OPSD BIOS ENGINEERING
Intel Corporation, 5200 NE Elam Young Parkway
Hillsboro, OR 97214
DATE: Aug 17, 1995
TO: OMCO Business Unit
CC: iPG / OPSD BIOS Engineering
FROM: Anand Valavi, HF3-73, 696-2913
SUBJECT: Batman Revenge Release 12.0
This memo serves as a preview to the changes being incorporated into the Phase II BIOS. This BIOS will
be used on all new products and backported to some existing products. Beta BIOSs for each of these will
be made available per the BIOS ZBB.
About This Release
o BIOS 1.00.12.AF2 Release 12.0 - Batman Revenge
Features/Errata Fixed In This Release
Release 12.0
o Changed setup . On boards that have the RZ1000 chip, the CMOS option for
prefetch buffer is grayed out. The Default of this option is now set to disabled. Only
on boards that have the RZ1001 will the user be able to enable the prefetch buffers.
o Added a check to make sure that the prefetch buffers are never enabled on boards that
have the RZ1000 chip. On boards that have the RZ1001 chip the prefetch buffers will
be enabled or disabled based on the CMOS option selected.
Release 11.0
o Removed Hot-Key Security option since not supported in this revision of the BIOS
Release 10.0
o Switched all IDE options in setup to default to auto-configure.
Release 9.0
o Re-added INT 15 E801. Win NT 3.1 is limited to 64MB.
o Floppy controller error not displayed if CMOS indicates no floppy drive present.
o Fixed problem where Video Mode Setup entry changed to “Not Installed” when defaults
were loaded via the F5 key.
o Fixed Setup problem where characters from a long drive ID for the C: drive could
appear on the display line for D: drive.
o Default for ‘Palette Snoop’ Setup option changed to Disabled.
o Added Setup help text.
o ESC changed in French text to ECHAP.
Beta 9.03
o Reset A20 before boot.
o Fixed conflicts between on-board serial ports and off-board serial ports.
o Palette snooping now tracks SETUP.
o Palette snooping disabled if Cirrus 5434 B-step detected.
o Moved Palette snooping & latency timer from the Plug and Play Configuration page to
the Advanced Chipset Configuration page and removed the Supervisor control to be
consistent with other features.
o Disabled interrupts for soft resets.
o GAT mode turned off and removed from SETUP.
o SETUP F10 key works from numeric and alpha fields. These fields still need a <CR> or
up/down arrow after data has been entered.
o Fixed Setup hang condition for last entry on a page.
o Fixed internal Setup pointers.
o Internal Setup re-organization-not visible to the user.
o Security Hot Key and Unattended Start Setup entries only visible when a User Password
has been entered.
o Password verification bug in Setup utility fixed.
o Removed obsolete code.
o LEDs flash when waiting on password.
o Limited extended memory CMOS bytes to 63MB max.
Features/Errata Fixed In This Release
Beta 9.02
o Mouse not detected message deleted. Only the mouse detected message appears.
o SETUP entry changed from ISA Video LFB (Linear Frame Buffer) to ISA Linear Frame
Buffer.
o SETUP entries for ISA LFB Base Address fixed.
o SETUP entries for ISA/PCI IRQs only appear if entries have not been taken by COM
ports, LPT ports or mother board devices.
o POST message System Halted after 3 invalid password entries changed to Invalid
Password - System Halted.
o Video hang with SCSI bug fixed.
o False valid password generated by holding Spacebar down bug fixed.
o INT 15h AX=E801 support removed. See note at end of document.
o OS/2 hang with more than 64MB of memory bug fixed.
o EMM386 bug of taking E000 page fixed by making PCI ESCD data block look like a
PROM.
o 2.88MB floppy format problem fixed.
o NUM LOCK is set before SETUP entry.
o NUM pad works in SETUP.
o False indication of valid password fixed.
o Password hang with length 1,3, or 5 characters fixed.
Features Included In This Release
Release 10.0
o Switched all IDE options in setup to default to auto-configure.
Beta 9.02
o Keyboard LEDs cycle when unattended is invoked.
o If no valid passwords then the Unattended Start and Security hot key fields are removed from
SETUP.
Setup Changes
Release 10.0
o Switched all IDE options in setup to default to auto-configure.
Beta 9.01
o New, more friendly, user interface. Layered interface functions more like standard
applications with better screen layout for easy viewing. Like functions are grouped onto
screens or menus for easier configuration.
o On-line help available for most setup fields.
o Administrative password function allows all but Time/Date and User Password
selections to be modified only by the system administrator.
o New screen layout allows for more descriptive field text.
o New screen layout permits field and option text to be translated without having to use
cryptic abbreviations.
Password Changes
Beta 9.01
o Both User and Administrative passwords are available.
o Passwords have been extended to seven(7) characters instead of the current six(6).
Language Support
Beta 9.01
o Multi-language support is now available.
o OEMs and users will be able to flash language sets into the BIOS and configure which
language is used through Setup. The current plan is for language pairs consisting of:
English(US)/German(GR), English(US)/Italian(IT), English(US)/French(FR), and
English(US)/Spanish(SP).
o Depending upon the size of the FLASH device used for a particular product, up to 32
languages may be present at one time in the BIOS.
Hard Disk Changes
Release 10.0
o Switched all IDE options in setup to default to auto-configure.
Beta 9.01
o User definable parameters are available on a per drive basis. This means each of the
four drives may have unique user defined parameters.
o The DMA selection (Auto-Configured or Disabled) may be set on a per drive basis.
(The ability to select the DMA transfer mode has been removed.)
o The Sector/Block selection (Auto-Configured, 8 Sectors/Block, 4 Sectors/Block, or
Disabled) for multiple sector transfers may be set on a per drive basis. (The ability for
finer resolution of Sector/Block size has been removed.)
o The ability to disable fast PIO modes has been added. This selection (Auto-Configured
or Disabled) may be set on a per drive basis.
o The Translation selection (Auto-Configured, Logical Block Addressing, Extended
Cylinder/Head/Sector or Standard Cylinder/Head/Sector) may be set on a per drive basis.
o A Hard Disk Pre-Delay has been added to the Boot Options screen. This option sets a
fixed amount of time to wait in POST before attempting to initialize any of the hard
disks. This delay occurs only once before calling the hard disk initialization code.
Because POST is so fast on this version of BIOS, many drives have not finished their
power on self-test routines by the time the BIOS reaches its hard disk initialization code.
For certain drives, if the BIOS attempts to query the drive before it has finished its self-
test, the drive may hang. In an attempt to accommodate a user with one of these drives
this option has been made available. (This option is available on some current
products.)
Chicago Plug and Play
Beta 9.01
o Plug and Play version 1.2 will be supported in the Phase II BIOS.
o Setup menus are still TBD.
New Int 15h Extensions
o New Int 15h Extensions for Extended Memory and Memory Map have been added.
o Function E801 has been added to report the amount of contiguous memory above 1Mb.
o Function E820 has been added to report a full memory map of the system. This function
is used by Chicago and newer versions of Windows NT.
Other Changes
o A setup field has been added to enable/disable the Guaranteed Access Time (GAT)
Mode for ISA Master and DMA devices. This feature may enhance the performance of
ISA Master and DMA devices while degrading the performance of other non-ISA based
devices. Disabling this feature may improve sound quality on some ISA based sound
cards.
o A setup field has been added to enable/disable Byte Merging on PCI. This feature
enhances performance but may break some PCI graphics cards.
Known Errata With This Release
o None.
Features Still To Be Added / Comments About This Release
o None.
Notes:
Note 1:
The various O/Ss either do their own memory detection or issue a series of BIOS interrupts to
determine memory size. The most common series of BIOS interrupts are INT 12 to get base
memory. Int 15 AH=88h is issued to get extended memory. Int 15h AX=E801h is issued to get
memory above 64MB. NT-Daytona Beta 2 and Chicago issue Int 15h AX=E820.
A problem occurs because there is no standard as to what Int 15h AH=88 returns. Microsoft
expects up to 63MB UNLESS E801 is supported , when they expect only 15MB maximum. If
Microsoft sees greater than 15MB they limit the memory to the AH=88 value and ignore the
E801 results. Some O/Ss in the above situation limit memory to 16MB. Some O/Ss except Int
15 AH=88 to return up to 63MB and look at E801 for memory above 64MB.
Eliminating the Int 15h AX-E801 support allows all O/S to handle up to 64MB using the Int
15h AH=88h. Those O/S that support Int 15h AX=E820h will handle memory above 64MB
correctly.
Intel Confidential
INTEL CORPORATION
OMD Engineering
Test System Development
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