Anonymous Coward wrote on 2021-07-23, 17:22:

You probably need to split the image into HI and LO for it to work...does your board have any jumpers for changing the ROM size to 512kbit?

Jumper is listed in the manual, but not soldered on the board. What’s the best tool to split it? I noticed the MR.Bios file was only 32kb though, hence why I just put it on the high chip.

Really, it's only 32k? Are there any explanations in the zip file?

The tool I use to split and combine ROMs is the tool that comes with my Wellon EEPROM burner.

Anonymous Coward wrote on 2021-07-24, 11:27:

Really, it's only 32k? Are there any explanations in the zip file?

The tool I use to split and combine ROMs is the tool that comes with my Wellon EEPROM burner.

Yes only 32kb. No information in the .zip. I’m using the following..

V001B310 - MICRONICS 386 (ASIC MIC-362/363) 386, Cx486

https://github.com/freem/romwak

Apparently this tool can be used to split and combine ROMs.

I don't think it was mentioned here: https://www.elhvb.com/mobokive/archive/octek/ … DCA2/index.html - MR BIOS for the Octek DCA2 motherboard.

A bit of an update, I tested a TX486DLC-40 with the Octek Jaguar V-specific MR BIOS-fitted C386MX board, and it works great, though I had to remove the onboard CPU before it would work reliably. (Apparently the board doesn't correctly disable the onboard CPU when one is installed in the upgrade socket, the jumper to select 386DX or 486DLC didn't disable the onboard CPU.) Oh well, the 486DLC is about 30% faster than the 386DX it replaced so no biggie.

Eep386 wrote on 2021-08-02, 15:40:

A bit of an update, I tested a TX486DLC-40 with the Octek Jaguar V-specific MR BIOS-fitted C386MX board, and it works great, though I had to remove the onboard CPU before it would work reliably. (Apparently the board doesn't correctly disable the onboard CPU when one is installed in the upgrade socket, the jumper to select 386DX or 486DLC didn't disable the onboard CPU.) Oh well, the 486DLC is about 30% faster than the 386DX it replaced so no biggie.

Have you tested for performance difference between original bios and mr-bios?

RichardG867 wrote on 2021-04-11, 00:46:

I've successfully decompressed the .ETI files from the Evergreen Spectra v2.01 (found by @jheronimus a few posts up) and v4 CDs after a couple days of reverse engineering attempts. Aside from the MR BIOS files, the CDs also include Unicore Award upgrades for many Socket 5 and 7 boards and even a few 686 ones somehow.

The decompressed files have been uploaded to archive.org: https://archive.org/details/evergreenspectrabios

amazing! thank you! i just downloaded this!

Am386DX-40 wrote on 2021-08-02, 16:13:

Have you tested for performance difference between original bios and mr-bios?

No unfortunately, though I did some partial benchmarks of the TX486DLC vs. the AMD 386-40 it originally came with, using the MR BIOS. CPU score is low in SPEEDSYS because of a programming anomaly in the benchmark when run on a system with a 387(DX/SX/etc.) FPU is installed. Also on this board, the 1K on-chip cache doesn't appear in the benchmarks I run, despite a very obvious increase in memory write throughput and a general overall reduction in off-cache access latencies in CACHECHK V7 compared with the 386DX-40. (Interestingly, memory copy actually seems to have taken a slight hit with the 486DLC.) Both the CPU internal cache and the MX305 built-in 8K cache, are enabled in BIOS Setup.

Specs: 16MB of 60ns DRAM running at the fastest timing (60ns), ISA bus running at 10.0MHz (40MHz / 4), WD 90C31 ISA VGA card with 1MB (which Speedsys seems to think only 768K is present), Quantum Trailblazer 420AT hard drive, ESS 187x (forgot which specific number exactly) ISA sound card. OS is PC-DOS 6.3, with Windows for Workgroups 3.11 with Wolverine/TCP-IP/32 stack and Win32s installed. Also a 3com Etherlink III ISA ethernet card is installed (and through it, Windows for Workgroups can talk to my Synology NAS).

386DX-40:

TX486DLC-40:

For reference, here's the original AMI BIOS the board came with. Looking through the BIOS it does not appear that proper Cyrix 486DLC identification is included in this particular build of AMIBIOS, though an option for 'Cyrix Internal Cache' is present in the BIOS Setup, so maybe support for the 486DLC was simply hacked in.

GigAHerZ wrote on 2020-12-22, 20:06:

My googleing skills have not been enough... :( […]
Show full quote

My googleing skills have not been enough... 🙁

It would be absolutely amazing, if someone would have MR BIOS for SIS 85C471 based chipsets.
Information from one of the bios packs here, in the thread: (but the bios itself was missing 🙁 )

Copy code to clipboard

1Filename   Port      Description  SIS 85C471
2--------   -------   ---------------------------------------------------------
3V089B410   SIS_410   4 Mem Banks, REG_6A=FF
4V089B411   SIS_411   6 Mem Banks, REG_6A=FF
5V089B412   SIS_412   8 Mem Banks, REG_6A=FF
6
7V089B413   SIS_413   4 Mem Banks, REG_6A=00
8V089B414   SIS_414   6 Mem Banks, REG_6A=00
9V089B415   SIS_415   8 Mem Banks, REG_6A=00
10
11NOTE: The versions above are but a few samples of the
12      many ingenious multiplex schemes possible with
13      this chipset.  (Hint: try V089B410 first).

Sorry for a bit of spamming, but i'm bringing this up for 2 reasons:
* Maybe some of you discovers that you have such board with MR BIOS and can read it and upload
* Google has more results about this bios missing and maybe someone random finds it and can help us all out

Still keeping my fingers crossed. 😀

GigAHerZ wrote on 2021-08-26, 12:43:

Sorry for a bit of spamming, but i'm bringing this up for 2 reasons: * Maybe some of you discovers that you have such board with […]
Show full quote

GigAHerZ wrote on 2020-12-22, 20:06:

My googleing skills have not been enough... :( […]
Show full quote

My googleing skills have not been enough... 🙁

It would be absolutely amazing, if someone would have MR BIOS for SIS 85C471 based chipsets.
Information from one of the bios packs here, in the thread: (but the bios itself was missing 🙁 )

Copy code to clipboard

1Filename   Port      Description  SIS 85C471
2--------   -------   ---------------------------------------------------------
3V089B410   SIS_410   4 Mem Banks, REG_6A=FF
4V089B411   SIS_411   6 Mem Banks, REG_6A=FF
5V089B412   SIS_412   8 Mem Banks, REG_6A=FF
6
7V089B413   SIS_413   4 Mem Banks, REG_6A=00
8V089B414   SIS_414   6 Mem Banks, REG_6A=00
9V089B415   SIS_415   8 Mem Banks, REG_6A=00
10
11NOTE: The versions above are but a few samples of the
12      many ingenious multiplex schemes possible with
13      this chipset.  (Hint: try V089B410 first).

Sorry for a bit of spamming, but i'm bringing this up for 2 reasons:
* Maybe some of you discovers that you have such board with MR BIOS and can read it and upload
* Google has more results about this bios missing and maybe someone random finds it and can help us all out

Still keeping my fingers crossed. 😀

Have you checked the archive.org file that RichardG867 uploaded?
https://archive.org/details/evergreenspectrabios

drosse1meyer wrote on 2021-08-26, 15:43:

GigAHerZ wrote on 2021-08-26, 12:43:

Sorry for a bit of spamming, but i'm bringing this up for 2 reasons: * Maybe some of you discovers that you have such board with […]
Show full quote

GigAHerZ wrote on 2020-12-22, 20:06:

My googleing skills have not been enough... :( […]
Show full quote

My googleing skills have not been enough... 🙁

It would be absolutely amazing, if someone would have MR BIOS for SIS 85C471 based chipsets.
Information from one of the bios packs here, in the thread: (but the bios itself was missing 🙁 )

Copy code to clipboard

1Filename   Port      Description  SIS 85C471
2--------   -------   ---------------------------------------------------------
3V089B410   SIS_410   4 Mem Banks, REG_6A=FF
4V089B411   SIS_411   6 Mem Banks, REG_6A=FF
5V089B412   SIS_412   8 Mem Banks, REG_6A=FF
6
7V089B413   SIS_413   4 Mem Banks, REG_6A=00
8V089B414   SIS_414   6 Mem Banks, REG_6A=00
9V089B415   SIS_415   8 Mem Banks, REG_6A=00
10
11NOTE: The versions above are but a few samples of the
12      many ingenious multiplex schemes possible with
13      this chipset.  (Hint: try V089B410 first).

Sorry for a bit of spamming, but i'm bringing this up for 2 reasons:
* Maybe some of you discovers that you have such board with MR BIOS and can read it and upload
* Google has more results about this bios missing and maybe someone random finds it and can help us all out

Still keeping my fingers crossed. 😀

Have you checked the archive.org file that RichardG867 uploaded?
https://archive.org/details/evergreenspectrabios

Yes,
All of those are for Pentium/SuperSocket7 and newer boards. No 486 and older images on those CDs as far as i managed to identify them.

find this ...provably already archived

http://bierbude.spdns.org:2302/BiosArchive/POWER_UTILS/

...

Now that I know it works (you're most welcome dominiqe, glad it helped your board!) here's an MR BIOS image for the ETEQ Cougar chipset...

The BISON III is interesting, because I believe that is one of the OPTi Pentium chipsets...likely 571/572. I used too have one of those boards...too bad I didn't have a chance to try this.

Anonymous Coward wrote on 2021-08-28, 15:34:

The BISON III is interesting, because I believe that is one of the OPTi Pentium chipsets...likely 571/572. I used too have one of those boards...too bad I didn't have a chance to try this.

Wow, that's interesting. I only knew about two 571/572 boards (soc4 and soc5), both from TMC and featured in WaybackTech's videos. I figured it was only a one time deal and no other company did that. After your post I looked into Usenet, and turns out, there were other boards.

It's going overboard really, but I was so happy with my MR-BIOS upgrade that I decided to recreate the sticker. I am having mine printed 1.25" x .5" with a 3mm corner rounding radius (yes they let me mix imperial and metric).

Nice. I should print some of those too.

Thanks for making this Collection, saved my Day 😀

MrBios:

Ami BIOS: