at C0000 to C7FFF which in effect is an extention of EGA (EGA used C0000 to C3FFF) so we can forget about the lower half of the C0000 area for use when providing expanded (LIM EMS) memory. Most VGA boards occupies (not necessarily always uses) the area from A0000 to C7FFF (160k!). IBM 's VGA in the PS/2 machines don't occupy the C0000 to C7FFF area because the BIOS supports it directly. ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ End of file Intel FaxBack # 1442 August 7,1992