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AMI Enterprise III

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First post, by GL1zdA

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AMI Enterprise III motherboard
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Just acquired this motherboard. I haven't tested it thoroughly, but it allows me to enter the BIOS at least. It only complains about an improper configuration for adapter in Slot 7, but think it's some old EISA config, though I can't find any EISA related settings in setup. Can anyone tell me what chipset it uses (I don't want to scratch off the AMI stickers)?
AMI Enterprise III @ stason.org
AMI Enterprise III @ stason.org (other version)
AMI Enterprise III @ ami.com

Last edited by GL1zdA on 2020-03-24, 08:15. Edited 2 times in total.

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Reply 1 of 34, by Amigaz

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nice mobo 😀

the eisa cards are setup thru the eisa config util made for this mobo together with the correct .cfg files for the mobo and particular eisa cards you plan to use and set the correct resources for the mobo

since this mobo has vlb slots you don't have to hunt down an obscure eisa gfx card

you're lucky the dallas chip still holds it's charge....is ut socketed?

I can help you out with different eisa config stuff for this board that might work

My retro computer stuff: https://lychee.jjserver.net/#16136303902327

Reply 2 of 34, by Anonymous Coward

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Ah, that's a good one. But it looks like somebody robbed you of all your tag RAMs, so you won't have any L2 cache until they're installed.

I can't say for certain, but your chipset is probably either OPTi or SiS.

"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 3 of 34, by Amigaz

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Anonymous Coward wrote:

Ah, that's a good one. But it looks like somebody robbed you of all your tag RAMs, so you won't have any L2 cache until they're installed.

I can't say for certain, but your chipset is probably either OPTi or SiS.

Looks like it needs some extra power input too? (white pwr socket left of the AT pwr sockets)

My retro computer stuff: https://lychee.jjserver.net/#16136303902327

Reply 4 of 34, by GL1zdA

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Amigaz wrote:

nice mobo 😀

the eisa cards are setup thru the eisa config util made for this mobo together with the correct .cfg files for the mobo and particular eisa cards you plan to use and set the correct resources for the mobo

The util is missing from the AMI website, but it seems I found the AMI EISA Configuration Utility with some 3rd party guide.

Amigaz wrote:

since this mobo has vlb slots you don't have to hunt down an obscure eisa gfx card

I probably use my SPEA Mercury with S3 928. Also have a Diamond Viper (Weitek P9000), but it's in 'unknown' condition.

Amigaz wrote:

you're lucky the dallas chip still holds it's charge....is ut socketed?

Unfortunately it's not, so I will probably have to hack it in the future.

Amigaz wrote:

I can help you out with different eisa config stuff for this board that might work

First I have to get some EISA cards, especially a SCSI controller.

Anonymous Coward wrote:

Ah, that's a good one. But it looks like somebody robbed you of all your tag RAMs, so you won't have any L2 cache until they're installed.

I can't find any information, what memory should I use in this sockets neither in the manual nor on the web 🙁

Amigaz wrote:

Looks like it needs some extra power input too? (white pwr socket left of the AT pwr sockets)

AFAIK it's optional, probably useful if I run a lot of EISA cards. I still don't have any AT PSU with this P10 connector. (But except for the AMI board, I have at least 2 other mobos with the header for it).

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Reply 5 of 34, by Amigaz

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So far I've been lucky with the dallas chips still holding the charge on the several Eisa mobo's I have...seems like they're not drained of their juice as much on regular mobo's

My retro computer stuff: https://lychee.jjserver.net/#16136303902327

Reply 6 of 34, by GL1zdA

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Amigaz wrote:

So far I've been lucky with the dallas chips still holding the charge on the several Eisa mobo's I have...seems like they're not drained of their juice as much on regular mobo's

Could list your EISA motherboards? Just curious 😀

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Reply 7 of 34, by Amigaz

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GL1zdA wrote:
Amigaz wrote:

So far I've been lucky with the dallas chips still holding the charge on the several Eisa mobo's I have...seems like they're not drained of their juice as much on regular mobo's

Could list your EISA motherboards? Just curious 😀

Two everex boards:

Forgot the model name

P1010005.JPG

and this one.

http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/E/EV … L-EV-18211.html

It also has SiS chipset like the above mobo

An Everex mobo:

P1010414.JPG

http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/E/EL … 6-SL-486VE.html

A couple of Gigabyte mobo's:

http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/G/GI … 6-GA-486TA.html
http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboar ... 486SA.html

Both of the above mobo's have SiS chipset

Also have this baby:

http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/M/MI … EISA-50MHz.html

Have some unkknown brand baby AT Eisa mobo with a 486DX 50mhz...

P1010375.JPG

My retro computer stuff: https://lychee.jjserver.net/#16136303902327

Reply 8 of 34, by Anonymous Coward

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I think I found the EISA CFG files you need:

ftp://ftp.bluefeathertech.com/computing/hardw … MI/Enterprise3/

There is also a user manual in that directory (EXE format). It should tell you what kind of TAGs you need. They're probably 64kx4 24pin type.

"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 9 of 34, by GL1zdA

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Anonymous Coward wrote:

I think I found the EISA CFG files you need:

ftp://ftp.bluefeathertech.com/computing/hardw … MI/Enterprise3/

There is also a user manual in that directory (EXE format). It should tell you what kind of TAGs you need. They're probably 64kx4 24pin type.

Unfortunately the exe contains three files with .man extension - and they're not in text format 🙁. The PDF manual from AMI's website does not even have the 3 empty cache sockets printed... There are only 8 with regular cache chips mentioned.

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Reply 10 of 34, by Amigaz

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http://www.fileinfo.com/extension/man

Neither winblows wordpad, notepad or MS Word can open them...so I guess you need a fancy unix text editor to open them?

My retro computer stuff: https://lychee.jjserver.net/#16136303902327

Reply 11 of 34, by Anonymous Coward

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I guess the best thing to try is contacting somebody else who has the same board as you and asking which tag RAMs are installed. I counted the pins in the photo, there are 22 of them. There are a couple of different densities available in that configuration, but I would guess something like Cypress Semiconductor CY7C166 (16k x 4) which was a very common one. I have an opti based VL EISA board that uses three 64kx1 chips as tag instead that is 22pin as well.

By looking at the number and arrangement of the chips on your board, I would guess you have the SiS406 EISA chipset like the rest of us.

"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 12 of 34, by Old Thrashbarg

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Two everex boards:

Is that the Everex EV-18210 in the first pic? I've been thinking about picking one of those up from Lamcast Sales on eBay, but I've seen reports of people having trouble finding an EISA config utility to work with 'em. Something about it requiring an Everex-specific one that no longer exists in any archives.

So I guess you got it working, what did you end up having to do? And also, how do you like the board in general?

Reply 13 of 34, by Amigaz

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Old Thrashbarg wrote:

Two everex boards:

Is that the Everex EV-18210 in the first pic? I've been thinking about picking one of those up from Lamcast Sales on eBay, but I've seen reports of people having trouble finding an EISA config utility to work with 'em. Something about it requiring an Everex-specific one that no longer exists in any archives.

So I guess you got it working, what did you end up having to do? And also, how do you like the board in general?

Yep, that's the model name 😀

I got my first 18210 from him but I accidently killed it by using an opti localbus gfx card in it by mistake since it looks exactly like an Eisa connector

The 18210 I'm using now was bought together with my Micronics board and one of the Gigabyte boards...the board came with the Eisa config stuff on floppy disks

My retro computer stuff: https://lychee.jjserver.net/#16136303902327

Reply 14 of 34, by Shodan486

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Hi guys,

I'm about to obtain this Everex EV 18210 board and I just want to know if the Dallas chip is socketed or not...

Second thing is that EISA cfg file, I would probably need it 😀 If there is any chance you could post a link that I could download it, or to my message box, I would be grateful... Hope it'll work.

Reply 15 of 34, by Amigaz

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Shodan486 wrote:

Hi guys,

I'm about to obtain this Everex EV 18210 board and I just want to know if the Dallas chip is socketed or not...

Second thing is that EISA cfg file, I would probably need it 😀 If there is any chance you could post a link that I could download it, or to my message box, I would be grateful... Hope it'll work.

It's socketed on my board.

I'll dig up the files for you and post them here...

My retro computer stuff: https://lychee.jjserver.net/#16136303902327

Reply 16 of 34, by Amigaz

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Shodan486 wrote:

Hi guys,

I'm about to obtain this Everex EV 18210 board and I just want to know if the Dallas chip is socketed or not...

Second thing is that EISA cfg file, I would probably need it 😀 If there is any chance you could post a link that I could download it, or to my message box, I would be grateful... Hope it'll work.

Attached the archive with the ECU stuff

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  • Filename
    everex2.zip
    File size
    363.81 KiB
    Downloads
    618 downloads
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

My retro computer stuff: https://lychee.jjserver.net/#16136303902327

Reply 17 of 34, by Shodan486

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Btw, amigaz. After browsing those pictures you posted on the net, on that Everex, what are all of those boards you have plugged in? 😀...quite a number 😀

MOBO: PVI-486SP3 Rev 1.2
CPU: POD-83
RAM: 2x16MB
VIDEO: Matrox Millenium 2MB/Voodoo2 12MB/Video Blaster VT300
AUDIO: SB Vibra16 FM
SCSI: 72GB 15k RPM HDD/YAMAHA CD-RW 16x/ZIP drive + FDD drive
NIC: 3Com Etherlink III
PSU: 230W Generic
OS: Win95 OSR2.5

Reply 18 of 34, by Amigaz

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Shodan486 wrote:

Btw, amigaz. After browsing those pictures you posted on the net, on that Everex, what are all of those boards you have plugged in? 😀...quite a number 😀

That pic is old...had an Eisa Mach32 in there

What I have in it now:

Ati Mach32 2mb DRAM VLB gfx card
Roland MPU 401 card
Gravis Ultrasound Max
Sound Blaster AWE32
3Com Eisa NIC
Some no name multi I/O ISA card
Adaptec AHA-2742 SCSI-2 Eisa card

My retro computer stuff: https://lychee.jjserver.net/#16136303902327

Reply 19 of 34, by GL1zdA

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Just acquired a BT-742A EISA SCSI controller (AFAIK the manufacturer is Mylex, now LSI). It also has a FDD controller.
bt742a.th.jpg
Although LSI does have lots drivers for it, they don't have the CFG files. But it seems here are some I could use.
For the VLB VGA i'll use a SPEA Mercury (S3 928).
v7mercury.th.jpg
Now a question (possibly stupid): should I use a normal ISA FDD controller, to run the ECU for the first time, or should it be somehow possible with the (not yet configured) SCSI controller?

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