ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» º º º Classic Above Board Video Board Compatibility: T-Z º º º ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ PROBLEMS W/ZENITH EGA BOARDS AND EMM If the customer is experiencing video problems when EMM.SYS loads, they will probably need new Above Board software. They will need SOFTSET and EMM versions with an Installation Diskette label date of 5/89 or later. Some background: Zenith ships at least two different EGA boards with their ZW-248 systems. One is made by SIGMA, the other by Paradise. Both use the same ROM driver on the board, which makes use of a 4K "SCRATCH PAD" area to store some information for the EGA board's operation. Intel's old EMM and INSTALL programs were unable to detect this "scratch pad" and caused the information to be corrupted. This caused erratic operation of the EGA. ZENITH EGA MODEL 449 & AB286 Customers report compatibility with Above Boards and this video card. Tech Note: We have one customer report that the discontined INSTALL software will work if this board's auto emulation is turned off, otherwise it would be necessary to manually install the Expanded Memory Manager. We have no reports of any problems with the SOFTSET program (which replaced the INSTALL program). (This board made by Sigma Designs) TATUNG MODEL VGA-16 *FIELD REPORTS* of compatibility with Above Boards, although there are some issues to be aware of when setting up expanded memory with this VGA adapter. Extended memory works great with this adapter without any modifications. 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. 16-bit VGA board similar to the Video 7 VGA. There is a switch for setting the ROM to 8-bit or 16-bit. Set it to 8-bit for it to work with AB expanded memory. Uses A0000-CA7FF. TAXAN PX1280 *Field Reports* of compatibility with Above Boards. This EGA video board uses address ranges: A0000 - C4FFF which could be an issue if the Above Board is providing expanded memory. Customer Note:If this board is used in conjuction with the Taxan Scanner in an 80286-based computer there won't be sufficient memory for EMM to load. Taxan scanner board uses D0000-DFFFF. TRIDENT VGA *Field Reports* of compatibility with Above Boards. There are two potential conflicts when the Above Board is set up to provide expanded (LIM EMS) memory: þ This VGA card uses a 32k area that the Above Board can use, from C0000 - C7FFFh. þ This 16bit VGA doesn't do true 16bit accesses through reserved memory, it fluctuates between 8bit accesses and 16bit accesses. Because it doesn't do true 16bit accesses it can cause lockups with current Above Boards providing true 16bit accesses for expanded memory. The only solution is to be put the VGA into 8bit operation by removing jumper J1. VERTICOM PGA *Customer Reports* of compatibility with Above Boards. There are two potential conflicts when the Above Board is set up to provide expanded (LIM EMS) memory: þ This VGA card uses a 64k area of the 128k area that the Above Board can use, from C0000 - CFFFFh. þ This 16bit VGA doesn't do true 16bit accesses through reserved memory, it fluctuates between 8bit accesses and 16bit accesses. Because it doesn't do true 16bit accesses it can cause lockups with current Above Boards providing true 16bit accesses for expanded memory. The only solution is to be put the VGA into 8bit operation. VIDEO 7 VIDEO 7 VGA FASTWRITE / VRAM *FIELD REPORTS* of compatibility with current Above Boards. There are two potential conflicts when the Above Board is setup to provide expanded (LIM EMS) memory: þ This VGA card uses a 32k area that the Above Board can use, from C0000 - C7FFFh. þ This 16bit VGA doesn't do true 16bit accesses through reserved memory, it fluctuates between 8bit accesses and 16bit accesses. Because it doesn't do true 16bit accesses it can cause lockups with current Above Boards providing true 16bit accesses for expanded memory. The only solution is to be put the VGA into 8bit operation by setting Switch 6 on the VGA board to the off possition. This disables the 16-bit ROM accesses and enables the 8-bit accesses. The Video RAM accessing is still 16-bits. Performance degradation of the VGA board is minimal. The VRAM board is similar and switch 6 instructions are the same. VEGA VGA *Field Reports* of compatibility with Above Boards.There are two potential conflicts when the Above Board is setup to provide expanded (LIM EMS) memory: þ This VGA card uses a 32k area that the Above Board can use, from C0000 - C7FFFh. þ A customer reported having problems with Paradox and Word Perfect 5.0 after installing an AB and EMM. Video 7 informed the customer that the VEGA version 1.04 of software was incompatible with LIM 4.0. They have a free upgrade to a new BIOS (and some other fix not described). VISION TECHNOLOGIES EV620 VGA GRAPHICS ADAPTER This is a 16-bit VGA board. We have customer reports of compatibility with Expanded Memory (using EMM.SYS) and the EV620 when the EV620 is set for 8-bit operations. There are no issues with this video adapter when the Above Board or Matched Memory Classic is configured for only extended memory. To configure the EV620 for 8-bit operations you must set the following switches accordingly: SW3 OFF SW7 OFF SW8 ON 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. WYSE 7190 VIDEO CARD * FIELD REPORT * This board use 16K of switchable memory addresses. The possible combinations are as follows: Switches 4 5 Mem. Address ---- ---- ------------ On On CC00 - CFFF On Off D400 - D7FF Off On DC00 - DFFF ZENITH ZENITH Z449 & INSTALL AND TESTAB *Field reports* of compatibility with Above Boards. Tech Notes: TESTAB and the discontined INSTALL programs aren't compatible with this graphics board. If a customer is trying to install the Expanded Memory Manager (EMM.SYS) using the old INSTALL program, it won't work. They will have to install EMM.SYS into the CONFIG.SYS file manually, or use our newer software (SOFTSET). ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ End of file Intel FaxBack # 1444 August 26,1992