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1994-11-07
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Hi All,
This is the PCI motherboards for OS/2 list, last revised Nov. 2/94. For
detailed descriptions of PCI chipset problems and workarounds, please
refer to the PCI chipsets 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.
Known PCI Motherboard Problems and Workarounds:
-----------------------------------------------
Intel Plato 90 MHz motherboards:
There are three problems with these motherboards, one of which (the
Neptune chipset problem) is documented in the PCI chipsets list. The
other two will be taken in turn:
1) The PCTech RZ1000 chip used for IDE operations on the PCI bus has a
bug which causes disk write errors once in approximately every 50,000
operations.
Workarounds (best performance solution first):
a) Get a PCI IDE controller like the BusLogic BT-910 and use it
instead.
b) Use the ISA IDE port (which is run by a different chip) for your IDE
drives.
c) Use the PCI IDE port in combination with the IBMINT13.I13 driver.
Make sure you have BIOS 1.00.10.AX1 (available from the Intel BBS) if
you choose this (least desirable) route.
2) The SMC I/O chip may cause lockups in DOS/Win if the serial ports
(COM1 and COM2) are not properly flushed prior to use. OS/2 is
apparently unaffected by this problem.
Workarounds (best solution first):
a) New boards have a corrected version of the SMC chip. To see if
your board has this chip, check the last two letters on the model
number; they should be 'GT'. I have the 'GT' chip on my board, which
was received in early Sept. of '94.
b) Intel has a software fix (for DOS/Win) for older boards with this
chip.
Useful Numbers:
---------------
AIR: (408) 428-0800
Asus: (408) 956-9077 (tech. support)
alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (internet newsgroup)
Intel: (800) 628-8686 (tech. support)
(916) 356-3600 (BBS -- N,8,1)
(800) 628-2283 (faxback -- order catalogue 7 for a list of PCI-
related documents)
J-Bond: (408) 946-9622
Manufacturer Model Comments
------------------------------------------------------
AIR 54CEP This is AIR's PCI/EISA 90/100 MHz
board. It uses the AMI BIOS (flash
optional), and the Mercury 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 no reports of success with this board yet, so please do
let me know of any experiences you might have with it, as it sounds
_very_ interesting indeed.
Setup tips: None so far.
Possible problems: Quantum 1 GB drives do not communicate at full speed
with the Adaptec 7870 SCSI chip. It may be
necessary (if you're using this drive with that
chip) to set communication to 8 MB/sec.
Asus PCI/I-486* This board uses the Saturn rev. 4
SP3G chipset, and will accommodate up to
a DX4 CPU, as well as a P24T in a
separate socket. 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 and 512 kB of write-through L2 cache (128 kB is standard).
This board has the NCR 53c810 SCSI controller on-board, as well as the
super multi-I/O (IDE/serial/parallel). I've had a report of success
with OS/2 2.1, 2.11, and Warp Beta II and this board, though apparently
the NCR SCSI chip does not coexist nicely with older Quantum LPS 540S
SCSI drives, causing lockups on bootup unless synchronous negotiation is
disabled. [Note: I've no problems with my NCR controller and my Empire
1080S, so this must be a drive firmware thing.] Apparently replacing the
Prodrive with a different drive causes the problem to disappear. 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 BIOS in these
motherboards must be set up _very_ carefully, and with extensive
consultation with the manual which comes with the board, no matter how
expert you might think you are.
Setup tips: None so far.
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.
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). IDE (PCI, and I
think EIDE) 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 a couple of reports of success with this board and OS/2 and NT, and
rev. 1.6 of the board apparently fixes the software reboot problem that
earlier rev's of the board have had.
Setup tips: None so far.
Possible problems: None so far.
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.
Setup tips: None so far.
Possible problems: None so far.
Asus MB-586A- This board is, according to Asus,
PCI60C the only 60/66 MHz Pentium PCI
board they now make. 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.
Setup tips: None so far.
Possible problems: None so far.
Asus PCI/I-P5SP4 This board is coming out soon from
Asus. It can take either a 60 or 66
MHz Intel Pentium CPU, and can accommodate 256/512/1 MB of L2 cache and
uses the SIS PCI chipset. The AWARD BIOS 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 (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 5 PCI/4 ISA or 4 PCI/5 ISA slots. This board has
apparently run OS/2 2.1 and Win/NT with no problems.
Setup tips: None so far.
Possible problems: None so far.
Asus PCI/I-P54NP4 This is an ISA-based board which
takes a single 90 MHz CPU. 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 4 72-pin SIMMs (with
parity), and has a flash BIOS. I have had a report of success with
revision 1.2 of the board (I don't know what chipset it uses, but it's
likely to be the Neptune) with OS/2 and an NCR-based SCSI controller.
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.)
Possible problems: None, with proper jumper settings.
Asus PCI/E-P54NP4 I'm almost dreading putting this
Dual Pentium one in, given the incredible amount
of traffic it seems to generate
every time someone mentions it. It has, however, been tested with OS/2
2.1, Win/NT Win/NTAS (dual CPU), NeXT Step, and, of course DOS 6.2
(someone please explain why you'd buy a dual-pentium system to run
DOS...). It's supposed to work under all these different systems. No
tech. details on it yet, though.
Setup tips: None so far.
Possible problems: None so far.
Asus PCI/I-P54SP4 This board is coming out soon from
Asus. It can take a 75, 90, or 100
MHz Intel Pentium CPU, and can accommodate 256/512/1 MB of L2 cache and
uses the SIS PCI chipset. The AWARD BIOS 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 (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 5 PCI/4 ISA or 4 PCI/5 ISA slots. No reports of success
yet, though. Anyone using this board is welcome to contribute
experiences, of course.
Setup tips: None so far.
Possible problems: None so far.
DEC ??? DEC apparently makes a modular
board into which you plug the CPU
(on a card), which has a 64-bit data path to the rest of the board.
Success has been reported with the 486/66 daughterboard. This board is
very likely available only in DEC computers.
Setup tips: None so far.
Possible problems: None so far.
EliteGroups 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.
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.)
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.)
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.
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.
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.
Setup tips: None so far.
Potential problems: None reported so far.
Intel Pentium** The 66 and 90 MHz Pentium boards
have passed OS/2 certification.
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 and 66 MHz boards use the
Mercury chipset, while the 90 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 1.00.10.AX1). All boards have the NCR SCSI BIOS built in, and
have IDE (for ISA and PCI) and I/O ports on the board. The boards can be
run with 4 ISA/3 PCI or 5 ISA/2 PCI slots.
Setup tips: Get rev. 1.00.10.AX1 of the AMI flash BIOS 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. If you're running a SCSI drive as your
boot drive, turn off the drive C: timeout for a
faster boot.
Potential problems: See both this list and the PCI chipset list for
descriptions of the Neptune chipset, IDE drive, and
Serial I/O problems and workarounds.
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 Plato 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). 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
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.
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
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 without problems, though this is without any SCSI devices, and
one incompatibility with an old WD90C11 video card. Upon replacing the
video card the problems went away. 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.
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 M4P This is Micronics' 486 PCI
motherboard. It will take
everything up to a DX2, and supports 3.3V. It has a ZIF socket for a
P24T chip if desired. It is (feature-wise) identical to the M5Pi board
below, except that it uses the Intel 82420 PCIset PCI chipset (the
Saturn chipset, I think), and has an extra dedicated ISA slot.
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.
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.
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.
TMC PCI54PV This motherboard has the 90 MHz
Pentium chip and the Opti "premium"
chipset. It has 4 PCI slots, 2 VL slots, and 3 ISA slots. There
are no on-board disk controllers (IDE), though the NCR SCSI BIOS is
built into the system. The BIOS is AMI dated Dec. 15/93, the
motherboard is rev. 1.2A, and the PCI plug-and-play BIOS is version
2.07. The VESA local bus runs at 60 MHz. Apparently Trident 9400 VL
cards do not work with this motherboard and OS/2, though Cirrus Logic
542X VL cards do. The Adaptec AHA-2940 works with this motherboard as
well. I have received reports of problems installing OS/2 2.10 with
this board and an IDE drive. This is (apparently) fixed with a newer
BIOS revision (the date was unspecified).
Setup tips: Make sure you have the latest revision of the BIOS
and motherboard for your best chance at trouble-free
operation.
Potential problems: None, with the latest BIOS.
There's what I know. Please E-Mail suggestions/corrections and I'll
post again.