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Document: PCI Motherboards for OS/2 list Maintainer: Patrick Duffy, duffy@theory.chem.ubc.ca Revision Dates: 11/5/95, 11/26/95, 12/3/95, 5/18/96, 5/26/96, 6/2/96 Archived at: ftp.netcom.com, in directory /pub/ab/abe/ CompuServe (GO BENCHMARK) Web pages: http://warp.eecs.berkeley.edu/os2/workbench/work.htm http://www.os2forum.or.at/english/info/os2hardwareinfo/ (note that the first URL may not have up-to-date versions of the lists) This document is intended for use by individuals and corporations in a non-commercial manner. It may be distributed freely within those limitations. Commercial use of this document in any manner requires prior written permission of the author. 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. (D) in brackets beside the model number indicates that the motherboard has been discontinued. 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. Dates in brackets indicate the last revision date for the related entry. NEW THIS WEEK ------------- The latest BIOS for the Intel Premiere II board is 1.00.16.AX1. I've updated the commentary to reflect that. The Intel Premiere board uses the CMD chipset for IDE functions while the Premiere II board uses the RZ1000 chipset. I've now had a report of success with the Tyan Titan III motherboard and OS/2. I've also seen a report of success with the Tyan Tomcat motherboard. The Adaptec 2940 SCSI controller may not work with the Asus PVI-486SP3 motherboard with revision 1.21 of the Adaptec BIOS. I've added more new Asus Pentium and Pentium Pro motherboards to the list this week, and have had a report of success with the P55T2P4 and Warp (but not with an early build of Merlin). I've also updated the data for the P/E-P6RP7D board from Asus. I've corrected the names for all the Asus Pentium motherboards, which all start with "P/" rather than "PCI/". I've added contact information for DFI, makers of the "double shot" motherboard which apparently comes with OS/2 installed. I'll add information on the board itself when I can get to the DFIUSA web site. I've also added information about the current Intel Pentium Pro motherboard. I've also added more (and more current) contact information for Intel. I've also learned that Lexar has gone out of business. Useful Numbers: (6/2/96) --------------- AIR: (408) 428-0800 Asus: (408) 956-9077 (tech. support) ftp.asus.com.tw (ftp site) www.asus.com.tw (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 DFI: (800) 909-4334 (sales) support@dfiusa.com (tech. support E-Mail) ftp.dfiusa.com (FTP site) www.dfiusa.com (WWW site) Gigabyte: (818) 854-9338 (tech. support) HSB: (800) 497-0401 (sales) (216) 498-1356 (customer service) (216) 498-0382 (tech. support) Intel: (800) 628-8686 (tech. support) FAXBack: -------- (800) 525-3019 (US or Canada) +44 1793-432509 (Europe) +65 256-5350 (Singapore) +852 2 530-4116 (Hong Kong) +886 2 514-0815 (Taiwan) +822 767-2594 (Korea) +61 2 975-3922 (Australia) (503) 264-6835 (World wide) BBSes: ------ (503) 264-7999 (US or Canada/World wide) +44 1793-432955 (Europe) +65 256-4776 (Singapore) +852 2 530-4116 (Hong Kong) +886 2 718-6422 (Taiwan) +822 784-3430 (Korea) +61 2 975-3066 (Australia) ftp.intel.com (FTP site) www.intel.com (WWW site) J-Bond: (408) 946-9622 Micronics (510) 651-2300 (Office -- Faxback after hours) (510) 651-6985 (BBS) www.micron.com (WWW site) MTI: (408) 441-8818 (tech. support) (408) 441-8631 (BBS) www.mtiusa.com (WWW site) ftp.mtiusa.com (FTP site) tech@mtiusa.com (tech. support E-Mail address) QTC: (714) 258-4500 (voice) Tyan: (408) 956-8000 (sales) (408) 956-8044 (FAX) (408) 956-8171 (BBS) www.tyan.com (WWW site) ftp.tyan.com (FTP site) 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) ftp.megatrends.com (FTP site) www.megatrends.com (FTP site) |-----------------------------------| |PART ONE: 80486-based motherboards| |-----------------------------------| Manufacturer Model Comments ------------------------------------------------------ AIR 486VP (D) 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. (Advanced Integration Research: 1075/4213) (8/27/95) Setup tips: None so far. Possible problems: None so far. **********************************************************************= 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 a report of success with this board and Warp, and since an AMI technician with whom I've spoken says that their boards are not released to manufacturing _until_ they've passed compatibility tests with all major PC operating systems, including OS/2, I believe this board would be a very good choice. (American Megatrends: 101E/4126) (9/21/95) Setup tips: None so far. Possible problems: None so far. **********************************************************************= Asus PCI/I-486 This board uses the Saturn rev. 4 SP3G (D) 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. The board 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. This board has, apparently, been discontinued by Asus, and will only be manufactured in special-order quantities of 1,000 or more, which is why I'm no longer recommending it. (Asustek Computer Inc.: 1043/4163) (11/12/95) 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. To get the AMD DX4 to run in 4x mode, pin B13 must be tied high. Tying the pin to ground will cause the chip to run in DX2-66 mode. 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). It may be necessary to also turn off tagged command queueing to avoid data corruption (with a Micropolis 4110 1 GB drive). +++++++++++ Asus PVI/486AP4 Asus may finally have it right with (D) 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) (9/21/95) 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. In addition, apparently the Aries chipset has problems with zero wait-state caches and protected-mode code. Set your cache timing to "normal" (instead of fast) for stable operation. +++++++++++ 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. DX4-50/100 CPUs are not, however, so if you want 100 MHz use a DX4-33/100. 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 flash Award BIOS (which has the NCR SCSI BIOS built in) in boards past revision 1.2; earlier boards apparently used a flash BIOS as an option. 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) (6/2/96) Setup tips: None so far. Possible problems: The B2 revision of the SIS chipset apparently does not support mode 3 IDE well. The Adaptec 2940UW SCSI controller does not appear to work with this board, though the 2940W does (make sure you do not have version 1.21 of the BIOS). If a 3Com 3c590 PCI ethernet adapter is installed, it may be necessary to turn IDE prefetch off for the onboard IDE controller to get the system to work properly. 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 above (in later revisions), though not always very well. The various chipset revisions can be identified by their labels: A4 Version chipset: SIS 496 MU, SIS 497 MW B2 Version chipset: SIS 496 NU, SIS 497 NS B3 Version chipset: SIS 496 NV, SIS 497 NS B4 Version chipset: SIS 496 NV, SIS 497 NU B5 Version chipset: SIS 496 OR, SIS 497 OT **********************************************************************= Biostar 8433UUD This motherboard may also be found as the Quantex MBD-4PB2. It uses the UMC 888X chipset and has 4 ISA and 3 PCI slots (I don't know if any are shared). It supports all the various 486 and 486-like processors (including the AMD 5x86/P75). The board has all the usual on-board I/O. One limitation is that it apparently cannot use 3 parallel ports simultaneously; it knows about the one on-board and will use one external one. There are (apparently) problems with the built-in PS/2 mouse support. The voltage on the board can be jumpered to 3.3 or 5 volts, and the clock speed can be jumpere to correspond with 25, 33, or 40 MHz external CPU clock speeds. It uses the Award BIOS and will only use 72-pin SIMMs. The board is reported to support Warp well. (Vendor ID unknown) (5/26/96) 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) (8/27/95) 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. The latest revision of the board will take up to 128 MB of RAM (older versions took up to 64 MB of RAM in either 4x16 single-sided or 2x32 double-sided SIMMs) and takes up to 512 kB of L2 cache. There are 3 PCI slots (none shared on newer boards, one shared on older boards), all of which permit busmastering, and 4 ISA slots (five on older boards with one shared). It should also be noted that newer versions of the board have had J41 removed to allow the use of the P24T PODP5V CPU. 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 (The latest is version 4.04) 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. In addition to this, this board has passed all (except multimedia) certification tests in combination with an S3 Trio64-based card and BIOS version 1.4-01. An EIDE HD (WD AC2540F) was also used in the certification tests. (Elitegroup Computer Systems: 1019/4121) (12/3/95) 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. Enabling the APM (green) features of the board may cause it to not reboot properly. Disable them for trouble-free operation. This board may not work with Pentium Overdrive processors. **********************************************************************= Gigabyte GA-486AM* This board (currently at revision 2.21) takes all Intel and Cyrix CPUs (including the P24) and uses the UMC 888X chipset. It uses (up to) 1 MB of L2 cache and the Award flash BIOS (version 4.50PG, currently dated 6/22/95). The board can take up to 128 MB of RAM in four 72-pin sockets. All configuration for RAM and CPU type is done via jumpers. All the usual I/O is on-board, and the IDE supports up to mode 4 and ATAPI. Driver support is included to facilitate this. The board has 4 ISA and 3 PCI slots (I don't know if any are shared, but I presume they are), and is 2/3 baby AT size (22x25 cm). Apparently the SIMMs on this motherboard sit directly over the power supply, and the motherboard power supply connector is right near them. I've had couple of reports of success with this board and OS/2. (Vendor ID unknown) (5/18/96) Setup tips: Enable all the 32-bit disk access options in the BIOS for better disk throughput. The PCI bus speed is set by ratio to the external clock speed of the CPU. Apparently (at least with a Matrox Millennium) running the PCI bus at 40 MHz has not been a problem. The ISA bus is set via ratio to the PCI bus speed, and apparently running the ISA bus at 20 MHz also causes no problems. Your video card should be installed in the third PCI slot. Possible problems: None so far. +++++++++++ Gigabyte GA-486IM This board is not apparently not a good choice for OS/2. It 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) (8/27/95) 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) (8/27/95) 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. **********************************************************************= HSB Computer Labs MB/ This board takes a 486DX4-100 CPU MS4144PC100 and uses the SIS 85C496/85C497 chipset. The board will take up to 128 MB of RAM (in 72-pin SIMMs) and 1 MB of cache (256 kB is standard). All the built-in I/O is there; IDE services are provided from the Winbond chipset. The board has four ISA and three PCI slots, all of which are useable, and uses an AMI (non-flash) BIOS, with built-in support for green functions and an NCR SCSI controller. The board has been reported to work well (for one person at least) with Warp. (Vendor ID unknown) (12/3/95) Setup tips: None so far. Potential problems: This board will not work with a DX4-50/100 (like the Asus PVI-486SP3, and presumably for the same reason. **********************************************************************= Intel B486ED (D) 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) (8/27/95) Setup tips: None so far. Potential problems: None reported so far. ********************************************************************** J. Bond PCI400C-A This board is apparently not a good choice for OS/2. It 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. (J. Bond Computer Systems: 1086/4230) (8/27/95) 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 PCI400C-C This is a later revision of the earlier 400-A board, and appears to have more promise. It uses the SIS chipset (make sure you have the latest for most reliable operation) and takes all the different 486-type CPUs as well as a spot for the Pentium overdrive processors. A 3.3 volt regulator is included for 3.3 volt CPUs. It has 4 ISA and 3 PCI slots (all the PCI slots allow busmastering), as well as all the on-board I/O. It will use up to 128 MB of RAM. As far as I can tell, the NCR chip in the earlier board has been removed from this one. I've had no reports of success with this board and OS/2 yet, though it does sound like it _should_ work. (J. Bond Computer Systems: 1086/4230) (9/12/95) Setup tips: None so far. Potential problems: Make sure (if you're using IDE) that you have the latest revision of the SIS chipset for the best chance at full IDE support. See the chipsets list for information about how to determine which version of the chipset you have. **********************************************************************= Lexar LXM-510(D) Lexar has gone out of business. 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) (8/27/95) 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) (8/27/95) 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) (8/27/95) Setup tips: None so far. Potential problems: None reported. **********************************************************************= MTI PCI-486* This board uses the SIS chipset and the Award flash BIOS. It will take all the different CPUs, comes with 256 kB of cache (in 64 kB chips, so you can just get more chips if you need more cache), and has all the usual built-in I/O. The board has 3 PCI and 4 ISA slots (I don't know if any are shared). Interestingly enough, this baord has room for eight 30-pin SIMMs and two 72-pin SIMMS, making it unique among the boards on this list. I've had several reports of success from people running this board with OS/2. (Vendor ID unknown) (11/12/95) Setup tips: Some boards will autodetect the required CPU voltage and others will not. Be sure to check carefully for the presence of JP48 and set it accordingly for your CPU. Potential problems: OS/2 may not like LBA mode for EIDE hard drive access with this board. This can be disabled via the BIOS (then OS/2 won't boot OSes in partitions greater than 540 MB, of course). Make sure that if you do this you also select "ignore HDD mode detect errors" in the CMOS setup. **********************************************************************= 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) (8/27/95) Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: None so far. **********************************************************************= 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) (8/27/95) 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. **********************************************************************= 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) (8/27/95) Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: OS/2 might not boot from the floppy drive with this board. |-------------------------------------| |PART TWO: Pentium-based motherboards| |-------------------------------------| Acer AP5C This board uses the Triton chipset and takes all the standard Pentium CPUs up to 133 MHz. It has four PCI and four ISA slots (one of each of which is shared), and all the usual on-board I/O (IDE is via the Triton chipset, of course). The board will take up to 128 MB of EDO or conventional RAM, and takes up to 512 kB of pipelined burst or asynchronous cache. It uses the AMI flash BIOS. I've had no reports of success with this board and OS/2. (Acer Incorporated: 1025/4132) (5/26/96) Setup tips: None so far. Possible problems: The ATI Mach64 card used in this system apparently does not work well with this board, producing ghosted images at high resolutions/colour depths. **********************************************************************= 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) (8/27/95) 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 is apparently not a good choice for OS/2. It 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) (8/27/95) +++++++++++ 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) (8/27/95) **********************************************************************= AMI Apollo** This is AMI's Triton-based board. It will take the 75 to 133 MHz chips and up to 512 kB of write-back cache (I do not know if the board takes synchronous burst cache). Up to 128 MB of RAM is supported, and the board has all the usual integrated I/O. The board has 4 PCI and 4 ISA slots, one of each of which is shared. There is one floppy interface which will support a 2.88 MB drive. I've had no reports of success with this board and OS/2, but given that AMI does not release a board to manufacturing until it's passed OS/2 compatibility tests, I'm very optimistic. (American Megatrends: 101E/4126) (9/23/95) Setup tips: None so far. Possible problems: None so far. +++++++++++ AMI Apollo II** The second-generation of AMI's Triton (430FX) board will take up to a 166 MHz CPU and up to 512 kB of write-back or pipelined burst cache Up to 128 MB of RAM is supported, and the board has all the usual integrated I/O. The board has 4 PCI and 3 ISA slots, none of which are shared. There is one floppy interface which will support a 2.88 MB drive. I've had no reports of success with this board and OS/2, but given that AMI does not release a board to manufacturing until it's passed OS/2 compatibility tests, I'm very optimistic. (American Megatrends: 101E/4126) (5/26/96) 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) (8/27/95) 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. +++++++++++ AMI ATLAS The second generation of AMI's PCI II** ATLAS motherboard uses the Triton II (430HX) chipset (I think) and will take up to 256 MB of (parity) RAM in 72-pin SIMMS and up to 512 kB of asynchronous, synchronous, or pipelined burst cache (256 kB is standard). The BIOS (AMI) supports all the green features and advanced IDE modes. There are four PCI 2.1-compliant slots, all of which allow busmastering, and four ISA slots (one of each of these slots is shared). All the usual built-in I/O is present. I've had no reports of success with this board and OS/2, but am optimistic. (American Megatrends: 101E/4126) (5/26/96) Setup tips: None so far. Possible problems: None so far. +++++++++++ AMI Excalibur This is AMI's 60 MHz Pentium PCI EISA** board. It uses the SIS chipset (as do many of the AMI boards), and will take up to 512 kB (256 is standard) of write-back cache. The board supports up to 192 MB of RAM and has three PCI and six EISA slots, none of which are shared. All of the usual integrated I/O is present, as is BIOS support for green functions. I've had no reports of success with this board, but as AMI will not release a board to manufacturing until it has passed compatibility tests with OS/2, I'm very optimistic. (American Megatrends: 101E/4126) (9/23/95) Setup tips: None so far. Possible problems: None so far. +++++++++++ AMI Excalibur This is AMI's 60/66 MHz Pentium PCI II** board. It uses the SIS chipset (as do many of the AMI boards), and will take up to 512 kB (256 is standard) of write-back cache. The board supports up to 128 MB of RAM and has four PCI and four ISA slots, one of each of which is shared. All of the usual integrated I/O is present, as is BIOS support for green functions. I've had no reports of success with this board, but as AMI will not release a board to manufacturing until it has passed compatibility tests with OS/2, I'm very optimistic. (American Megatrends: 101E/4126) (9/23/95) Setup tips: None so far. Possible problems: None so far. +++++++++++ AMI TItan II** This is one of AMI's dual-processor boards. It will take either one or two Pentia (up to 150 MHz -- of course dual-processor systems must have both processors running at the same speed) and uses the Neptune chipset. The board will take up to 512 MB (!) of main memory (it has eight rows for this), and up to 512 kB of write-back cache (256 kB is standard). The board has four PCI slots and six EISA slots, all of which allow busmastering and none of which are shared. All slots will accommodate full-length cards in most twelve-slot cases. All the usual integrated I/O is present. I've had no reports of success with this board, but as AMI will not release a board to manufacturing until it has passed compatibility tests with OS/2, I'm very optimistic. (American Megatrends: 101E/4126) (5/26/96) Setup tips: None so far. Possible problems: None so far. AMI TItan III** This is one of AMI's dual-processor boards. It will take either one or two Pentia (up to 166 MHz, with 200 MHz support apparently in the works) and uses the Triton II chipset. The board will take up to 384 MB of main memory (it has six rows for this), and up to 512 kB of pipelined burst cache (256 kB is standard). The board has four PCI slots and four EISA slots, all of which allow busmastering and two of which are shared (for a maximum of seven cards at once). All slots will accommodate full-length cards in most twelve-slot cases. All the usual integrated I/O is present. I've had no reports of success with this board, but as AMI will not release a board to manufacturing until it has passed compatibility tests with OS/2, I'm very optimistic. (American Megatrends: 101E/4126) (5/26/96) Setup tips: None so far. Possible problems: None so far. **********************************************************************= Asus P/E-P5MP3 This particular motherboard has PCI/EISA (D) 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) (6/2/96) Setup tips: None so far. Possible problems: None so far. +++++++++++ Asus MB-586A- This is Asus' bare-bones 60/66 MHz PCI60C (D) 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. This board is no longer being produced, to the best of my knowledge. (Asustek Computer Inc.: 1043/4163) (9/21/95) 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) (6/2/96) 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 P/E-P54NP4 This is Asus' dual-processor board which uses the Neptune chipset. It will take up to 512 MB of (FPM only) DRAM in eight banks, and up to 512 kB of asynchronous cache. The board has four PCI slots and four ISA slots, one of each of which is shared. The board uses the Award flash BIOS. I've no reports for this board and OS/2, but Asus' website lists it as OS/2 SMP compatible. (Asustek Computer Inc.: 1043/4163) (6/2/96) Setup tips: None so far. Possible problems: None so far. +++++++++++ Asus P/E- This is a dual-processor board (up P55T2P4D to two 200 MHz Pentia may be used) which uses the Intel Triton II (430HX) chipset. The board has eight slots for up to 512 MB of non-parity, parity, or ECC FPM or EDO RAM. 60 ns RAM is required for CPUs with an external clock speed of 66 MHz. The board comes with 512 kB of pipeline burst cache. There are four EISA slots, four PCI slots, and one ISA slot on board. The ISA slot is shared with one of the PCI slots (an Asus mediabus slot); none of the EISA slots are shared. All the usual on-board I/O is present. The board uses the Award flash BIOS, which has support for the NCR/Symbios SCSI controllers built in. I've had no reports of success with this board and OS/2 yet. (Asustek Computer Inc.: 1043/4163) (6/2/96) Setup tips: None so far. Possible problems: None so far. +++++++++++ Asus P/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 (older boards used the 5501/2/3; newer boards use the 5511/12/13). 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) (6/2/96) 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 P/I-P55SP3AV This board can take up to a 200 MHz Pentium (via a socket 7) and uses the SIS 5511/12/13 chipset. The board will take up to 512 MB of EDO or FPM RAM (parity support is not explicitly mentioned). The board comes with 256 kB of pipeline burst cache (512 kB is an option), though 256 or 512 kB of asynchronous cache are also available. All the usual on-board I/O is present. Of note, though, is that the board also has integrated video, provided by the SiS 6205 chipset. The on-board chipset uses up to 2 MB of DRAM (shared with the on-board RAM), and apparently supports up to 1280x1024x8bpp. Also on board is the ESS 1788 audio chipset, with a built-in game port. A wavetable upgrade (unspecified) is available as well. I do not know if any of this is supported under OS/2 or not. The board has four ISA slots and three PCI slots, one of each of which is shared (The shared PCI slot is an Asus mediabus slot as well). The board uses the Award 1 Mbit flash BIOS, which has support for the NCR/Symbios SCSI controllers built in. I've had no reports of success with this board and OS/2 as yet. (Asustek Computer Inc.: 1043/4163) (6/2/96) Setup tips: None so far. Possible problems: None so far. +++++++++++ Asus P/I-P55T2P4* These boards (the "X" board has an P/I-XP55T2P4* ATX form factor) will take all the Pentium chips from 75 - 200 MHz and use the Triton II (430HX) chipset. The boards have four PCI slots and three ISA slots, one of each of which is shared (the Asus mediabus slot and one ISA slot are the ones which are shared). The boards will take up to 128 MB of non-parity, parity, or ECC RAM in either FPM or EDO types. (You can mix and match types provided you use the same kind in any given bank), and come with 256 kB of pipeline burst cache. A CELP socket is available for upgrading to 512 kB of pipeline burst cache. The boards use the Award BIOS (version 2.2 is the latest), which has support for the NCR/Symbios SCSI controllers built in. I've had a report of success with this baord and Warp, but not with Merlin; apparently in the latest build (13) of Merlin the plug-and-play features in the BIOS had to be disabled before it would install. The manual is, apparently, well-written. (Asustek Computer Inc.: 1043/4163) (6/2/96) Setup tips: None so far. Possible problems: None so far. +++++++++++ Asus P/I-P54TP4(D) These are the boards by Asus P/I-P55TP4(D) which use the Intel Triton P/I-P55TP4XE(D) chipset, with all that that P/I-P55TP4N** entails. The boards themselves take everything from a 75 up to a 200 MHz Pentium (in the newer revisions of the board -- older ones could take only up to 133 MHz chips), 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) (6/2/96) Setup Tips: The BIOS settings for the board are apparently complex and the documentation minimal; new (as of August 10/95) versions of the manual apparently do a better job of documenting/explaining them than do older ones. 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. It may be necessary to remove old asynchronous cache before these boards will recognize new pipeline burst cache has been installed. 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). 8-bit ISA networking cards will _not_ work properly with this board; use 16-bit ISA networking cards if you have to use ISA netowrking cards. Note also that if you have problems booting OS/2 from floppy that you should have your board replaced; the following revisions of the floppy controller chip (identified as the SMC 37C665IR multi-I/O chip) are defective: B9519/5-AIC, 6J75692-1 B9519/5-AIC, 6J75693-8 B9519/5-AIC, 6J75690-5 B9519/5-AIC, 6J75697-0 B9521/5-AIC, 6J75735-7 B9521/5-AIC, 6J75730-0 B9521/5-AIC, 6J75732-5 Useful information: These Web sites (in addition to Asus' web site) 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) +++++++++++ Asus P/I-P55TVP4 This board will take all the various Intel and AMD Pentium-style CPUs and uses the Triton III (430VX) chipset. The board will take up to 128 MB of non-parity, parity, or ECC FPM or EDO RAM, and has 256 kB of pipeline burst cache on board, with a COAST socket for 256 kB more. Apparently 60 ns RAM is required when using CPUs with an external clock speed of 66 MHz. All the usual on-board I/O is present, including an IR TX/RX header. The board has four PCI and three ISA slots, one of each of which is shared (the shared PCI slot is an Asus mediabus slot as well). The board uses the Award 1 Mbit flash BIOS, which has support for the NCR/Symbios SCSI controllers built in. I've had no reports of success with this board and OS/2 as yet, but given that the 430VX chipset is reported to be slow due to its shared memory architecture, I'm not likely to be recommending it. (Asustek Computer Inc.: 1043/4163) (6/2/96) Setup tips: none so far. Possible problems: none so far. **********************************************************************= DFI Double Shot **********************************************************************= 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) (8/27/95) Setup tips: None so far. Possible problems: None so far. **********************************************************************= 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) (8/27/95) +++++++++++ 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) (8/27/95) 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-586ATE This board will take everything from a 75 to a 133 MHz Pentium, and has 4 ISA and 3 PCI slots (none of which are shared). The board supports 1 floppy (up to 1.44 MB) and 2 IDE ports, and has all the standard I/O ports as well, all in what are reported to be fairly convenient locations. The board (currently at revision 3) uses the Award 4.50G BIOS, the latest revision of which (for this board) is 2.08, and will accommodate up to six 72-pin SIMMs (double- or single-sided). The BIOS supports green functions, but apparently its flexibility is limited because of the BIOS. The manual for this baord is reportedly only fair, with many bad translations and many jumpers to set which are not all covered by the manual. I've had couple of reports of success with this board and OS/2. However, it seems that the board does not work well with ATI cards; the Mach32 cards are only marginally stable, and other people have reported (non-specific) problems with this board and the Mach64 cards. The problems with the Mach32 (which were even worse in Win/95) were solved with a BIOS update from ATI; this may help with the Mach64 cards as well. (Vendor ID unknown) (5/26/96) Setup tips: None so far. Potential problems: Apparently the Triton chipset IDE drivers will not work with the board and Warp at any level of fixpack. This board does _not_ work reliably with ATI Mach32 cards, and is potentially problematic with ATI Mach64 cards. +++++++++++ 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) (8/27/95) 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 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 all the various Pentium chips from 75 to 133 MHz. 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. Note that none of these boards supports the NCR 53c810 SCSI controller in the BIOS. (Intel: 8086/32902) (11/2/95) 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. (8/27/95) 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. Another person says that PCI bursting must be turned off if you have a slow video card (like and MGA Ultima) to avoid video corruption. The built-in S3 Trio64 chipset apparently works well with Warp as well. (This was on a European model; the S3 chipset may not be available on the North American model.) A few people have reported their systems to be crash-free. The board apparently has a large capacitor next to the CPU which prohibits the use of full-length PCI cards in the adjacent slot. (5/26/96) Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: None verifiable or repeatable. 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. (8/27/95) Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: None so far. Advanced/EV: This board will take all the Pentium processors (up to 166 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 several reports of success with this board and Warp, and one report that the board does not work with the Adaptec 2940UW SCSI controller. (5/26/96) Setup Tips: Here's how to overclock your 120 MHz Pentium to 133 MHz with the EV board. Set the switches as follows: 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. CPU Switch 2 Switch 6 Switch 7 Switch 8 --- -------- -------- -------- -------- 75 OFF OFF ON OFF 90 OFF OFF OFF OFF 100 OFF OFF ON ON 120 ON ON OFF OFF 133 ON ON ON ON WARNING *** WARNING *** WARNING *** WARNING *** WARNING *** WARNING Potential Problems: None so far. Advanced/AL: This board is used in computers sold by Gateway. They support 75 - 133 MHz Pentium chips and have 256 kB of pipeline burst cache soldered into the motherboard. It also has PS/2-style mouse and keyboard connectors. The board comes with an ATI Mach64 with 2 MB of RAM on the board. To get this working in OS/2, it is necessary to first install for VGA then to get the latest Mach64 drivers from hobbes (mach64.zip) and install those. (5/18/96) +++++++++++ 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. I've had one report of success with the board. (Intel: 8086/32902) (5/18/96) Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: None so far. +++++++++++ Intel Premiere The 60/66 (Premiere) and 75/90/100 (D) 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 1.00.16.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. The 60/66 MHz boards use the CMD chipset for IDE functions while the 90/100 MHz 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) (6/2/96) 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. **********************************************************************= 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) (8/27/95) 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 **********************************************************************= 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) (8/27/95) 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) (8/27/95) 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. **********************************************************************= MTI R526** This board, like the 486 board on this list from MTI, has among its unique properties that it will use 30-pin SIMMs. It uses the SIS 551X chipset, and has support for up to 128 MB of RAM, either in 30-pin SIMMs or 72-pin. The board also supports all the different Pentium CPUs (it has a socket 7 for up to 200 MHz), and supports all the different types of cache as well (up to 1 MB for standard SRAM and 256 kB for pipelined burst). The board has four ISA and three PCI slots, and has all the usual built-in I/O; the IDE controller supports up to mode 4. The board will take either the Award or AMI BIOSes (flash upgrability is an option; the standard BIOS is the Award 4.50PG which is not). Apparently people seem to prefer the Award BIOS to the AMI version. I've had several very positive reports about this board and OS/2. (Vendor ID unknown) (5/26/96) Setup tips: The spacing for the 30-pin SIMMs is very tight, so make sure that, if you're using 30-pin SIMMs, they're in tight. Also (as with all PCI motherboards) make sure that if you have an ISA card which uses IRQ 9, 10, or 11, that you stop the PCI bus from using it (this is done via the system BIOS). If you don't do this, the system will have problems accessing the hard drive. Potential problems: None so far. **********************************************************************= QTC P54TS* This board uses the Triton chipset and has 3 PCI and 4 ISA slots. Apparently the board has jumpers for everything from a 75 to a 200 MHz Pentium, and a built-in AIC7870 SCSI chip (from the Adaptec 2940) with the associated support in the BIOS. The board will take four 72-pin SIMMs (EDO or page mode), and will take normal or pipelined burst cache. All the standard I/O is built in. I've had a report of success with this board and Warp Connect and Win/95. Setup tips: None so far. Potential problems: None so far. (Vendor ID unknown) (11/4/95) **********************************************************************= SuperMicro P55* This motherboard is based around the Intel Triton chipset, and as such will support a 75 to 180 MHz CPU. 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) (8/27/95) 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 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) (8/27/95) 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) (8/27/95) 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. This board has in common with the MTI boards that it will accept 30-pin SIMMs; 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) (8/27/95) 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. Tyan Tomcat I This board will take up to a 200 MHz Pentium (via a ZIF socket 7) and uses the Triton II (430HX) chipset. The board will take up to 512 MB of parity or ECC FPM or EDO RAM in eight slots, and 256 or 512 kB of pipelined burst cache via a coast socket. The board has four PCI slots and five ISA slots, one of each of which is shared (for a maximum of eight cards on the motherboard at once). All the usual on-board I/O is present, as is support for USB via two on-board connectors. The USB will apparently support up to 126 attached devices and 12 Mb/sec data transfer-rate. Either the AMI or Award BIOSes may be ordered with this board. I've had a report of success with this board and OS/2. (Tyan Computer: 10F1/4337) (6/2/96) Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: None so far. +++++++++++ Tyan Tempest II This board will take up to two 166 MHz Pentium processors and uses the Intel Neptune chipset. Up to 512 MB of FPM-only RAM can be installed in eight slots, and will take either 256 kB (standard) or 512 kB (optional) of asynchronous cache. The board has four PCI slots and five EISA slots, one of each of which is shared (for a maximum of eight cards on the motherboard at once). The board also has connectors for 3.3 or 5 volt power supplies. I do not believe the board has any integrated I/O (none is mentioned on the Tyan web site). I've had no reports of success with this board and OS/2 as yet. (Tyan Computer: 10F1/4337) (5/26/96) Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: None so far. +++++++++++ Tyan Titan III This board will take a single Pentium CPU running at up to 166 MHz or the Cyrix 686 chip and uses the Triton (430FX) chipset. The board uses either 3.3 or 5 volt FPM or EDO DRAM (up to 128 MB in four sockets), and takes up to 512 kB of pipelined burst cache (256 kB is standard), or 64/256 kB of asynchronous cache. There is a COAST socket for cache as well. The board has four PCI slots and four ISA slots, none of which are shared and all of which allow busmastering. No on-board I/O is present, except for the built-in IDE provided by the Triton chipset. The board can be ordered with either the Award or AMI flash BIOSes. I've now had a report of success with this board and OS/2. (Tyan Computer: 10F1/4337) (6/2/96) Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: None so far. +++++++++++ Tyan Titan III This board will take a single Pentium CPU running at up to 200 MHz and uses the Triton (430FX) chipset. The board uses either 3.3 or 5 volt FPM or EDO DRAM (up to 128 MB in six sockets), and takes up to 512 kB of pipelined burst cache (256 kB is standard), or 64/256 kB of asynchronous cache. The board has four PCI slots and five ISA slots, one of each of which is shared (for a maximum of eight cards on the motherboard at once). All the usual on-board I/O is present. The board can be ordered with either the Award or AMI flash BIOSes. I've had no reports of success with this baord and OS/2 as yet. (Tyan Computer: 10F1/4337) (5/26/96) Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: None so far. |-------------------------------------------| |PART THREE: Pentium Pro-based motherboards| |-------------------------------------------| AMI Goliath** This board uses the Orion chipset and is truly for the power-hungry. It will take up to four Pentium Pro processors (running at 200 MHz) and uses the Orion chipset. This is accomplished by something called the CPU board approach, wherein the main motherboard takes two CPUs, but there is a slot for a secondary board which holds up to two more CPUs. The board will accommodate up to 1 GB (!) of RAM in 8 slots; there is apparently support for 168-pin DIMMs, as there is for ECC RAM. The board has six PCI slots (two buses and three slots per bus) and supports concurrent operation of the two buses. There are four EISA slots. All the usual built-in I/O is present. I've had no reports of success with this board, but AMI has a good track record, so I'm optimistic. (American Megatrends: 101E/4126) (5/26/96) Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: None so far. +++++++++++ AMI MegaPro** Here's another over-achiever from AMI. This one will support "only" up to two Pentium Pro processors (running at 180 or 200 MHz, with others being supported as they are available), and uses the Natoma chipset. The board supports up to 1 GB (!) of FPM, EDO, or BEDO RAM, any of which can optionally have parity/ECC. Symmetric and asymmetric DRAM is also supported. The board has six PCI slots (three per bus and two independent PCI buses), all of which busmaster, and four EISA slots (also busmastering). One EISA slot and one PCI slot are shared, for a maximum of nine cards on the board at once. All the usual built-in I/O is present, and a connector for a 3.3 volts is present. I've had no reports of success with the board, but am optimistic, as AMI does not release boards to manufacturing until they have passed OS/2 certification. (American Megatrends: 101E/4126) (5/26/96) Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: None so far. +++++++++++ AMI Merlin** This board supports a single 180 or 200 MHz Pentium Pro (others will be supported as they become available) and uses the Natoma chipset. The board supports up to 512 MB (!) of FPM, EDO, or BEDO RAM, any of which can optionally have parity/ECC. Symmetric and asymmetric DRAM is also supported. The board has four PCI slots and four ISA slots. One ISA slot and one PCI slot are shared, for a maximum of seven cards on the board at once. One of the PCI slots will accommodate only a half-length PCI card. All the usual built-in I/O is present, and a set of two 4-pin connectors for USB support. I've had no reports of success with the board, but am optimistic, as AMI does not release boards to manufacturing until they have passed OS/2 certification. (American Megatrends: 101E/4126) (5/26/96) Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: None so far. **********************************************************************= Asus P/E-P6RP7D This baord uses the Orion chipset and takes up to two 200 MHz Pentium Pros (via a ZIF socket #8). The board uses the Orion chipset and the AMI flash BIOS, currently at rev. 2.2. The BIOS supports the NCR/Symbios SCSI controllers. The board will accept up to 1 GB (!) of (non-EDO) RAM in 8 sockets, and has 6 PCI slots and 1 EISA slot (The EISA slot is shared with a PCI slot; the PCI slot is an Asus mediabus slot). All the usual I/O is there with the exception of an IDE port, though an IR TX/RX header is present. There is a VRM (voltage regulator module) on board, but I don't know what that is for. Note that this board is full-AT size. (Asustek Computer Inc.: 1043/4163) (6/2/96) Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: None so far. +++++++++++ Asus P/E-P6P4S This baord uses the Orion chipset and takes the 133, 150, and 166 MHz Pentium Pros (via a ZIF socket #8). The board uses the Orion chipset and the Award 1 Mbit flash BIOS, currently at rev. 2.2. It will accept up to 512 MB of (non-EDO) RAM in 4 sockets, has 4 PCI slots and 3 ISA slots (one of each of which is shared). All the usual I/O is there including two EIDE ports and an IR TX/RX header. This board will only take one Pentium Pro. Quite obviously, I've had no reports from anyone using it yet. (Asustek Computer Inc.: 1043/4163) (12/3/95) Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: None so far. +++++++++++ Asus P/I-P6NP5 These baords (the "X" board has an P/I-XP6NP5 ATX form factor) take all the various Pentium Pros (one at a time, up to 200 MHz), and uses the Intel Natoma (440FX) chipset. The boards will support up to 256 MB of non-parity, parity, or ECC FPM, EDO, or BEDO RAM in four sockets. All the usual on-board I/O is there. The boards have five PCI slots and three ISA slots. One of the PCI slots has (attached to the end) a mini-ISA slot, and so is called a "Mediabus" slot. This slot is shared with a full-size ISA slot. There is a voltage regulator module on-board (2.1 to 3.5 volts), though I don't know what this is for. The boards use the Award 1 Mbit flash BIOS and have support for the NCR/Symbios controllers built in. I've had no reports of success with these boards as yet. (Asustek Computer Inc.: 1043/4163) (6/2/96) Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: None so far. +++++++++++ Asus P/I-P6RP4 This baord takes all the various Pentium Pro processors (one at a time, up to 200 MHz), and uses the Intel 450KX (Mars) chipset. The board will take up to 512 MB of non-parity, parity, or ECC RAM, in either FPM or EDO varieties. The board has four PCI slots and three ISA slots; one of the PCI slots (a mediabus slot) is shared with an ISA slot. All the usual on-board I/O is present, including an IR Tx/Rx header. The board uses the AMI flash BIOS, which has support for the NCR/Symbios SCSI chips built in. There is apparently also a voltage regulator module which supports 2.1 to 3.5 volts built on to the motherboard, but I'm not sure what that would be used for. I've had no reports of success with this board as yet. (Asustek Computer Inc.: 1043/4163) (12/3/95) Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: None so far. **********************************************************************= Intel Performance Note that this board has an ATX AU form factor. The board takes a single Pentium Pro processor and uses the 450KX (Mars) chipset. The board takes up to 128 MB of non-parity, parity, or ECC FPM RAM (60 ns RAM is required). All the usual integrated I/O is present, along with an IR TX/RX header. The board has four PCI slots and three ISA slots, two of each of which are shared. The board uses a 1 Mbit flash Intel BIOS. I've had no reports of success with this board and OS/2 as yet. (Intel: 8086/32982) (6/2/96) Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: None so far. **********************************************************************= Tyan Titan Pro This board takes up to two Pentium Pro CPUs (running at 200 MHz) and uses the Intel Natoma (440FX) chipset. The board takes up to 1 GB (!) of RAM (parity or ECC, EDO/BEDO/FPM). The board has five PCI slots (all accommodate full-length cards), presumably split into two PCI buses (though this is not stated explicitly), and three ISA slots, one of each of which is shared. The board supports concurrent PCI. All the usual built-in I/O is present, as is support for USB. I've had no reports of success as yet with this board and OS/2. (Tyan Computer: 10F1/4337) (5/26/96) Setup Tips: None so far. Potential Problems: None so far. There's what I know. Please E-Mail suggestions/corrections and I'll post again. -- Patrick Duffy, duffy@theory.chem.ubc.ca "Evil is out there making hand-crafted mischief for the swap meet of villany." -- The Tick