Document: PCI Motherboards for OS/2 list Maintainer: Patrick Duffy, duffy@theory.chem.ubc.ca Last Revision Date: August 20, 1995 Archived at: ftp.netcom.com, in directory /pub/ab/abe/ CompuServe (GO BENCHMARK) Web pages: http://warp.eecs.berkeley.edu/os2/workbench/work.htm This document may be distributed freely, provided it is distributed in its entirety and is unmodified. This is the PCI motherboards for OS/2 list. For detailed descriptions of PCI chipset problems and workarounds, please refer to the PCI chipsets list. For detailed descriptions of problems with built-in IDE controllers on some motherboards, please refer to the PCI IDE controllers for OS/2 list. As usual, '*' indicates the recommended motherboards, and '**' indicates that I would choose this motherboard myself when picking a PCI motherboard for my own PCI system. Also as usual, please feel free to correct any continuing misconceptions I might have, to insist that I should recommend a motherboard I don't, or to add a new motherboard/bit of information to what's here already. Your contributions and/or corrections are always welcome and certainly appreciated. Please, when reporting problems or successes, try to be as detailed as possible in your hardware descriptions. BIOS rev. numbers are especially useful. I've added the PCI vendor IDs of the motherboard manufacturer in brackets after the description of each board and before the set-up tips. The first number is in HEX and the second in decimal. Useful Numbers: --------------- AIR: (408) 428-0800 Asus: (408) 956-9077 (tech. support) ftp.asustek.asus.com.tw (ftp site) http://192.72.126.1 (WWW site) gopher.asus.com.tw (gopher site) tsd@asus.com.tw (tech. support E-Mail) alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (internet newsgroup) Award: (415) 968-4433 (Voice) (415) 968-0274 (FAX) (415) 968-0249 (BBS - 8,N,1) 1:143/210@fidonet.org EliteGroup: (510) 226-0434 (faxback) Gigabyte: (818) 854-9338 (tech. support) Intel: (800) 628-8686 (tech. support) (916) 356-3600 (BBS -- N,8,1) +44-793-496340 (U.K. BBS -- N,8,1) (800) 628-2283 (faxback -- order catalogue 7 for a list of PCI-related documents) J-Bond: (408) 946-9622 Lexar: (408) 748-9199 (voice) (408) 748-1040 (FAX) Micronics (510) 651-2300 (Office -- Faxback after hours) (510) 651-6985 (BBS) Washburn (AMI): (800) 836-9026 / (716) 248-3627 (General inquiries) (800) 836-8027 (Motherboard Hotline) (800) 836-8028 (faxback and information about specials) (716) 383-6086 (tech. support) (404) 246-8600 (tech. support) (716) 381-7549 (FAX) (404) 246-8780 (BBS - V.34) (404) 246-8781 (BBS - V.34) (404) 246-8782 (BBS - V.32 or HST) (404) 246-8783 (BBS - V.32) Manufacturer Model Comments ------------------------------------------------------ AIR 486VP This is AIR's PCI/VL/ISA '486 board. It uses the Contaq chipset and the Award (4.50g) flash BIOS. It will take all the different CPUs, up to the DX4/100s and Pentium Overdrive processors. It comes with 256 kB of 15 ns cache. The board has been reported to work properly under OS/2 2.1/2.11/Warp. This board has, apparently, recently been discontinued. (Advanced Integration Research: 1075/4213) Setup tips: None so far. Possible problems: None so far. AIR 54CEP This is AIR's PCI/EISA 90/100 MHz board. It uses the AMI BIOS (flash optional), and the Mercury chipset (I'm not sure why it uses the Mercury and not the Neptune chipset). It will accommodate 5 PCI cards and 4 EISA cards, all of which support busmastering. The board will take up to 128 MB of 72-pin SIMMS, and either 256 or 512 kB of L2 cache. The board has all the green features. There is a fast or fast/wide PCI SCSI port (both connections are present, apprently) built in which is based on the Adaptec 7870 chip. 2.88 MB floppy drives (up to two) are supported, as are 2 16550 serial ports, one mouse port, and one parallel port. I've had one report of success with this board using DOS/Win and Netware 3.12 (not surprising), as well as Warp. (Advanced Integration Research: 1075/4213) Setup tips: None so far. Possible problems: Quantum 1 GB drives do not communicate at full speed with the Adaptec 7870 SCSI chip. It is necessary (if you're using this drive with that chip) to set communication to 8 MB/sec. ALI PCI P5-60/66 This motherboard has 4 PCI and 4 ISA slots, one of each of which is shared, meaning you can run it as 4 PCI/4 ISA or 3 PCI/5 ISA. It does not have built-in support for the NCR 53c810 chip, so you'll need a 53c825-based controller if you want NCR. The motherboard uses the ALI M1449 chip to support ISA/PCI and Green standards, and the ALI M1451 chip to provide Host/PCI bridge. The 66 MHz version has been reported to work without problems with both OS/2 2.1 and OS/2 Warp, though not with Warp Beta 2 (it did work with Warp Beta 1). The 60 MHz board has been reported to work with Linux. (Acer Labs: 10B9/4281) ALI J624 This is ALI's 90 MHz board. It has all the green features, and uses the AMI graphical BIOS. The board has been reported to not work 100% reliably with Warp. (Acer Labs: 10B9/4281) AMI Super Voyager This is AMI's 486 board. It uses PCI II the SIS chipset and will accommodate up to a Pentium Overdrive processor. It is, apparently, plug-and-play 1.0A-compliant. The board will accommodate up to 128 MB of 72-pin SIMMs on board, and comes with 128 kB (upgradable to 256 kB) of cache. The flash BIOS (by AMI, of course) uses the WinBIOS interface, and supports IDE, auto-configuring of PCI slots, and all the green features. The PCI slots (there are three) are all busmaster-enabled and 2.0-compliant. There are four ISA slots. Presumably there is one shared PCI/ISA slot, though I've no indication of this. Floppy/serial/parallel support is built in. I've had no reports of success with this board under OS/2 as yet. (American Megatrends: 101E/4126) Setup tips: None so far. Possible problems: None so far. AMI ATLAS PCI This is AMI's 90/100 MHz Pentium motherboard. It uses the SIS chipset and will take up to 128 MB of RAM in 72-pin SIMMS and 512 kB of cache (256 kB is standard). The BIOS (AMI) supports all the green features and advanced IDE modes. There are four PCI 2.0-compliant slots, all of which allow busmastering, and four ISA slots (one of each of these slots is shared). (E)IDE/serial/parallel/mouse support are all built-in as well. The BIOS will automatically configure the PCI bus and is plug-n-play 1.0A-compliant. The board is reported to work well with OS/2. (American Megatrends: 101E/4126) Setup tips: AMI has apparently released a BIOS for this motherboard which is specific to S3-based cards. Apparently the motherboard will not recognize cards like the Stealth 64 Video VRAM unless this BIOS is in place. Possible problems: None so far. Asus PCI/I-486** This board uses the Saturn rev. 4 SP3G chipset, and will accommodate both the Intel and Cyrix CPUs, up to the DX4s. In addition, the socket will also accommodate a P24T/P24D. It also has all the 'green' features. It co-exists with the SP3, but since it has the newer Saturn chipset I'm recommending it instead. (Make sure to be very clear when specifying your motherboard that you want the SP3G and not the SP3.) The board (currently at rev. 1.8) will accommodate up to 128 MB of RAM (four sockets which must be filled in pairs) and 512 kB of write-through L2 cache (256 kB is standard). This board has the NCR 53c810 SCSI controller on-board (with a standard internal 50-pin socket for internal SCSI devices), as well as super multi-I/O (IDE/serial/parallel) and BIOS support for 2.88 MB drives. There is BIOS support for up to four IDE drives, though the board will only accommodate two (on the ISA bus). (Internal IDE must be disabled and an EIDE controller obtained if support for four EIDE drives is desired.) The board has 4 ISA/3 PCI slots (one slot is shared between the PCI and ISA bus and so effectively you have 5/2 or 4/3 slots) and a built-in floppy controller. There is also a socket for a mouse (either a header-style socket or a PS2 style) which takes up IRQ 12 if enabled. I've had reports of success with OS/2 2.1, 2.11, Warp Beta II, and Warp GA and this board. The AWARD Flash-BIOS on board is at revision 4.50G, and the NCR .ADD file is dated 28/4/94. It should also be noted that the jumpers in these motherboards must be set up carefully, and by consulting with the manual which comes with the board. Apparently, Asus has just released an update to the flash BIOS for this board. Everything is reported to work, with the exception that OS/2 apparently does not start from the boot manager. OS/2 still boots from floppy, and downgrading to the 301 bios fixes the problem. (Asustek Computer Inc.: 1043/4163) Setup tips: All 3 PCI slots on this board are fixed at PCI INT A for level triggering assignment. IRQ to PCI INT for each PCI slot is done in the BIOS. For edge trigging, assignment of the IRQ is done with the on-board jumper settings for the actual slot. If you're running the board with an AMD DX4 (3x33) CPU, it is necessary to set your jumpers as for a non-SL enhanced DX4, except set J36 to 1&2 rather than 2&3. The AMD DX4 will run in 2x mode (2x33) if pin B13 is not grounded. Possible problems: apparently the on-board SCSI-controller has problems co-existing with OS/2 2.1 and a Quantum Prodrive 540S, as synchronous communication must be disabled in order for the system to boot. Other drives seem to work well with the NCR chip (I have a Quantum Empire 1080S). Asus PVI/486AP4* Asus may finally have it right with their line of 486 PCI boards. This particular board has the Aries (rev. 2) chipset and was reviewed very favourably by C't. This board will take all the different 486 chips, including the new DX4 (at 75 or 100 MHz), and has a spot for a Pentium Overdrive P24T via a ZIF socket. It comes with 256 kB of cache (write-back, L2), and will accommodate 128 MB (4x32 MB 72 pin SIMMs). It has the latest Green features (Award BIOS, etc.), and has the NCR SCSI BIOS built in (though there is no 53c810 chip itself). EIDE (PCI) is built in as well. The board has 1 combination ISA/VL/PCI slot (only one of the three slots may be used), 3 ISA and 3 PCI slots. I have had a couple of reports of success with this board and OS/2 (2.1/2.11/Warp) and NT. Revision 1.6 of the board still requires you to use the reset button to reboot your machine if you have a SCSI controller installed. (Asustek Computer Inc.: 1043/4163) Setup tips: One person has suggested that it would be better to not use the VL slot in the board (to just disable it). Upon doing this, the board is said to be very stable. If you get an NCR SCSI card, put it in slot 1 to get the system to boot. Possible problems: One person has reported that the chipset ID procedure given in the chipset list does not work for this board. Asus PVI/486SP3* This motherboard uses the SIS chipset and takes all the different 486 CPUs. Like the SIS Pentium chipset, the chipset used here will allow many different external clock settings, so that DX2-80s and DX-40s are well-supported. The board has 3 PCI slots, 3 16-bit ISA slots, and a (shared) PCI/VL slot, and all the on-board integrated I/O (2 VL IDE ports, 1 floppy port, 2 serial poarts, a mouse port, and one ECP/EPP parallel port). The board uses the Award BIOS (which has the NCR SCSI BIOS built in), though a Flash EPROM is apparently only optional. The board will take up to 128 MB of RAM (in two sockets, if you can find a 64 MB SIMM). The board is reported to work very well under DOS, Windows (3.1), and Warp. (Asustek Computer Inc.: 1043/4163) Setup tips: None so far. Possible problems: The B2 revision of the SIS chipset apparently does not support mode 3 IDE well. Running a DX4 CPU at 50 MHz instead of 33 is reported to improve performance substantially. Useful information: This board comes in five slightly different varieties, corresponding to different revisions of the SIS chipset used: A4, B2, B3, B4, and B5. The A4 chipset supports IDE up to PIO mode 2. All later chipsets support PIO mode 3 and (in later revisions) above, though not always very well. The various chipset revisions can be identified by their labels: SiS 85c496 MU & 85c497 MW (A4) SiS 85c496 NU & 85c497 NS (B2); SiS 85c496 NV & SiS 85c497 NS (B3); SiS 496 NV & SiS 497 NU (B4); and SIS496 OS and SIS 497 OT (B5). Asus PCI/E-P5MP3* This particular motherboard has PCI/EISA been reported to work well, with the one caution that older motherboards had a bug in the serial I/O hardware. This board has identical specifications to the motherboard below, with the exception that this board uses EISA slots instead of ISA. (Asustek Computer Inc.: 1043/4163) Setup tips: None so far. Possible problems: None so far. Asus MB-586A- This is Asus' bare-bones 60/66 MHz PCI60C PCI board. It does not have any I/O on board, but does have a ZIF socket for a future upgrade. 256 kB of L2 write-through cache is standard, with 512 kB an option. The board uses the Mercury chipset (Intel) and the Award Flash-BIOS. It has 4 ISA and 3 PCI slots, and will accommodate up to 6x32 MB 72-pin SIMMs. (Asustek Computer Inc.: 1043/4163) Setup tips: None so far. Possible problems: None so far. Asus PCI/I-P54NP4 This is an ISA-based board which takes up to two 133 MHz CPUs with the latest BIOS update from Asus' web site. It has all the standard I/O built in (serial/parallel/IDE). It has 256 kB of on-board cache, upgradable to 512 kB. It will take four 72-pin SIMMs (with parity), and has a flash BIOS. The board uses the Neptune chipset. I have had a few reports of success with various revisions of this board and OS/2 2.11/Warp. The board may now work with OS/2 SMP with the latest BIOS. (Asustek Computer Inc.: 1043/4163) Setup tips: The board has many jumpers and, apparently, nearly no documentation to tell you how to set them. (Two pages of photocopied jumper settings, I'm told, are all that you get.) One other person has written to say that you get a very good manual with the board, so it could be that the documentation you get depends largely on where you buy the board. Get the latest BIOS to ensure correct operation and support for 133 MHz CPUs and OS/2 SMP. Possible problems: The board will not work with two CPUs and OS/2 SMP. Asus PCI/E-P54NP4 This is Asus' dual-processor board which uses the Neptune chipset. It has been tested under a variety of operating systems and, until recently, the only one under which it did not work was OS/2 SMP. A BIOS update (from Asus' web site) will apparently now make it work with OS/2 SMP and (up to two) 133 MHz CPUs. I've no technical specifications for the board, other than that it is a combination PCI/EISA board, and uses the Neptune chipset. (Asustek Computer Inc.: 1043/4163) Setup tips: Get the latest BIOS for the board for trouble-free operation under OS/2 SMP and support for 133 MHz Pentium CPUs. Possible problems: None so far. Asus PCI/I-P54SP4* This board can take a 75/90/100 MHz Intel Pentium CPU, accommodates 256/512/1 MB of L2 cache and uses the SIS PCI chipset. The AWARD BIOS (4.50g -- flash upgradable) is used, which has the NCR SCSI BIOS built into it. There are four 72-pin SIMM sockets for RAM, so the board can take up to 128 MB. The board has two 32-bit PCI IDE ports (via the CMD 640B chipset -- up to four drives may be attached), 1 floppy port (2.88 MB support built-in), two 16550 serial ports, and one ECP/EPP parallel port. It can be run with 3 PCI/4 ISA or 4 PCI/3 ISA slots. A beta release of this board has apparently run OS/2 2.1 and Win/NT with no problems, and revision 1.4 (the current version) apparently runs Warp (and Warp full-pack) without problems. All PCI slots in this board allow busmastering. People have reported problems with this board not booting OS/2 with various PCI SCSI controllers; these problems were solved by disabling the green functions in the BIOS. The same problems are not reported by another person with a 2940W, however. I have also had reports of success using an IDE drive in combination with the new ATAPI IDE CD-ROM, on which Warp full-pack was reported to install without problems (after modification of the install disks to point to the new ATAPI driver, of course). (Asustek Computer Inc.: 1043/4163) Setup tips: The PCI bus speed on the board apparently may be set in the BIOS setup as either CPU CLK/2 or CPU CLK/1.5 (to support the 75 MHz chips or, alternatively, to overclock the PCI bus). I don't know what effect running the PCI bus at higher-than-spec rates would have, though. The BIOS apparently also has many settings for PCI bursts and wait-states. Setting all of these to the fastest allowable values seems to work. The parallel port is assigned to LPT2: by default in the BIOS. The pin-out for the on-board mouse connector is: ------------------------------ | Gnd Data N/C +5 | | | | Clk -- -- N/C | ------------------------------ On a PS/2 mouse, these correspond to the following signals: Pin # Signal ----- ------ 1 Data 2 N/C 3 Gnd 4 +5 5 Clk 6 N/C The "Computer Stop" (206) 644-5400 apparently sells pre-made mouse cables. Possible problems: The green functions in the BIOS are apparently incompatible with many SCSI controllers; it may be necessary to disable them in order to get Warp to boot at any resolution beyond VGA. See the PCI IDE list for a description of problems with the CMD PCI IDE chipset. Some people have been having problems with compressed files being corrupted as they are uncompressed from floppy (a Diamond Stealth VRAM was in use on both systems, though this may just be coincidence). Asus PCI-I/P54TP4** These are the boards by Asus PCI-I/P55TP4* which use the Intel Triton PCI-I/P55TP4XE** chipset, with all that that entails. The boards themselves (note that the P55TP4 has been discontinued) take a 75/90/100/120/133 MHz Pentium, and can be run with either 4 PCI/3 ISA or 3 PCI/4 ISA slots (all of the PCI slots allow busmastering). Apparently one of the four PCI slots is a proprietary Asus Mediabus, which means that any cards designed to be run in it may have multiple functions (the combination sound/video card detailed in the video cards list would be one of these). You can still use the proprietary slot as a normal PCI slot, however. The boards will take from 8 to 128 MB of DRAM or EDO RAM, and has 256 kB of SRAM cache (upgradable to 512 kB), which may be either synchronous or asynchronous. The boards come with asynchronous cache, which is disabled automatically upon the insertion of synchronous cache. The boards have the SMC super I/O controller on board, and PCI EIDE via the Triton chipset, which apparently supports mode 4 data transfers and DMA mode 2. The board uses the Award BIOS (which has the NCR BIOS built in). There is also a mouse port, but no turbo switch connector on the board. The board was reviewed in the 4/95 issue of the German computer magazine C't. The review was very favourable towards the new Triton chipset and the ASUS board they tested. A board equipped with 256k Burst-SRAM and EDO-RAM achieved transfer rates of 65 MB/sec to 2nd level cache, 39 MByte/s on a direct memory access, 53 MByte/s on a write operation (STOSD), and 54 MByte/s on a memory to PCI transfer. Application benchmarks were run under Windows, OS/2 Warp, and Windows NT 3.5. They didn't mention any incompatiblities with PCI-components. The board failed when running the PCI BIOS check, which was attributed to the BIOS. (The PCI/I-54NP4 board which they used as a comparison failed that test as well). I have had several reports of success from people running these boards. (Asustek Computer Inc.: 1043/4163) Setup Tips: The BIOS settings for the board are apparently complex and the documentation minimal. Some time may be required to get it set up just right (though the board is reported to work well with the BIOS defaults). To that end, make sure you have the latest BIOS to ensure trouble-free operation. In addition, the latest revisions of the board seem to lack JP6, one half of the flash ROM read/write selector. This apparently is normal, as that jumper was never moved it was just bridged closed. If you look at the board with the keyboard connector in the top right corner, then, you'll see JP4 and (right below it) JP5, but no JP6. The file triton.exe, available on the major FTP sites, contains drivers which take advantage of the busmastering capabilities of the Triton chipset's built-in IDE controller. One person has reported problems with this driver and fixpack 9. Possible Problems: One person has reported problems with this board and a RAM chip labelled Ti -60 TMS417400DJ VBP 440230, wherein NT/3.5 would neither install nor run on the system. In addition, certain revisions of the boards do a PCI bus reset after the SCSI BIOS scans its bus, which causes problems for the QLogic SCSI controllers. It will be obvious if you have this problem; your system will not boot at all. Make sure that if you are using this combination of hardware and you have this problem that you get the fix for the problem from QLogic (the ISP1020 firmware level should be 1.27 or greater). Useful information: These Web sites contain some technical information on the Asus boards: http://www.infinet.com/~venkat/ (finger venkat@infinet.com) http://www.tdl.com/~netex/ (finger netex@tdl.com) DTK QUIN-35 This board uses the Award BIOS (flash optional) and the SIS 85C501, 85C502, and 85C503 chipset. In addition, motherboard specifications list the WinBond W83769F, W83787F, and W83768F chips, though I'm not sure what they do. The board is PCI 2.0-compliant. The board will accept up to 1 MB of standard cache, and 128 MB of conventional DRAM in four 72-pin sockets. The board has 3 PCI, 3 ISA, and one shared PCI/ISA slot, as well as the (nearly standard) 2 serial (16550), 1 EPP/ECP parallel, and one game port. Support is provided for up to a 1.44 MB floppy drive, and 2 EIDE drives. I've had no reports of success or failure with this board and OS/2. (Vendor ID unknown) Setup tips: None so far. Possible problems: None so far. EliteGroup SA486P AIO-U Uses the Saturn chipset and has both (STD) IDE and NCR SCSI onboard. Current crop now has revision 4 of the Saturn chipset. OS/2 2.1 has apparently been installed with all caches on and runs (using the NCR controller) with no problems according to reports. Apparently too rev. 0.4 of the board hangs if the cache is set to "write-back". This board uses the SMC 37C665 I/O controller, so make sure yours has 'GT' at the end of the model number, to fix problems with system crashes when using comm. programs. (Elitegroup Computer Systems: 1019/4121) Setup tips: The board has many jumpers and, apparently, nearly no documentation to tell you how to set them. (Two pages of photocopied jumper settings, I'm told, are all that you get.) It may be necessary to set the on-board NCR SCSI controller to IRQ 15 to get it to work. Possible problems: Apparently the BIOS that ships with the board (burned in, not flash) will not allow the user to change the settings for 'Host-to-PCI'-Posting, 'Host-to-Memory'-Posting, or 'PCI-to-memory'-posting, altthough this is possible via CTPCI.EXE, a small program which is avaiblable from the German magazine C't. (Flash BiOSes are available as an option.) EliteGroup UM8810P AIO This board takes all the Intel and Cyrix CPUs, including the Pentium Overdrive series. It takes up to 64 MB of RAM (in either 4x16 single-sided or 2x32 double-sided) and takes up to 512 kB of L2 cache. There are 3 PCI slots (all of which permit busmastering, one of which is shared) and 4 ISA slots (one of which must also be shared, presumably). It uses the CMD chipset for PCI IDE, and the SMC chip for built-in serial/parallel I/O. Support is built-in for up to 2.88 MB drives. The board uses the Phoenix BIOS and supports all the green features. The board uses the UMC 888X chipset for PCI support. I've had a report of success with Warp and this board. (Elitegroup Computer Systems: 1019/4121) Setup tips: None so far. Possible problems: The BIOS allows you to run the PCI bus at either half or all of the external CPU clock. This might cause problems for DX40s, where you'll either be able to run it at 20 or 40 MHz. The ISA bridge (using these CPUs) will also not allow you to set the bus speed to close to 8 MHz. Gigabyte GA-486IM This board takes all Intel and Cyrix CPUs and uses the UMC 888X chipset. It uses 256 kB of L2 cache and the Award flash BIOS (version 4.50B, dated 5 Dec. '94). Presumably the board can take up to 128 MB of RAM. This particular board does not work with an NCR SCSI controller made by Intel or Asus, although it does work with an external EIDE controller. (Vendor ID unknown) Setup tips: None so far. Possible problems: Many. The board will not boot OS/2 at all with an NCR controller made by Intel or Asus with a Cardex Challenger in a PCI slot. A switch to an S3/864 card will allow the system to boot, but the serial ports go undetected, or at best work poorly. Gigabyte GA-486IS This board uses the Saturn I rev. 2 chipset and has the NCR on-board SCSI chip. It will accept up to four 72 pin SIMMs (parity or no parity), and has 4 PCI and 4 ISA slots. The clock speed is switchable between 25 and 33 MHz, and the board supports only 5 V CPUs. There is a ZIF socket on board which will accept a 486 SX, DX, DX2, or P24T chip. The board has 256 kB of L2 cache. OS/2 reportedly runs well (with no problems) after upgrading the original BIOS, which had compatibility problems. (Vendor ID unknown) Setup tips: Disable the external cache on this board for reliable operation under OS/2, especially if you use a PCI-based SCSI controller. Potential problems: See the PCI chipset list for a description of the problems with the Saturn I rev. 2 chipset. Gigabyte GA-586AL/S This is Gigabyte's 60/66 MHz motherboard. It uses the Award BIOS and ALI chipset. I don't have any other specifics on the board or chipset, but apparently the board does _not_ work well with OS/2. The system will apparently install well, but on reboot cannot locate the desktop. To be avoided. (Vendor ID unknown) Gigabyte GA-586AP This board will take either a 75, 90, or 100 MHz Pentium. It uses the ALI chipset and the Award Flash BIOS. The board has 2 dedicated PCI slots, 3 dedicated ISA slots, and one shared ISA/PCI slot, so it can be run as 3 ISA/3 PCI or 4 ISA/2 PCI. The board will accept up to 1 MB of (asynchronous, I believe, and write-back) L2 cache. The board has six slots for SIMMs, and can use 1/2/4/8/16/32 MB modules. The FDD controller supports up to a 2.88 MB floppy, and the IDE controller is the CMD 640 (so use the latest CMD drivers (included) to see all the second-channel drives). The board also has 2 16550 serial ports and 1 EPP parallel port, and provides support for all the green functions. The board does not have on-board SCSI, but does have support for the NCR 53c810-based GA-410 NCR 810 PCI SCSI card in the BIOS. The board claims compatibility with all major operating systems, and I've had a report of success with it and Warp and Linux. (Vendor ID unknown) Setup tips: Use the CMD 640 driver instead of IBM1S506.ADD to ensure that all IDE drives can been seen and accessed properly. Potential problems: None reported so far. Gigabyte GA-586IP This is Gigabyte's 90/100 MHz motherboard, and takes one P54CT running at 60/90 or 66/100 MHz. It has four PCI slots, all of which allow busmastering, and four ISA slots. It takes either 256 or 512 kB of L2 cache and up to 768 (!) MB of SIMMs in six 72-pin slots (if you can get 128 MB strips). The board has the Award flash BIOS (4.50g). The board has been reported to work reliably under OS/2 (2.1 and Warp), as well as NT, etc. (Vendor ID unknown) Setup Tips: If you are using the Adaptec 2940 SCSI controller with this board, it is necessary to add the switches '/A:0 /I' to the basedev line of the driver. Failure to do so resulted in a consistent TRAP 3 for one netter. In addition, it is necessary to set the Int A jumper on the board itself _and_ set the BIOS. Warp full-pack requires the switch /PCIHW to be added to the device driver line in config.sys. Potential problems: In a test in C't they had problems with the ATI Xpression and the 586IP. Apparently, Gigabyte has modified PCI slots 0 and 1 (in an unspecified manner) so that the machine locks up when an ATI card is installed in one of these slots. Installing the Xpression in slot 2 is one workaround. Intel B486ED This is Intel's 486 PCI board, and can be outfitted with all the different Intel CPUs, from the 33 MHz 486 SX to the 100 MHz DX4 (each CPU gives the boards their own model number; for instance, the 486-DX2 processor-equipped board would be the B486ED8D266). The board may be upgraded to the Intel P24T processor. It will accommodate up to 256 kB of cache (128 kB is standard), and 64 MB of 72-pin SIMMs (with or without parity). The board has IDE and serial/parallel on-board. These boards use the Saturn II (rev. 4) chipset (I think), and have all the energy-saving features. (Intel: 8086/32902) Setup tips: None so far. Potential problems: None reported so far. Intel Advanced There are four boards in this series from Intel, all of which employ the Triton chipset and AMI BIOS, and will accommodate up to 128 MB of conventional or EDO RAM. All boards will support the 75 or 90 MHz chips; some will support the 100 and 120 MHz chips as well. All boards have on-board busmastering PCI IDE via the Triton chipset, as well as integrated serial/parallel/game ports. All boards also have 3 dedicated ISA, 2 dedicated PCI, and 1 shared ISA/PCI slot, so that they can be run in either 4 ISA/2 PCI or 3 ISA/3 PCI configurations. The file triton.exe, available on the major FTP sites, contains drivers which take advantage of the busmastering capabilities of the Triton chipset's built-in IDE controller. One person has reported problems with this driver and fixpack 9. (Intel: 8086/32902) Specific boards offer the following features: Advanced/MN: This board features on-board video (S3/Trio32, up to 2 MB of DRAM). The board will take up to 256 kB of asynchronous cache. The low-profile version of this board (MN/LPX) will take up to 512 kB of cache (still asynchronous). I've had no reports of success with this board and OS/2. Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: None so far. Advanced/ZP: This board will accommodate up to 256 kB of cache (asynchronous). It does not have on-board video. I've seen one report on the net which indicates that, although this board works well with DOS/Win (what doesn't?), video cards seem to not work well at all with this board and OS/2. One other report says that a board sounding very much like this one and using a Diamond Stealth 64 DRAM video card has worked very well (when used with a 100 MHz Pentium, which this board is theoretically not supposed to support). Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: There may be (as yet unspecified) problems with this board and certain video cards in OS/2. Advanced/ZE: This board is very similar to the ZP above, except that it has one extra dedicated ISA slot and one extra dedicated PCI slot. I have had no reports of success with this board and OS/2. Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: None so far. Advanced/EV: This board will take all the Pentium processors (up to 120 MHz), and up to 512 kB of synchronous cache. It has built-in audio (SoundBlaster 16 chipset) and, in the UK and Europe, the S3 Trio64 video chip. It has four dedicated ISA slots, three dedicated PCI slots, and one shared ISA/PCI slot. I've had one report of success with this board and Warp. Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: None so far. Intel AltServer This board is intended for use primarily in server applications. It supports either one or two 75 or 90 MHz Pentia, and uses the Neptune chipset and AMI flash BIOS. Up to 256 kB of (asynchronous) cache may be used in combination with up to 256 MB of RAM in eight 72-pin strips (EDO RAM is not supported). The board has an on-board Cirrus Logic 5430 video controller (with 512 kB DRAM expandable to 1 MB) and an Adaptec AIC7870 fast/wide SCSI controller. There are two dedicated PCI slots, five dedicated EISA slots, and one shared EISA/PCI slot, and all slots allow busmastering adapters. When a second (expensive!) 90 MHz CPU is added to the board with an SMP operating system installed, system performance is claimed to only increase by 30% according to Intel. (Intel: 8086/32902) Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: None so far. Intel Premiere** The 60/66 (Premiere) and 75/90/100 MHz (Premiere II) Pentium boards have passed OS/2 certification (with the 66 and 90 MHz CPUs in place, respectively). These boards are, therefore, highly recommended. The 60 MHz board has been reported to be problematic with SCSI, though Adaptec now seems to think their AHA-2940 SCSI controller should work with it, as do BusLogic and QLogic (I have had reports of success with the QLogic controller but not with the Adaptec or BusLogic). The 60/66 MHz board uses the Mercury chipset, while the 90/100 MHz board uses the Neptune chipset. All the boards come with 256 kB of L2 cache, can accommodate up to 128 MB (4x32 MB 72-pin SIMMs) of RAM, and use the AMI flash BIOS (currently at revision 1.00.13.AX1 for the 90 MHz boards -- other boards have different BIOSes specific to them). All boards have the NCR SCSI BIOS built in, and have IDE (for ISA and PCI) and I/O ports on the board. All boards use the PC Tech RZ1000 for IDE support. The boards can be run with 4 ISA/3 PCI or 5 ISA/2 PCI slots. (Intel: 8086/32902) Setup tips: Get (at least) rev. 1.00.10.AX1 of the AMI flash BIOS (for the 90 MHz boards) to fix problems with Guaranteed Acess Timing (GAT) and BackMaster 1.1. If you have an ATI card and an intermal modem, make sure you turn off intelligent remapping of the COM ports to avoid conflicts with the ATI card and COM4. If you are using an NCR SCSI controller, you'll have to set IRQ9 to 'used by ISA card' during the install to get the install to work (under 2.1/2.11). If you're running a SCSI drive as your boot drive, turn off the drive C: timeout for a faster boot. WARNING *** WARNING *** WARNING *** WARNING *** WARNING *** WARNING The following setup information is provided with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY of ANY KIND. In no manner whatsoever shall I (Patrick Duffy, the author of the PCI motherboards list) be held responsible for damage of any sort caused by application of said information. That said, here's how to make your 90 MHz Premiere II board run at 100 MHz: Move the "reserved" jumper (J13) on the board to pins 1 & 2 (the 75 MHz side) from pins 2 & 3 (the 75/90 side). This causes the Pentium to run at 100 MHz instead of 90. WARNING *** WARNING *** WARNING *** WARNING *** WARNING *** WARNING Potential problems: See the PCI chipset list and the PCI IDE list for descriptions of the Neptune chipset and IDE drive problem, The SMC chip used to control the serial ports should have the letters "GT" after it for trouble-free communications. DEALS OF THE WEEK: Intel P90 CPU: Computime $599 (619) 268-8856 Pixel $618 (408) 929-7218 Computer Integration Tech $639 (800) 730-2983 Roland Baker $645 baker@ocf.berkeley.edu Intel Premiere II P90 Motherboards: Roland Baker $335 baker@ocf.berkeley.edu Spire Tech $407 spire@teleport.com Tony $360 (818) 281-8628 J-Bond PCI400C-A This board will use up to a DX2-66 CPU, and has a spot for a Pentium Overdrive chip (whatever those really are). It has rev. 2 of the Saturn Chipset (the latest boards do), and the Phoenix BIOS rev. 1.03 (the board reported has a BIOS dated April 2, 1994). The board has a built-in NCR SCSI controller (presumably based on the 53c810, though this was not indicated). It boots OS/2 successufully, though there seems to be long delays before bootup when a Quantum LPS540S hard drive is used (but not a Seagate). (This seems to be a problem with that particular Quantum drive.) The board takes up to 4 72-pin 36-bit SIMMs, installed in identical pairs. The board will take either three PCI and four ISA or two PCI and five ISA cards (one slot is shared). The board has no on-board I/O at all (except for the SCSI controller). Warp beta II has apparently installed fairly painlessly on this board, though there are random lockups which seem to be due to a design shortcoming of the motherboard. I wouldn't recommend this board. Setup tips: Disable the external cache for reliable SCSI operation. Potential problems: See the PCI chipset list for a description of the problems with the Saturn I (rev. 2) chipset. J. Bond PCI500C-A This board is, from a report I've received, no better than the 486 board above. Apparently the only way to make _this_ board stable (the test configuration had a 66 MHz Pentium, 512 kB cache, Phoenix BIOS 1.03, shadow RAM enabled, Mercury chipset, and the NCR 53c810 controller (built in) attached to a Quantum SCSI HD) is to disable the on-chip 16 kB cache. This, of course, makes the Pentium _really_ slow. New boards may have this problem fixed (whatever's causing it), but I have no way of knowing. If you're still curious, the board has 4 PCI and 4 ISA slots, and can accommodate up to four 72-pin SIMMs. (J. Bond Computer Systems: 1086/4230) Setup tips: Disable the CPU cache for reliable operation. Potential problems: Motherboard problems could be caused by: - Early BIOS (Feb. 02/94, rev. 1.03) - Early Mercury chipset (not sure) - Bad CPU or poor cooling Lexar LXM-510 This motherboard will take all the Intel 486 CPUs and has a spot for a Pentium Overdrive socket (though to use the 3.3 V processors the "Model 99 Regulator" must be purchased). Early revisions of the board had a separate connector for 3.3 V power to the PCI sockets; this has been replaced with a separate voltage regulator in later versions. It will take up to 128 MB of RAM in 8 30-pin SIMM sockets, and up to 512 kB of cache. It uses either the Award or AMI flash BIOSes, and has 2 VL, 2 ISA, and 2 PCI slots. It uses the IMS (Integrated Micro Solutions) chipset. The board also has all the standard on-board super I/O and a mouse port. It has been tested and found to be compatible with DOS/Win and Win/NT (no mention of OS/2). I have had a report of success with this board and DOS/Win and Linux. (Vendor ID unknown) Setup tips: The manual, while apparently nicely printed, is poorly written. This may cause problems when configuring the many jumpers on the board. Potential problems: None so far. Microgram ??? This motherboard will run at 25 or 33 MHz, has 5 ISA and 3 PCI slots, and a Phoenix BIOS. The board will also accommodate up to 128 MB of RAM, in 4 72-pin SIMM slots. Everything up to a DX2-66 can be put in, as can a P24T into the available ZIF socket. The new DX4s will not work because the board does not support 3.3V. (Though I suppose you could get a 5->3.3V adapter if you _really_ wanted to.) This board apparently runs OS/2 reasonably well, though there seem to be random lockups at times. There were no SCSI devices on the board, and apparently with an old WD90C11 video card things were quite erratic. I don't know what chipset this board uses, but from the range of processors I'm guessing Saturn, so make sure it's rev. 4 if you want SCSI (the board tested had rev. 1 of the Saturn chipset). (Vendor ID unknown) Setup tips: None so far. Potential problems: See the PCI chipset list for a description of the problems with the Saturn I (rev. 2) chipset. Micronics M4Pi This is Micronics' 486 PCI motherboard. It will take everything up to a DX4 (with a ZIF socket for a Pentium overdrive), and supports 3.3V. It is (feature-wise) identical to the M5Pi board below, except that it uses the Intel 82420 PCIset PCI chipset (the Saturn chipset), and has an extra dedicated ISA slot. (Micronics Computers Inc.: 1012/4114) Setup tips: None so far. Potential problems: None reported. Micronics M5Pi This particular board takes either a 60 or 66 MHz Pentium chip, and has a ZIF socket for future upgrades. Like many of the other Pentium motherboards here, this has 256/512 kB of (write-back) cache, and will accommodate up to 128 MB (4x32 MB SIMMs) of RAM. The PCI chipset used is the Intel 82430 PCIset (don't know it's common name, though I suspect that this is the Mercury chipset), and it uses a Phoenix Flash-BIOS. Like the Intel boards, this board can be run with 4 ISA and 3 PCI slots or 5 ISA and 2 PCI slots. (Micronics Computers Inc.: 1012/4114) Setup tips: None so far. Potential problems: None reported. Micronics M54pi* This is the 90 MHz Micronics motherboard for OS/2. Presumably it has the Neptune chipset. The board reported has Phoenix BIOS V4.04-N 08. With this BIOS, the board is reported to work very well with the Adaptec 2940, though earlier versions of the BIOS had problems with disk-intensive programs crashing. Make sure, therefore, that you get at least this revision of the Phoenix flash BIOS when buying your motherboard, or at least that you can upgrade to it. I have now had several reports of success with this board and various flavours of OS/2 (all using the 2940 controller). (Micronics Computers Inc.: 1012/4114) Setup tips: Make sure you have the latest revision of the BIOS for your best chance at trouble-free operation. Potential problems: None, with the latest BIOS. SOYO 80486 As its name might suggest, this is a 486 board which accommodates all the different 80486 chips and the overdrive series as well. It has all the green features, though the BIOS type is unspecified. The board has four ISA (two of which are VL) and four PCI slots (all of which allow busmastering). The board will take up to 128 MB of RAM, and will accommodate cache RAM in increments of 32 kB. It is reported to work well with Warp. (Vendor ID unknown) Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: None so far. SuperMicro P55* This motherboard is based around the Intel Triton chipset, and as such will support the 75, 90, 100, 120, and 133 MHz CPUs. Apparently when (if) 150 and 180 MHz P5s are released it will support these as well. The board itself comes in two types: CWA, which has an asynchronous cache, and CWS, which has a pipelined burst synchronous cache. Either board can have 256 or 512 kB of cache. The board has 3 ISA slots, 3 PCI slots, and one shared ISA/PCI slot, all of which allow busmastering. The board has 4 SIMM sockets, for up to 128 MB of RAM, in either 60/70 ns fast page-mode or EDO. The board has EIDE support through mode 4, but that's about it for I/O, as it has no built-in serial/parallel/game or floppy. In return for this the board is relatively inexpensive, costing less than $US 1000 with the 100 MHz pentium. I've had two reports of success with this board and OS/2 Warp (full-pack, CWS configuration, EDO RAM, 100 MHz), as well as DOS/Win, NT, and SCO Unix (75 MHz), though apparently with SCO Unix the SCSI controller fails after a warm boot and must be reset. (Vendor ID unknown) Setup Tips: The file triton.exe, available on the major FTP sites, contains drivers which take advantage of the busmastering capabilities of the Triton chipset's built-in IDE controller. Potential Problems: One person has reported problems with system lock-ups with the triton driver and fixpack 9. TMC PCI48PG4 This is a combination VL/ISA/PCI board which uese the Opti chipset. It uses the Opti PCI IDE controller (82C621), and the SMC chip for serial/parallel/floppy I/O. It takes all the different 486 processors and the P24D overdrive chip. The board has 2 PCI slots, one shared PCI/ISA, 2 ISA, and 2 VL slots. The board will accommodate up to 128 MB RAM (in four slots), though apparently if the first two slots are filled the second two must be filled as well or the board will not work. The board takes up to 256 kB cache and uses the Award or AMI BIOSes, though it is reported to work only with the AMI (WinBIOS) BIOS. Apparently also the 7/25/94 WinBIOS would not allow the computer to boot with a Stealth 64 VRAM or a Stealth 64 Video VRAM installed. Also, the board ran very slowly with all four SIMM sockets filled and this BIOS. Downgrading to the 12/15/93 version of the BIOS fixed these problems, but limited control over the peripheral I/O (there were few options present in the BIOS setup to allow it). (TMC Research: 1030/4144) Setup tips: Until AMI comes out with a later version (than 7/25/94) of the WinBIOS, use 12/15/93 for best results. Potential problems: None, with the 12/15/93 BIOS. TMC PCI54IT This board is based around the Intel Triton chipset and the Award BIOS (revision 4.50GP, 95/04/20). It is plug and play 1.0a-compliant. It will take at least up to a 90 MHz Pentium and has four 72-pin SIMM slots. Support for IDE (via the Triton chipset), floppy, and serial/parallel/game I/O is built in to the motherboard. The board is reported to work well with Warp. (TMC Research: 1030/4144) Setup Tips: The file triton.exe, available on the major FTP sites, contains drivers which take advantage of the busmastering capabilities of the Triton chipset's built-in IDE controller. Potential Problems: One person has reported problems with the triton driver and fixpack 9. TMC PCI54PV3 This motherboard uses up to a 90 MHz Pentium chip and has the Opti "Viper" chipset in combination with the Award BIOS. It has 3 PCI slots, 4 ISA slots, and all the usual serial/parallel/game ports. The board will take up to four 72-pin SIMMs. Support for IDE and floppy drives is built in, though what type of IDE is unspecified. The board is reported to work well, though somewhat slower than the PCI54IT above, with Warp. (TMC Research: 1030/4144) Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: None so far. TMC PCI58PL This board will take either a 60 or 66 MHz Pentium, and up to 128 MB of (parity only) RAM. The memory configuration is unique, though, in that the board has four sockets for 30-pin SIMMs and three for 72-pin SIMMs. The 30-pin sockets (all four) comprise bank 0, while the 72-pin sockets are banks 0, 1, and 2, so that if you use 30-pin SIMMs you'll only have two sockets left over for 72-pin SIMMs. The board will take 1Mx9, 4Mx9, 16Mx9, 256kx36 (total 1 MB), 512kx36, 1Mx36, 2Mx36, 4Mx36, 8Mx36, and 16Mx36 SIMMs for a maximum of 192 MB. It will take up to 512 kB of cache, and comes with 256 kB. The board has 2 ISA, 1 VL, and 3 PCI slots, all dedicated, and one shared PCI/VL slot. All PCI slots allow busmastering, and one of the VL slots does. It has no built-in I/O support for floppy drives or serial/parallel ports. The board uses the OPTI 82C822, 82C571, and 82C572 chipset and the Award (4.50G) BIOS. The board is reported to work well with OS/2 Warp and DOS/Win. (TMC Research: 1030/4144) Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: The version of the Award BIOS which comes with this board has a bug. Apparently pressing [F1] for help when in the PCI configuration screen does not produce any help. UMC UMC88 This board takes a 486 CPU (type unspecified, but presumably all of them), and has all the latest green features. The board is reported to work well with OS/2 (version unspecified), with the single exception that it will not allow OS/2 to boot from a floppy drive for one user. Another person reports that OS/2 will boot from floppy, but that the board is unstable, and that OS/2 experiences random lockups. Replacing the two 8 MB SIMMs with one 16 MB SIMM fixed the problem, which suggests that the reported problems could be due to a bad SIMM. Replacing the SCSI disk also helped (two bad hardware components at one go?) Apparently too the board/video card combination does not seem to work well with FeelX, causing random video corruption when FeelX is installed (the card is a Cirrus Logic 543X). (United Microelectronics: 1060/4192) Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: OS/2 might not boot from the floppy drive with this board. There's what I know. Please E-Mail suggestions/corrections and I'll post again. -- Patrick Duffy, duffy@theory.chem.ubc.ca -- I am Homer of Borg. Resistance is fu-- mmmmm... donuts...