Intel 281809-003 manual Appendix-HMotherboard BIOS, Flash Memory Implementation, Bios Upgrades

Appendix-H Motherboard BIOS

The Advanced/RH motherboard uses an Intel BIOS, which is stored in Flash EEPROM and easily upgraded using a floppy disk-based program. BIOS upgrades can be down loaded from the Intel Applications Support electronic bulletin board service, or the Intel FTP site. In addition to the Intel BIOS, the Flash EEPROM also contains the Setup utility, Power-On Self Tests (POST), APM 1.1, the PCI auto-configuration utility, and Windows 95 ready Plug ‘N’ Play. This motherboard also supports system BIOS shadowing, allowing the BIOS to execute from 64-bit on-board write-protected DRAM.

The BIOS displays a sign-on message during POST identifying the type of BIOS and a five-digit revision code. The initial production BIOS in the Advanced/RH will be identified as 1.00.01.CV0.

Information on BIOS functions can be found in the IBM PS/2 and Personal Computer BIOS Technical Reference published by IBM, and the ISA and EISA Hi-Flex AMIBIOS Technical Reference published by AMI. Both manuals are available at most technical bookstores.

FLASH MEMORY IMPLEMENTATION

The Intel 2 Mb Flash component is organized as 32 x 8 (256 KB). The Flash device is divided into five areas, as described in Table H-1.

System Address

F0000H FFFFFH

EC000H EFFFFH

EA000H EBFFFH

E8000H E9FFFH

E0000H E7FFFH

FLASH Memory Area

64 KB Main BIOS

16 KB System BIOS RECOVERY

8 KB Plug ‘N’ Play ESCD Storage Area

8 KB OEM Logo Area

32 KB System BIOS Reserved during boot

Table H-1. Flash memory organization

BIOS UPGRADES

Flash memory makes distributing BIOS upgrades easy. A new version of the BIOS can be installed from a diskette. BIOS upgrades are available to be down loaded from the secure section on the Intel bulletin board, or Intel’s FTP site.

The disk-based Flash upgrade utility, FMUP.EXE, has three options for BIOS upgrades:

∙The Flash BIOS can be updated from a file on a disk;

∙The current BIOS code can be copied from the Flash EEPROM to a disk file as a backup in the event that an upgrade cannot be successfully completed; or

∙The BIOS in the Flash device can be compared with a file to ensure the system has the correct version.

The upgrade utility ensures the upgrade BIOS extension matches the target system to prevent accidentally installing a BIOS for a different type of system.

Advanced/RH Technical Product Specification ∙ Page 39