zwrr wrote on 2024-01-28, 04:41:

Hello everyone, I have an Octek VL-Combo-2. The IDE control chip on it is OP VIC3 423. Can anyone tell me its information?
八十进制组合-2_1_2.jpg

Isn't this an ISA IDE controller? With VLB graphics card?

Disruptor wrote on 2024-01-28, 18:55:

Isn't this an ISA IDE controller? With VLB graphics card?

I disagree. Pretty sure VIC on the “Op VIC3” chip is an abbreviation for “VESA IDE Controller” and the tracesfrom that chip go to the VLB connector.

pshipkov wrote on 2024-01-28, 18:33:

douglar wrote on 2024-01-28, 01:36:

I've been poking around with a UM85C418F based card. 7

That is a graphics chip. The ide and i/o ones are the small 86#.
Their ide performance is disappointing.

Well, there are IDE traces that run to the 85c418 chip and the BIOS and DOS drivers that came with the card calls it VESA ide controller, so I’m not ready to call it just a “graphics chip”. You are certainly correct about the performance though. Have not gotten performance that’s any faster than ISA/PIO-0 and the 32KB VGA/IDE BIOS was an impediment to successfully using EasyDrive or XUB. I recently burned a new 16kb Rom with a newer Vesa 1.2 compliant VGA BIOS and no IDE support. It booted but then stuff came up. Once I dig out from under today’s job related work, I’ll see if I can go faster than PIO-0 with this card.

douglar wrote on 2024-01-28, 13:15:

That’s an interesting looking board. […]
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zwrr wrote on 2024-01-28, 04:41:

Hello everyone, I have an Octek VL-Combo-2. The IDE control chip on it is OP VIC3 423. Can anyone tell me its information?
八十进制组合-2_1_2.jpg

That’s an interesting looking board.

I have not been able to get one of those yet, but I suspect that “vic” could be an abbreviation for Via IDE Controller and it might work with this driver: http://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=2 … menustate=56,55

Edit: Or more likely “Opti VESA IDE Controller” http://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=2 … menustate=56,55

Edit: Jumpers are here: https://arvutimuuseum.ee/th99/c/M-O/21034.htm

Edit: Drivers and ROMs can be found here: https://web.archive.org/web/19980614085407/ht … ay_Card/COMBO2/

Any chance you could upload the rom? There might be some ide info in it.

Hello, this is the extracted ROM, and the content looks like the BIOS file of ARK1000VL.

zwrr wrote on 2024-01-28, 22:17:

Hello, this is the extracted ROM, and the content looks like the BIOS file of ARK1000VL.
Octek VL-COMBO-2 修订版 1.02 SMJ27C512@DIP28.zip

Thanks for taking the time to extract it. Yes, I see what you mean. 64KB EPROM, but contains two copies of this 32KB image:

1ARK Logic GUI Accelerator BIOS Preliminary Version

Looks like there's an older version of this card that has a Cirrus VGA controller and a Promise IDE controller.
BIOS needed for Octek VL-COMBO

douglar wrote on 2024-01-28, 20:10:

pshipkov wrote on 2024-01-28, 18:33:

douglar wrote on 2024-01-28, 01:36:

I've been poking around with a UM85C418F based card. 7

That is a graphics chip. The ide and i/o ones are the small 86#.
Their ide performance is disappointing.

Well, there are IDE traces that run to the 85c418 chip and the BIOS and DOS drivers that came with the card calls it VESA ide controller, so I’m not ready to call it just a “graphics chip”. You are certainly correct about the performance though. Have not gotten performance that’s any faster than ISA/PIO-0 and the 32KB VGA/IDE BIOS was an impediment to successfully using EasyDrive or XUB. I recently burned a new 16kb Rom with a newer Vesa 1.2 compliant VGA BIOS and no IDE support. It booted but then stuff came up. Once I dig out from under today’s job related work, I’ll see if I can go faster than PIO-0 with this card.

You may be right. Taking my note back.

douglar wrote on 2024-01-28, 20:10:

I recently burned a new 16kb Rom with a newer Vesa 1.2 compliant VGA BIOS and no IDE support.

Why should a VGA BIOS image include an IDE option ROM?
They both are initialised in a different way.

VGA BIOS is at C000 and is initialized before RAM test, but after 64k RAM test + IRQ table initialisation.
Option ROMs are behind VGA BIOS and are initialized after HDD detection of motherboard BIOS. BIOS routines may not look for Option ROMs before C800.

Disruptor wrote on 2024-01-29, 00:07:

Why should a VGA BIOS image include an IDE option ROM? They both are initialised in a different way. […]
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douglar wrote on 2024-01-28, 20:10:

I recently burned a new 16kb Rom with a newer Vesa 1.2 compliant VGA BIOS and no IDE support.

Why should a VGA BIOS image include an IDE option ROM?
They both are initialised in a different way.

VGA BIOS is at C000 and is initialized before RAM test.
Option ROMs are behind VGA BIOS and are initialized after HDD detection of motherboard BIOS.

The board had a 85c418F chip that does UMC SVGA and IDE and a 64KB EPROM.

The VGA portion was at C000 and the IDE portion was repeated at C800, CA00, CC00, and CE00

After I moved the card to a board with AMI BIOS, I could clearly see that both ROMs did start at different times like you described.

I put a copy here if you want to look at it: http://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=2141

douglar wrote on 2024-01-29, 00:31:

The board had a 85c418F chip that does UMC SVGA and IDE and a 64KB EPROM. […]
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The board had a 85c418F chip that does UMC SVGA and IDE and a 64KB EPROM.

The VGA portion was at C000 and the IDE portion was repeated at C800, CA00, CC00, and CE00

After I moved the card to a board with AMI BIOS, I could clearly see that both ROMs did start at different times like you described.

I put a copy here if you want to look at it: http://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=2141

Fascinating.

douglar wrote on 2024-01-19, 14:05:

Does your card look like this one? […]
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piokum77 wrote on 2024-01-19, 13:33:

Hello, to douglar, I have a huge request for help regarding the VLB controller on SIS 83C611 + WinBond W83757F. After installing […]
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Hello,
to douglar,
I have a huge request for help regarding the VLB controller on SIS 83C611 + WinBond W83757F.
After installing the driver from http://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=2036, the computer hangs. The controller without driver works normally. Tested with a compact flash card and a Seagate 500 MB drive. Could I ask you for a photo of your controller (if you have one) and some technical documentation of this controller.
Thank you in advance and best regards
Peter

Does your card look like this one?

KAOS1345.jpg

The Jumpers are here: https://th99.dosreloaded.de/c/S-T/20650.htm

Thank you very much.
My controller looks a little different. I have a question about how to disable the second channel in the controller. My controller is single-channel. When installing the driver, the computer freezes and looks for an entry for the second channel. Without a driver, the controller works.
Thank you in advance and best regards
Peter

piokum77 wrote on 2024-01-30, 09:48:

Thank you very much. My controller looks a little different. I have a question about how to disable the second channel in the co […]
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Thank you very much.
My controller looks a little different. I have a question about how to disable the second channel in the controller. My controller is single-channel. When installing the driver, the computer freezes and looks for an entry for the second channel. Without a driver, the controller works.
Thank you in advance and best regards
Peter

Can you post a picture of your card?

Disruptor wrote on 2024-01-29, 03:44:

douglar wrote on 2024-01-29, 00:31:

The board had a 85c418F chip that does UMC SVGA and IDE and a 64KB EPROM. […]
Show full quote

The board had a 85c418F chip that does UMC SVGA and IDE and a 64KB EPROM.

The VGA portion was at C000 and the IDE portion was repeated at C800, CA00, CC00, and CE00

After I moved the card to a board with AMI BIOS, I could clearly see that both ROMs did start at different times like you described.

I put a copy here if you want to look at it: http://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=2141

Fascinating.

I might make my own rom for this that has the updated vga 1.22 BIOS and XtiIDE Universal BIOS.

I found the jumpers for the board here: https://th99.dosreloaded.de/c/U-Z/21655.htm

I'll probably get better performance if I update the Cycles to 5T/9T from the default 15T/30T, yes?

douglar wrote on 2024-01-30, 13:04:

piokum77 wrote on 2024-01-30, 09:48:

Thank you very much. My controller looks a little different. I have a question about how to disable the second channel in the co […]
Show full quote

Thank you very much.
My controller looks a little different. I have a question about how to disable the second channel in the controller. My controller is single-channel. When installing the driver, the computer freezes and looks for an entry for the second channel. Without a driver, the controller works.
Thank you in advance and best regards
Peter

Can you post a picture of your card?

Hi, actually Peter's card is currently with me. So below I present its photos.

zyga64 wrote on 2024-02-01, 10:09:

Hi, actually Peter's card is currently with me. So below I present its photos.

That's a curiously stripped down card. The chip should support 2 IDE headers, but it ain't there on your board.

I've got a SIS611 card and a SIS601 card. On both boards, the jumper to disable the second IDE controller is the right most jumper on a bank of two pin jumpers. So maybe removing the right most jumper on J7 would do it for you.

p.s. Curiously, the SIS601 is the newer chip, fab week 95-03, while the SIS611 chips I've seen have had 93 fab weeks. Seems like SIS, along with several other VLB chip makers, came out with new chips in early 1995.

I found this to be a helpful reference for Promise controllers:

LBA support seems to mean LBA support up to 8.4GB.

https://web.archive.org/web/19970416030135/ht … ltProducts.html

1MODEL        DESCRIPTION
2DC99         ISA IDE 8 MB max. caching - 2 HD, 2 FD
3DC99M        Same as above with 512KB memory included
4DC100M       Same as above with 2S, 1P
5DC200        ISA IDE 16 MB max. caching 4 HD, 2 FD up to 2.88MB with no memory included
6DC200M       ISA IDE 16 MB max. caching 4 HD, 2 FD up to 2.88MB with 512KB memory included
7DC2031       ISA IDE 16 MB max. caching - 2 HD, 2 FD
8DC2032       Same as above but 4 HD, 2 FD and 2S, 1P
9DC400        VESA IDE 1 MB max. caching with 512KB memory included - 2HD, 2FD
10DC420        Same as above with 2S, 1P
11DC4030VL-1   VESA IDE Up to 16MB cache - 4HD, 2FD up to 2.88MB
12DC4030VL-2   Same as above but smaller and faster!
13DC440        VESA Fast SCSI II - 7 SCSI, 2 IDE(!) 2S, 1P, 1G
14DC540        Fast and Wide SCSI II - 15 SCSI devices, 32Bit PCI Bus Mastering
15DC2000       Standard VESA IDE, no LBA.
16DC4000       Standard VESA IDE, no LBA. 2 HD and I/O
17EIDEMAX      ISA Secondary IDE. 2 HD.  LBA Support.  Co-exists with SCSI controllers 
18EIDEPRO      ISA IDE. 4 HD, 2 FD and 2S, 1P.  High Speed I/O.  LBA Support
19EIDE2300     VESA IDE with mode 3, but no LBA. 4 HD, 2 FD and 2S, 1P
20EIDE2300PLUS VESA EIDE mode 4 & CD-ROM support. 4 IDE devices, 2FD up to 2.88MB. High Speed I/O. LBA support.
21EIDE4030PLUS VESA EIDE mode 4 & CD-ROM support. 6 IDE devices, 2FD up to 2.88MB. High Speed I/O. Up to 16MB Cache

douglar wrote on 2023-04-17, 16:29:

[…]
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1UMC       |UM8672F     | ✔ |    |SST-2946-X     |PIO-4 with Modded Driver

Would you please post the modded driver for the UM8672F? I have two VLB cards with this chip and I'd like to use one in my system because it has a modern serial/parallel implementation (16550 UART and epp/ecp parallel). How was performance with this chip compared to the PDC20630 btw?

Thanks

SiS 611 is slower than 411 for what i know. 611 is PIO-3 only. 411 with driver can reach PIO-4 speeds for reading at least.
Never saw SiS 83C601 chip or card based on it. Do you have any available photo reference ?

Attached PIO-4 enabler for UM8672F.

pshipkov wrote on 2024-03-25, 21:52:

SiS 611 is slower than 411 for what i know. 611 is PIO-3 only. 411 with driver can reach PIO-4 speeds for reading at least.
Never saw SiS 83C601 chip or card based on it. Do you have any available photo reference ?

Attached PIO-4 enabler for UM8672F.

Thanks, it does make a slight improvement, but I'm only getting around 4600KB/second read speed in speedsys. Can you please confirm if this is normal or not?

confirmed.
it is a slow silicon.

check this and the following posts.
Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

hmm, thats relevant post, but not the one i needed.
there was exchange between me, feipoa, and jakethompson in the thread going over bunch of details and observations.
will try to find and link later