Is the Promise BIOS similar to the XT-IDE Universal BIOS, wherein I can just stick the BIOS chip in any available ROM slot?
This is to break the 500mb capacity barrier in an ISA only 286 system (PC AT clone).
Yes usually you can but need to know From which Promise adapter is it from and which ISA NIC card also...
Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun
Actually my Promise card turned out to be the Ultra 100 version. The BIOS chip is also a 32-pin DIP, not like the XT-IDE's 28-pin ROM. So I don't even have an ISA card that can use it.
So I'm guessing its a no-go? I will just have to buy an actual BIOS enhancer for ISA then? Are there even cheap ones available still?
EDIT: There was only one Promise EIDE Max ISA card on ebay for $30 so I just bought that. It has a 28-pin DIP BIOS chip, made in 1996. There were literally no other ISA cards like these in ebay, so unless I am not using the search terms correctly, it looks like these things are going extinct.
BTW I like having actual controller cards, because of the auto-detect IDE option.
clownwolf wrote on 2023-06-27, 02:32:Is the Promise BIOS similar to the XT-IDE Universal BIOS, wherein I can just stick the BIOS chip in any available ROM slot?
This is to break the 500mb capacity barrier in an ISA only 286 system (PC AT clone).
OK, I've seen comments like this before but I don't really understand the context.
You obviously can't turn an ethernet card into an IDE contrtoller because it won't have any physical channels to connect to.
So are you doing this so that, at boot, the computer sees the network card has a BIOS, loads than and then that allows the onboard IDE contoller to use the XT-IDE BIOS?
Thanks.
clownwolf wrote on 2023-06-27, 02:32:Is the Promise BIOS similar to the XT-IDE Universal BIOS, wherein I can just stick the BIOS chip in any available ROM slot?
Unlikely. The XT-IDE Universal BIOS is, well, universal.
The BIOS for the Promise card is written to allow computers to boot driver-less from the IDE devices connected to the PCI-based Promise controller.
Without that BIOS, the computer can't do anything with the IDE card until the OS is loaded from a different device and the OS has loaded in drivers.
It is unlikely that this BIOS would do anything with other IDE controllers, whereas the XT-IDE is specifically written to handle a large variety of ISA and VLB based IDE controllers.
The Promise ATA cards are very much not standard PCI IDE controllers. They don't use regular IDE I/O ports and their BIOS is specific to them, it would not work with anything else. Think of them as more like SCSI cards with an IDE connector
Ok Got it. I guess the BIOS would unlikely be transferable, outside of its card model after all. They probably wouldn't make their BIOS universal because they will lose money from cheap clones.
nfraser01 wrote on 2023-06-27, 10:59:OK, I've seen comments like this before but I don't really understand the context. […]
OK, I've seen comments like this before but I don't really understand the context.
You obviously can't turn an ethernet card into an IDE contrtoller because it won't have any physical channels to connect to.
So are you doing this so that, at boot, the computer sees the network card has a BIOS, loads than and then that allows the onboard IDE contoller to use the XT-IDE BIOS?
Thanks.
Yes, basically I wanted to see if I can turn the BIOS from the PCI IDE controller into a dedicated ISA BIOS Enhancer card like the pic below, in order to break the ~500mb Drive Barrier. Mainly because finding PCI cards are extremely common, and ISA cards are getting rarer. I can then use the onboard IDE controller like you said, or a rom-less IDE card.
clownwolf wrote on 2023-06-27, 16:45:Ok Got it. I guess the BIOS would unlikely be transferable, outside of its card model after all. They probably wouldn't make the […]
Ok Got it. I guess the BIOS would unlikely be transferable, outside of its card model after all. They probably wouldn't make their BIOS universal because they will lose money from cheap clones.
nfraser01 wrote on 2023-06-27, 10:59:OK, I've seen comments like this before but I don't really understand the context. […]
OK, I've seen comments like this before but I don't really understand the context.
You obviously can't turn an ethernet card into an IDE contrtoller because it won't have any physical channels to connect to.
So are you doing this so that, at boot, the computer sees the network card has a BIOS, loads than and then that allows the onboard IDE contoller to use the XT-IDE BIOS?
Thanks.
Yes, basically I wanted to see if I can turn the BIOS from the PCI IDE controller into a dedicated ISA BIOS Enhancer card like the pic below, in order to break the ~500mb Drive Barrier. Mainly because finding PCI cards are extremely common, and ISA cards are getting rarer. I can then use the onboard IDE controller like you said, or a rom-less IDE card.
If that's your goal, there is already a perfect tool available - the XTIDE Universal BIOS
Yeah I misread. Being a PCI it will not work, The ISA Max ii and ISA Max Pro you could...
Best to use XT-IDE or find a DTC adapter with the EDPT bios, they work just fine in most any NIC.
Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun
DTC1181 BiOS Adapter 1998 Pre XTIDE Adapter Info and Rom
Some BIOSes were patched, too.:
http://wims.rainbow-software.org/
https://www.wimsbios.com/large-hdd-patched-bios.jsp
Edit: 286 PC? XTIDE Universal BIOS might be best bet due to 16-Bit support.
The Enhancer cards might contain 386+ instructions in ROM.
Edit: These ancient ones "just work" and are useful for testing purposes, at least.
If everything works, upgrading to a current release would be better, maybe.
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I just bought the standard XT-IDE card, since it allows BIOS programming and I need to learn how to do that anyway.
However, it turns out my 286 motherboard is no longer working. I guess I can still at least use the ROM for the 386 I just bought, I will just have to use the onboard IDE.
Using the actual XT-IDE card's physical interface will cripple the disk performance of a 16-bit system. Big mistake.
I meant the onboard IDE of the motherboard. Then I double checked the pictures of the 386 board I ordered... and it didn't have any IDE ports.
So thanks for making me check.
Fortunately, I have about 3 Sound Cards with IDE (secondary) ports, AND after a quick search on the forum, it looks like XT-IDE can make those secondary IDE ports work!
