LCS-6941 - BIOS upgrade \ VOGONS

LCS-6941 - BIOS upgrade

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First post, by tikoellner

Posted on 2017-02-15, 23:06

tikoellner Offline

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Hey there.

I have acquired LCS-6941 caching controller based on Promise chip and Harris 286 20mhz CPU.

Now I found this BIOS upgrade that is said to add LBA support to the card:

6941D350.EXE 224097 ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ
Û Release Information: LCS-6941 Û
Û Drivers & Utilities for DOS, Û
Û Windows and NetWare .. Version 3.50 Û
Û Device Driver for Unix Version 1.10 Û
Û Device Driver for OS/2 2.X v1.40 Û
Û Device Driver for Windows NT v1.10 Û
Û F/W upgrade for LBA-support Û
ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ

I got the file (here: http://manual.longshine.de/5_Old_Product_Driv … OL/6941D350.EXE) and it includes:
LCS-6941.bin file (in BIOS directory)
and
LCS-6941.evn
LCS-6941.odd
(firmware directory)

I have no idea what to do to upgrade the card's firmware:
1) there are three UV erasable chips on the board with the following labels:
E6941-202E
E6941-2020
E6041-202X
Which of this chips do you think I should get reflashed?
2) which of the files above contains the BIOS upgrade that I should use? I suppose the .bin file is the proper one, but what are the other ones?

There's the photo of the card:

Thanks for your help!

Reply 1 of 13, by Jo22

Posted on 2017-02-15, 23:55

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Oh, that's a though question! I don't own that controller nor do I know anything about it, so I can only speculate.
Perhaps you need all three of them (BIOS files) ?
The odd/even chips are maybe those which are close to each other (-202E -> even, 202O -> odd).
And the EPROM on the far right is the one which requires the single ROM file.
( Sorry for my bad English, it's late and I'm a bit sleepy.. 😊 )

Edit: Better not ersase the original chips. You can still get 27C256/27C512 models on places like eBay, etc.
Maybe you can even use EEPROMs/Flash types instead (AT29C256-70PI, etc.).

Last edited by Jo22 on 2017-02-16, 00:08. Edited 1 time in total.

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Reply 2 of 13, by tikoellner

Posted on 2017-02-16, 00:05

tikoellner Offline

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Yeah... a though question, I know.

I see that most of these cards have three BIOS chips. I have no idea what for?

Reply 3 of 13, by Jo22

Posted on 2017-02-16, 00:16

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Hmm, I'm not sure either. Perhaps because of the floppy controller. Or maybe the controller is split into two units internally.
Then it could be necessary to have separate firmware, because each part does require a different machine language.
Like z80 and 6502 micro processors do, for example.

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Reply 4 of 13, by lazibayer

Posted on 2017-02-16, 05:45

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These bin files are sure tiny... 16KB each.

Reply 5 of 13, by tikoellner

Posted on 2017-02-16, 07:10

tikoellner Offline

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Jo22 wrote:
Oh, that's a though question! I don't own that controller nor do I know anything about it, so I can only speculate. Perhaps you […]
Show full quote
Oh, that's a though question! I don't own that controller nor do I know anything about it, so I can only speculate.
Perhaps you need all three of them (BIOS files) ?
The odd/even chips are maybe those which are close to each other (-202E -> even, 202O -> odd).
And the EPROM on the far right is the one which requires the single ROM file.
( Sorry for my bad English, it's late and I'm a bit sleepy.. 😊 )

Edit: Better not ersase the original chips. You can still get 27C256/27C512 models on places like eBay, etc.
Maybe you can even use EEPROMs/Flash types instead (AT29C256-70PI, etc.).

I just bought couple of Winbond EEPROMS (W27E512-70) and I will ask my friend to burn the images for me. It seems that you're absolutely right with this odd (O)/even (E) designations. I'll give it a try.

Reply 6 of 13, by tikoellner

Posted on 2017-02-16, 08:35

tikoellner Offline

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I'm IMPRESSED!

Yesterday I written Longshine Technologie GmbH, the company that manufactured the card about 25 years ago and asked them to send me the manual and the drivers.

Today in the morning they sent me the scan of the manual and the link to the most recent drivers!

Such a great support!

I would like to add the manual and the drivers to Vogons collection. How do I do that?

Reply 7 of 13, by HanJammer

Posted on 2020-10-18, 00:12

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tikoellner wrote on 2017-02-16, 08:35:
I'm IMPRESSED! […]
Show full quote

I'm IMPRESSED!

Yesterday I written Longshine Technologie GmbH, the company that manufactured the card about 25 years ago and asked them to send me the manual and the drivers.

Today in the morning they sent me the scan of the manual and the link to the most recent drivers!

Such a great support!

I would like to add the manual and the drivers to Vogons collection. How do I do that?

Would you post them here if you havn't added it to the collection yet?

Also these cards are clones of the Promise DC-4030VL cards (Rev B is virtually identical to DC-4030VL-2). I wonder if the upgraded BIOS will work with my Promise HBA 😀 Below is side by side photo of mine DC-4030VL-2 and friend's LCS-6941 Rev. B

As for the upgrade if you havn't figured it out yet:
you will need 3 27C128 EPROMs (may be bigger, but in case of the 27C256 chips you will need to duplicate the payload and so on).

BIOS\LCS-6941.BIN goes into the 202X chip
FIRMWARE\LCS-6941.EVN goes into 202E chip
FIRMWARE\LCS-6941.ODD goes into 202O chip

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Reply 8 of 13, by HanJammer

Posted on 2020-11-02, 01:28

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I can confirm the firmware/bios from LCS-6941 works fine on DC4030VL-2 and adds LBA support.

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Reply 9 of 13, by Robin4

Posted on 2020-11-03, 02:20

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Jo22 wrote on 2017-02-15, 23:55:
Oh, that's a though question! I don't own that controller nor do I know anything about it, so I can only speculate. Perhaps you […]
Show full quote

Oh, that's a though question! I don't own that controller nor do I know anything about it, so I can only speculate.
Perhaps you need all three of them (BIOS files) ?
The odd/even chips are maybe those which are close to each other (-202E -> even, 202O -> odd).
And the EPROM on the far right is the one which requires the single ROM file.
( Sorry for my bad English, it's late and I'm a bit sleepy.. 😊 )

Edit: Better not ersase the original chips. You can still get 27C256/27C512 models on places like eBay, etc.
Maybe you can even use EEPROMs/Flash types instead (AT29C256-70PI, etc.).

E6041-202X -> eXtended.

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Reply 10 of 13, by HanJammer

Posted on 2020-11-03, 15:41

HanJammer Offline

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Robin4 wrote on 2020-11-03, 02:20:

Jo22 wrote on 2017-02-15, 23:55:
Oh, that's a though question! I don't own that controller nor do I know anything about it, so I can only speculate. Perhaps you […]
Show full quote

Oh, that's a though question! I don't own that controller nor do I know anything about it, so I can only speculate.
Perhaps you need all three of them (BIOS files) ?
The odd/even chips are maybe those which are close to each other (-202E -> even, 202O -> odd).
And the EPROM on the far right is the one which requires the single ROM file.
( Sorry for my bad English, it's late and I'm a bit sleepy.. 😊 )

Edit: Better not ersase the original chips. You can still get 27C256/27C512 models on places like eBay, etc.
Maybe you can even use EEPROMs/Flash types instead (AT29C256-70PI, etc.).

E6041-202X -> eXtended.

X is BIOS (as it's Option ROM aka BIOS Extension, then yeah, that's pretty obvious why it's marked X).
E is firmware EVEN
O is firmware ODD

Simple as that 😀

Also here are the original chips from both the DC4030VL-2 and the LC-6941 in case somebody needs some reference.

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DC4030VL-2 EPROMs

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File comment

LC-6941 EPROMs

File license

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Reply 11 of 13, by Hatta

Posted on 2020-12-15, 20:10

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Do you still have these drivers somewhere? I'd love to get my hands on them. Thanks!

tikoellner wrote on 2017-02-16, 08:35:
I'm IMPRESSED! […]
Show full quote

I'm IMPRESSED!

Yesterday I written Longshine Technologie GmbH, the company that manufactured the card about 25 years ago and asked them to send me the manual and the drivers.

Today in the morning they sent me the scan of the manual and the link to the most recent drivers!

Such a great support!

I would like to add the manual and the drivers to Vogons collection. How do I do that?

Reply 12 of 13, by bjwil1991

Posted on 2021-04-19, 08:52

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HanJammer wrote on 2020-11-02, 01:28:

I can confirm the firmware/bios from LCS-6941 works fine on DC4030VL-2 and adds LBA support.

Impressive. Is there a specific EPROM speed that is required?

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Reply 13 of 13, by HanJammer

Posted on 2021-05-10, 10:01

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bjwil1991 wrote on 2021-04-19, 08:52:

HanJammer wrote on 2020-11-02, 01:28:

I can confirm the firmware/bios from LCS-6941 works fine on DC4030VL-2 and adds LBA support.

Impressive. Is there a specific EPROM speed that is required?

Nah, I don't think so. Any modern, readly available UV/OTP EPROM should do .

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