Snobol Mini SNB-M008 80286-Motherboard - EMS Drivers wanted. \ VOGONS

Snobol Mini SNB-M008 80286-Motherboard - EMS Drivers wanted.

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First post, by alexthekid

Posted on 2023-01-08, 17:21

alexthekid Offline

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Rank: Newbie
Posts: 35
Joined: 2020-09-23, 09:05

Hello everyone,

I gave it some thought whether I should start a new SNB-M008-thread or not because there already are two SNB-M008-related threads:
BIOS for SNOBOL MINI 286 needed SNB-MOO8
and
Need some info on a 286/16 SNB-M008 mobo

I read them both from beginning to end but it has been 1321 days in the first and 570 days in the second now since anybody posted something there.

Enough preface/ introduction. Lets start 😀:

First of all we are talking about this motherboard:

SNB-M008.jpg

It is in near perfect condition aside from one damaged SIMM-Socket (broken latch), but luckily the SIMM-module in this socket is always being detected and works fine.
Onboard are at the moment 1MB RAM in eight 41C4256 Chips. If I add four 1MB-SIMMs, the board will run with a total of 5MB RAM with the jumper configuration in this picture.

The board has a GST Gold GS62C101 / GS62C102 chipset.

My board has an AMI-BIOS, version 3.03NP. I did a bios-dump for this motherboard:

SNB-008_BIOS_AMIBIOS3.03NP_27C512AK-15.zip

I directly got it from the boards bios-chip, a 27C512AK-15.

I also found a manual online. It can be downloaded here:

https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/snobol-snb-m008

Or here:

snb-m008-users-manual.pdf

My board also has an empty DIL-14 socket (U50), presumably (from what I read in the other threads mentioned above) for a 74F74-flip flop that was present in older board revisions. Maybe I will test it with a 74F74 later on but at the moment I see no need to do that.

So far so good.

I read the manual. In chapter 7: "EMS Driver Set up", page 15 of the manual:

Page15.png

it says that GS04EMM.SYS is required to use EMS.

Unfortunately I couldn't find this file anywhere.
I have several questions:
The description-page for this board on Retroweb (https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/snobol-snb-m008) says,
that this board has a Headland GC101,GC102-chipset.

Question 01: The chips on my board say "GST Gold GS62C101 / GS62C102". Is this identical to the Headland GC101,GC102-chipset?

Question 02: If the Headland GC101,GC102 and the GST Gold GS62C101 / GS62C102 are the same: Does anybody have an EMS-Driver?

Question 03: If not: Does anybody have a GST Gold GS62C101 / GS62C102-EMS-Driver? 😉

Question 04: Does the HT12(A)-chipset-driver work for the Headland GC101/GC102-chipset?

Thank you very much. 😀

Reply 1 of 2, by Ryccardo

Posted on 2023-01-09, 10:33

Ryccardo Offline

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Rank: Member
Posts: 252
Joined: 2022-11-05, 18:45
Location: Imola, Italy

I don't think it's a GC101 clone, mainly because that's XMS only without the optional GC103 😀

Reply 2 of 2, by alexthekid

Posted on 2023-01-10, 12:46

alexthekid Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 35
Joined: 2020-09-23, 09:05

I did a little research and I found some datasheets for the Headland GC101 and GC102.

Headland GC101/GC102:

GC101-2.pdf

I also found two datasheets for the chipset on my motherboard (I hope):

GS62C101:

GS62C101_GSTechnology.pdf

GS62C102:

GS62C102_GSTechnology.pdf

Clearly the Headland GC101/102 differs from the GS62C101/102.

Now, here is the interesting thing:
The chips on my board say: GST GOLD GS62C101/102
In the datasheet for the GS62C101, page 12 and in the datasheet for the GS62C102, page 27 it clearly says: SUNTAC.

So I rephrase my question 01 from my initial post: Is the GST GOLD GS62C101/102 the same as the SUNTAC GS62C101/102 chipset?
I think I have a SUNTAC-EMS-Driver... as soon as I find the time I will let you know if the SUNTAC EMS-Driver works. 😀

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