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TEKRAM DC-680T Firmware Upgrade, a bit of 486 - Fiddeling and a little Introduction

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First post, by BigMaQ

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Hi,

I am Markus, 47 YO from Germany and just get somehow infected with the Retro - Virus - A Colleague gives me a 80286 - And I feel young again - I start to buy some damaged Motherboards and an Oscilloscope, only to find out, I can fix them easy with a Multimeter Only 😀 Also thanks to (I am not sure its allowed to promote YT - Channels, so lets "code" the names ->) "Hand out of Grave with GFX Card" and "APU Universe" from YT to showing some Hints how to fix stuff!

So my Mission now: Rebuild the 80486 DX2/66 from my childhood (i80486, 4 MB RAM, 210 MB HDD, Hercules Dynamite VLB GFX, Sound Blaster PRO)
Another thing, I keep in my Cupboard for many years is my good, old Cache Controller I bought for 378 DM end of the 90s.

I plug it in and it still stores some old HDD data from the 90s in it, wow... I run the Version 1.50 of Firmware, this can handle LBA.
But I saw, there is a v2.02 available. So I download it and flash it onto some freshly imported WinBond w27c512 - To test, this is working, I copy the old Chips with 1.50 over, it works.

Sadly, no luck with the 2.02 . There is no initialization (is that the right english word?).
I wonder about the following:
Old BIOS Chips are 64KB, new one I download only 32KB (512Kb/256Kb)
OLD BIOS got 3 Chips on, labeled as 1993 TEKRAM 1, 2 and 3, the download package I got only gives me 2 (Odd, Even, for exchange of Chip 2 and 3) - Is there no Chip 1 to change? This still contain the 1.50 Version.

I am happy if I can get some Info, maybe joined with a download Link to the right ROM 1 in 2.02

Edit: Found some more Infotmation. Looks like the 2.x FW needs only 2 ROMs and run the initial Boot code out of a „Stub ROM“ somewhere in the ASIC.

Thanks a lot for reading

greetings

MaQ

Reply 1 of 5, by mkarcher

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The BIOS chips on a DC680T should not be 512 kilobit chips. The controller uses only 256 kilobits on "chip 2" and "chip 3" to get 64KB as 32K x 16. If there are 512Kb chips on that controller, that controller was upgraded by a hobbyist that didn't have 256Kb chips at hand, or at some point manufacturing costs were lower with 512Kb chips than with 256Kb chips.

The used amount of "chip 1" (in firmware 1.x) is even lower: Just 128 kilobits (16KB) is required, but IIRC, these controllers usually ship with a 256Kb ROM chip in that position, too.

When you use W27c512 chips, make sure you write the 32KB image twice into the chip, as I am not sure whether it will use the upper half, the lower half, or randomly mixed halves. Your controller should work perfectly with the 2.02 firmware, which is a great improvement in both functionality and performance over the 1.x firmwares.

Reply 2 of 5, by Jackhead

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I had one before 3chip bios. And my first chip was also 512kb. With the latest version there only 2 chips bios. They labled on the flash you download. Just leave the unused socket free.

Dos 6.22: Asus VL/I-486SV2GX4 Rev 2.0 1Mb L2 - AMD A5x86 X5 ADZ 133MHz @160MHz - 64MB RAM - CT2230 - GUS ACE - MPU-401 AT - ET4000W32P
Win98SE: Asus P5K-WS - E8600 @ 4,5GHz - Strange God Voodoo 5 6000 PCI @ 66MHz PCI-X - 2GB DDR2 1066 - Audigy 2 ZS

Reply 3 of 5, by BigMaQ

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Hi,

Thanks for the Input. I do a

copy /b file1+file1 filebig

and flash the result. Bingo - Bios Update completed. And it looks so much more modern already. Also a 4 Disk Support is now on (before I only can use 2 disks + 2 for Mirror Mode).

Sexy. Cant wait benchmarking this evening.

The original Chips are 512k. I bought the Controller brand new in the past and never change anything. Original TEKRAM Stickers still on.

Thx again.

Reply 4 of 5, by Jackhead

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Benchs are best with a HDD. With SSD adapter its really slow. Well you can build a IDE Raid what is fun, but otherwise its a slow controller after all..

Dos 6.22: Asus VL/I-486SV2GX4 Rev 2.0 1Mb L2 - AMD A5x86 X5 ADZ 133MHz @160MHz - 64MB RAM - CT2230 - GUS ACE - MPU-401 AT - ET4000W32P
Win98SE: Asus P5K-WS - E8600 @ 4,5GHz - Strange God Voodoo 5 6000 PCI @ 66MHz PCI-X - 2GB DDR2 1066 - Audigy 2 ZS

Reply 5 of 5, by BigMaQ

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Of Course I use HDDs. Accept only the Finest. 😀

But it looks like my WD Drives performs weaker than my Quantum Fireball.

Raid I will try with 2x 340 MB WD for testing. Or 2x420 MB. Lets see. Love the Sound of old WD Drives.

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