I already have a 1GHz Coppermine PIII and 512Mb SDRAM installed and I have tested that the board works:

I'm going to get myself an EEPROM programmer (probably an Xgecu T76) and try to dump the BIOS, since no BIOS files are available online for this board. If that's successful and I can manage to program a working PLCC-32 replacement chip I'm going to try to modify it to include the Tualatin microcode using BIOS Patcher 4.32. I've never done this before but I think it should be doable, since the board has an Award BIOS and supports a 133MHz FSB. Of course I'll still need a Tualatin with a voltage conversion mod, but those are fairly easy to find (though the 1.4GHz variant fetches ludicrous prices).

I just saw that someone is selling 29(!) NOS Arcom Olympus boards on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/295443045221 They have some unspecified CPU (possibly a Celeron 733, as that seems to have been the default) and 256 MB RAM installed. May have a CF card installed as well, though it's difficult to tell from the photos. Asking price is $200 a piece, which is a bit much IMO, though there is a "make offer" option. Thought I'd share since they're pretty cool boards - tempted to make an offer myself!

Updated eBay link, September 2026 - it seems all 29 boards are still available here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/297524538687

It's been a while, and it's over a year since I got the XGecu T76 EEPROM programmer, but I finally got round to dumping the BIOS 😀 I asked Claude to help decode it and got a wealth of information back, most interesting of which is that the BIOS includes VIA's Sound Blaster FM synthesizer in ROM, which will load if enabled and C8000-DFFFF is free (i.e. that shadow region is disabled in BIOS), obviating the need for the VIAFMTSR.COM TSR and saving 39 KB of conventional RAM. Nice! Makes me wonder if that code can be copied into the ROMs for other systems based on VIA's VT8604 + VT82C686B or VT8605 + VT82C686A chipset...

Lomax wrote on 2026-08-22, 08:30:

It's been a while, and it's over a year since I got the XGecu T76 EEPROM programmer, but I finally got round to dumping the BIOS 😀 I asked Claude to help decode it and got a wealth of information back, most interesting of which is that the BIOS includes VIA's Sound Blaster FM synthesizer in ROM, which will load if enabled and C8000-DFFFF is free (i.e. that shadow region is disabled in BIOS), obviating the need for the VIAFMTSR.COM TSR and saving 39 KB of conventional RAM. Nice! Makes me wonder if that code can be copied into the ROMs for other systems based on VIA's VT8604 + VT82C686B or VT8605 + VT82C686A chipset...

Did you just upload the bin to Claude? I understand the hatred for AI slop but these use cases seem incredible to me.

Dothan Burger wrote on 2026-09-08, 21:06:

Did you just upload the bin to Claude? I understand the hatred for AI slop but these use cases seem incredible to me.

I did, and I was pretty blown away by the depth and detail in the analysis I got back. I consider myself an AI sceptic, though I do use (and pay for) Claude for a lot of technical stuff, including programming tasks in several different languages. I find that as long as I understand the task, and can follow along and correct the inevitable mistakes and misunderstandings produced, it's a very useful tool. You have to be careful though: Claude can not be trusted, and you have to verify everything it does. This does get quite tedious, and sometimes a lot of time is wasted on misalignment - Claude frequently goes off and does things you didn't ask for, or does things a different way to how you wanted it done. It can be a little depressing. I used to love my job as a computer programmer but sometimes feel as if AI has robbed me of that joy; the code now belongs to Claude, and I'm just here to verify and test it. But the productivity increase is just mind blowing, and the extreme depth of Claude's knowledge lets me go beyond my own abilities, discover and make use of new patterns, instructions and APIs. It is also an invaluable tool for finding and tracing bugs and security holes that I myself had missed. So it's a mixed bag. I do not for a second believe that Claude possesses anything like what we mean by "intelligence", or that the world is coming to an end in the hyped up AI singularity, but it certainly poses a profound threat to creativity and job security. I also think it is completely unstoppable, not only because of how powerful the technology is, but because of its promise to make some people tremendously wealthy (albeit at the cost of nearly everyone else). It is already reshaping society, and unless we take steps now to protect ourselves we are surely going to see it being used to enslave us all. Yeah, I'm not holding my breath.

I've attached Claude's analysis of the BIOS to this post in case anyone's interested. It's in markdown format, but can be read with any text editor.

Edit: For anyone who's tempted to dip their toes in, I can warmly recommend adding Matt Pocock's set of skills to Claude. I've particularly enjoyed using the /teach skill, which produces a customised set of lessons and exercises in any aspect of computer programming that you ask to be taught, based on your current level of understanding. It's helped me get to grips with Stimulus (JavaScript), which at first seemed alien and impenetrable, but now makes perfect sense. Based on that experience I imagine that /teach assembly would be basically like having Ben Eater in your house, if you've got the time for that.

Here's a picture of the Arcom Olympus datahseet, for those following along at home.