VOGONS


First post, by AndrewK2685

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Hi all

I haven't seen posts about this particular controller I played with, so thought to make one.
This is about DTC's ISA EIDE & Multi/IO Controller "Ultima Pro".

You can see its features from scanned pics of the box here:
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/dtc-ei … -pro-1866042804

In short, it features two high speed 16550 serials, a IEEE1284 ECP/EPP parallel, a standard Game Port,
a floppy disk controller and an EIDE HDD controller with onboard LBA BIOS for large drives.

This might sounds pretty standard for late ISA EIDE controllers with similar features like
Promise EIDEpro, or SIIG FastEIDE that also features two HDD connectors.

What's so special about this baby is that its onboard LBA Bios has this "Turboboost" thing,
supporting hard drives WITH UP TO 32GB STORAGE!!!

That's right, NOT THE USUAL 8.4GB one.

I guess it might have an early implementation of the Enhanced Disk Drive protocol.

I was able to attach a 40GB EIDE Samsung drive (I think it is an SP0401N) in 32GB compatibility mode
and voola, my old 486PC reported a disk with tons of 32gb space to partition and play with. 😁

I do have some other DTC controllers, like the VLB 2278EB, but it's onboard bios go until 8.4GB,
so I guess this was a later addon to it - the Ultima Pro is a later product anyway.

My goal is to swap BIOSes and see if I can get this extra storage with the performance of the VLB controller.
I'll also try the XT-IDE BIOS, although haven't seen any reports of it breaking the 8.4GB limit.

Reply 1 of 22, by AndrewK2685

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Finally found some time to upload some images.

So apparently this does a BIOS translation at
C,H,S (4111,255,63) on a Samsung SP0401N
giving a wooping 32GB hard drive
on my 486 to partition and play with!!

Also, the BIOS swapping in a DTC 2278/EB
VLB worked, so I can use the drive on the faster
VLB EIDE instead of ISA.

Images are from Windows 98 FDISK & format
and last are from booting sequence and windows

😀

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Reply 2 of 22, by Thermalwrong

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Nice 😀

How does it handle CD drives? If a CD drive is connected to that card, or picked up by that BIOS, does it work properly in Windows?
My experience with other LBA enhancers is that they don't support ATAPI drives, so it's not easy to get CD-rom support working natively in windows.

Also, since you've tried it on two cards now - why not back up the ROM from this card and put it on both?

Reply 3 of 22, by jakethompson1

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Interesting that the box has a web address on it, and references to Windows 95. That seems super late to be using an ISA disk controller. I guess even then this was a way to retrofit old machines? Sort of like the StarTech.com of the 90s.
Does this card's BIOS also take over int 13h if you were to have this card in the machine but connect disks to an onboard or VLB controller?

Reply 4 of 22, by AndrewK2685

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Both VLB and ISA versions support ATAPI - I used the VLB to put the windows CD in an Optical drive (slave) and install them on the hard disk.
Yes, I want to backup the rom and put it on both (& also upload it here if anyone interested) -
have some EPROMS around, but currently I'm waiting for a motherboard to handle my EPROM programmer.

Note The Bios on Ultima is dated February 1998!!! - So it was veeeery late one; hence probably the 32GB support.
I agree though, the safe side to go vintage on late 90s - early 00s was to use ISA . Other connections were very short lived
(mostly focusing on 486s).
As for Int13h I believe so yes. This motherboard I'm waiting has some onboard connectors, so I will
test that. On manuals it says the BIOS scans every port, so I assume it will do it on the onboard connectors as well.

Reply 5 of 22, by darry

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AndrewK2685 wrote on 2020-04-30, 17:13:

I'll also try the XT-IDE BIOS, although haven't seen any reports of it breaking the 8.4GB limit.

http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?297 … -testing-thread

XTIDE has broken the 127GB barrier, supposedly . I ran some tests with it on an Asus P3B-F (and used a slightly unorthodox way of loading it). My tests were not 100% conclusive for LBA48 support . I did use a 40GB drive at full capacity with no issues, so it is likely that up to 127GB would work, at the very least .

See this thread : Adding XT-IDE option ROM to Asus P3B-F BIOS [Thanks to DenizOezmen, it actually works!!!]

Reply 7 of 22, by AndrewK2685

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Thanks for the links.
I've always wanted to try loading XT-IDE in one of these boards - though I might stick with DTC one.
I currently have a similar 120GB HDD so I can test wheather it'll pass the 32GB limit.

I'll upload the BIOS as soon as I dump it - still waiting for that mobo........
I believe it will work on DTC's controllers at least - don't have others to try.

Reply 8 of 22, by AndrewK2685

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Sorry for the delay.
I just found some time to dump the LBA BIOSes.
The two 1.6 Versions are from VLB adapters and go up to 8.4GB
The 2.2A version is from the ISA adapter and go up to 32GB
This also worked on the VLB cards, enabling 32GB to them.
Can maybe anyone upload these to Vogons Drivers?

Malik ?

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  • Filename
    DTC EDPT BIOS.zip
    File size
    18.45 KiB
    Downloads
    93 downloads
    File comment
    DTC LBA BIOS dump from 2278EB & Ultima Pro
    File license
    Public domain

Reply 9 of 22, by Robin4

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Whats the differents between version 1.6A and 1.6B for the VLB controllers.. Do you also have a picture of these cards?

Thanks for sharing, iam guessing you have helped a lot of people here.. Those Roms arent very easy to find these days.

~ At least it can do black and white~

Reply 10 of 22, by AndrewK2685

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Here are pics from DTC VLB boards.

Originally, their BIOS did only up to 8.4GB.
Don't really know differences bewteen them, but
there are also several links in TH99 for these revisions.

Also an important note: while both were successfully
working up to 32GB with the BIOS chip from ISA Ultima Pro adapter,
only one worked with my EPROM when I burned the BIOS to it.

So, as a side note for anyone wanting to try the BIOS (or XT-IDE):
MAKE SURE YOUR EPROM IS COMPATIBLE (READABLE) WITH YOUR ADAPTER FIRST!!

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Reply 11 of 22, by douglar

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Nice looking cards.

Does that rom do anything else cool like ATA-3, DMA, or multi-word transfers in DOS? Maybe you could check using HWInfo DOS to see what PATA attributes the drive was able to negotiate with the controller.

It would also be interesting to see if the DISKRAND and DISKMBPS scores change with & without the ROM. (w/o smartdrive)
http://www.roylongbottom.org.uk/oldones.htm#anchorDisk

Reply 12 of 22, by AndrewK2685

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Yes both ISA/VLB versions seem to support DMA transfers and 32-bit disk access for windows 3.x
These however come from DTCs drivers and not the BIOS itself.
These drivers are already uploaded here in vogons drivers (DTC Enhanced IDE Miniport Driver)
and are for both ISA/VLB Versions

Reply 13 of 22, by pshipkov

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These DTC IDE controllers are top-noch.
The only one that outdoes them is Holtek.

Did a bit of a study recently that posted in another thread. Here is a small extract of the collected data:
benchmarks_ide_vlb_speedsys.png

retro bits and bytes

Reply 14 of 22, by Robin4

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Did you used the drivers on all the controller cards.. Every controller came with 32-bit support drivers. Or drivers to make the controller faster.

~ At least it can do black and white~

Reply 16 of 22, by pshipkov

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Yes, drivers with best possible/stable settings. Tested with both CF cards and HDDs. DOS only, etc.
Actually here is the more detailed breakdown:
Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Warlord, do you mind sharing your driver for Appian2 ? Want to make sure i am not using a dud.
But also, it sounds like you are using some hybrid hardware - VLB + 386 ...
Thanks.

retro bits and bytes

Reply 17 of 22, by Warlord

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ya I actually used the IDE driver from adaptec. Also see here http://www.ryston.cz/petr/vlb/adi2.html
As you can see it is sthe same as the AIC-25VL01

ADI/2, , CL-PD7220, AIC-25VL01

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  • Filename
    Adaptec.zip
    File size
    320.57 KiB
    Downloads
    71 downloads
    File license
    Public domain