As far as I know "bioteq" is a rebranded Eteq chipset.

Sure, some could be Eteq, but I am pretty sure this particular one isn't.

Was there a 2 chip version of the ETEQ?

The Bioteq markings should reflect what the chipset actually is. For example:

"Bioteq" 82C391/82C392 <--OPTi 391/392
"Bioteq" 82C3491/82C3493 <--UMC 491/493
"Bioteq" 82C3481/82C3482 <--- UMC 481/482
"Bioteq" 82C3498 <--UMC UM8498(F)
"Bioteq" 82C3480/82C3490 <--"FTDI","FTD" or possibly in-house Biostar chipset
"Bioteq" AT40391B/AT40392 <--ATMEL AT40391B/AT40392

There should be others as well. Bioteq made boards based on VLSI and OPTi for example. I will update the list as I figure out what they are.

FTDI is still around. As far as I am aware they make chips for USB to (DB9) serial adapters and probably others.

This company is supposed to be Scottish. Do you know if it's the same company and not just a coincidence? They were founded in 1992, so there is a possibility.

here they just say bioteq, but at least you can see it does not support fast cpu http://motherboards.mbarron.net/models/486vlb … 1433ae.txt.html

Sure, maybe it's not the ultimate 486 chipset. But it may be a pretty good 386 chipset.

I use this in my 386DX/40 build:

I use "The Last Byte Memory Manager" to get UMBs and it reports it's an Opti or UMC chipset, can't remember which atm... I can look it up though if it helps

According to the markings on your stickers, it should be the UMC chipset. I am pretty certain that two chip OPTi solution is either the 495SLC or the 495XLC, and the name on the sticker would reflect that. I haven't seen one yet, but I would guess something along the lines of "82C495"

Anonymous Coward wrote:

This company is supposed to be Scottish. Do you know if it's the same company and not just a coincidence? They were founded in 1992, so there is a possibility.

My guess is that it's the same company, according to Wikipedia:

It develops, manufactures, and supports devices and their related software drivers for converting RS-232 or TTL serial transmissions to USB signals, in order to allow support for legacy devices with modern computers.[2]

And:

FTDI's initial products were chipsets for personal computer motherboards, the primary customer of which was IBM, which used them in its AMBRA and PS/1 personal computers. It later expanded its product line to include interface translators, such as the MM232R and the USB-COM232-PLUS1, along with other devices for converting between USB and other communication protocols.

Apologies in advance for reviving this now rather ancient post, but I'm actually inclined to believe the Bioteq 82C4380 is actually a relabeled Acer Labs / ALi chipset, not an FTDI.
I did a chip swap on a broken MB1433-AEA-V board to try to fix non-functional VLB slots, and while I removed it I saw 'ACER LABS' stenciled on the bottoms of both the original and replacement chips.
Later, when I was trying various BIOSes over the course of troubleshooting, I found that BIOSes for ALi M1419 based boards would work, at least to some degree.
There are still problems with this board so I don't know if the remaining issues (Award BIOS complains about memory addressing problems, while one AMI BIOS I tried didn't enable L2 cache) are due to the board still being technically broken, or if the chipset isn't quite a perfect clone of the M1419.
BIOSes for M1429 wouldn't work at all, I know that much.

In any case, the most functional BIOS is ironically the Award BIOS, as once I dismiss the error it actually can run FastDOOM fine - so long as I don't use a 486DX2. 🤷
And the L2 cache works correctly too.

Hmm...well that's odd.
I'll have to look into this again after spring festival.
My board is for 386s. It's MB1333-AEA-G. What got my interest is that it has a production code in the second half of 1993, which is very late for a 386. I thought maybe the FTDI chipset might bring something new to the table, but my testing indicated nothing special. There was a reason I packed it up and put it away....I can't remember. Maybe something about ISA bus dividers being limited. I should try a MR-BIOS for Acer M1419 to see if it works.

Did you get the VLB slots working?

Not yet, unfortunately.
After replacing the chipset, I'm now inclined to believe that there might be some problem with the way the slots were added. Later, I'll look into desoldering and resoldering the slots to clear up any solder-blob related shorts.

Did you happen to see this thread?

Biostar MB-1433/50 AEA-V with unpopulated VLB slots: possible transplant?

I believe the VLB slot issue was solved by using a different BIOS.

I tried the ATROM bios from that, but it still gives me the same symptoms as all the other BIOSes I've tried: on the two VLB VGA cards this board wants to work with, I get characters that "drop" or are not properly updated when the screen scrolls. Fuddling with the jumpers on the cards has no effect.

I'm thinking the problem is related to how the VLB slots are soldered in to be honest. Something's shorted over, or perhaps not making good contact.
ISA video on the other hand seems to be OK.

I should mention that my board is REV: 1, whereas the board(s) shown in that post are REV: 5.
It's possible the VLB slots were omitted for a technical reason beyond just cost cutting, for this revision. 🤷

Eep386 wrote on 2024-02-05, 02:19:

I tried the ATROM bios from that, but it still gives me the same symptoms as all the other BIOSes I've tried: on the two VLB VGA […]
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I tried the ATROM bios from that, but it still gives me the same symptoms as all the other BIOSes I've tried: on the two VLB VGA cards this board wants to work with, I get characters that "drop" or are not properly updated when the screen scrolls. Fuddling with the jumpers on the cards has no effect.

I'm thinking the problem is related to how the VLB slots are soldered in to be honest. Something's shorted over, or perhaps not making good contact.
ISA video on the other hand seems to be OK.

I should mention that my board is REV: 1, whereas the board(s) shown in that post are REV: 5.
It's possible the VLB slots were omitted for a technical reason beyond just cost cutting, for this revision. 🤷

Hi, I'm the owner of the Biostar board from the thread linked above. I have not used that board for some time, but from what I remember messing around with jumper J01 (and maybe J02) is what made the difference between VLB cards working or not working. In fact, I didn't update my findings on that thread, but if I remember correctly I had to set J01 on or off depending on if I was using one or two VLB cards, and I think I had troubles when trying to get them running at 0WS (not sure if I ever managed to do it). I also remember trying to trace where the J01 pins go but gave up, to this day I don't have a clue what that jumper does, but it seems to be important for the VLB functions.

My board was REV:2 by the way, and as I mention in that thread it came with the VLB slots unpopulated and the BIOS of an ISA-only, older Biostar board (AEA-P).

On my board, J01 has to be vacant or absolutely nothing works in the VLB slots at all.
I tried messing with the other nearby jumpers too, no luck.

I'll have to secure a solder pump in order to efficiently desolder these VLB slots.