Ampro Corporation 486E manual Setup Overview

Little Board™/486e Technical Manual

SETUP Overview

This section describes the SETUP function. It describes each option that can be set using SETUP. Additional sections describe important options that can be set for each major functional block of the board.

Note

The SETUP descriptions in the following section also contain much useful information about each SETUP topic. Review these sections even if you already know how to set the SETUP parameters.

This section assumes users are familiar with DOS. It does not attempt to describe the standard DOS and ROM BIOS functions. Refer to the appropriate DOS and PC reference manuals for information about DOS, its drivers and utilities, and about the software interface of the onboard ROM-BIOS. Where Ampro has added to or modified standard functions, these will be described.

The Ampro Common Utilities manual contains detailed descriptions of the Ampro utility programs supplied on the Utility diskette that is included with the Little Board/486e Quick Start Kit or Development Platform Kit.

Many options provided on the Little Board/486e CPU are controlled by the SETUP function. Activating the SETUP function can access these options. The parameters are displayed on four screens. To configure the board, modify the fields on these screens and save the results in the onboard configuration memory. Configuration memory consists of portions of the CMOS RAM in the battery-backed real-time clock chip and an Ampro-unique configuration EEPROM. To enhance embedded-system reliability, the contents of the EEPROM mirror the contents of the CMOS memory. The EEPROM retains your configuration information even if the clock’s backup battery should fail. If you choose to use the Little Board/486e CPU without a battery, the system takes its SETUP parameters from the EEPROM, providing battery-free operation.

The SETUP information is retrieved from configuration memory when the board is powered up or when it is rebooted with a CTL-ALT-DEL key pattern. Changes made to the SETUP parameters, with the exception of the real-time clock time and date settings do not take effect until the board is rebooted.

The SETUP function is located in the ROM BIOS. It can be accessed using CTRL-ALT-ESC while the computer is in the Power-On Self Test (POST), just before booting up. This is called hot key access. The screen displays a message indicating when you can enter CTRL-ALT-ESC. You can also enter the SETUP function from the DOS command line using the SETUP.COM program provided on the Ampro Common Utilities diskette.

Table 2–53 summarizes the choices found on each SETUP page.

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