=============================================== Release Notes for Phoenix BIOS on EKF CD1-OPERA =============================================== This file describes changes, extensions and bug fixes made in the Phoenix BIOS for EKF CD1-OPERA. Modification summary (in chronological order, latest at bottom of this file): ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2003-04 : Started Phoenix BIOS adaption for EKF CD1-OPERA 2003-06-13: First BIOS release, Build #018 production ===================================================================================== - Added code to enable Intel P4 Automatic Throttling Mode. Added a switch in BIOS setup to disabled this mode. - Added switch in BIOS setup to disable P4 "Maximum Performance Mode" - Removed code which always sends an ATA Standby command with a time-out of 30 seconds to all harddisks - Removed not supported options from setup menu 'Power' - Added switches in BIOS setup to disable Ethernet Controller 1 (front panel), Ethernet Controller 2 (front panel), Ethernet Controller 3 (CPCI J3), CompactPCI Bridge, Mezzanine Bridge (PMC/PC.MIP) and PXI Bridge - Added support for the following Flash (FWH) devices: Intel: 82802AC Atmel: AT49LW040 and AT49LW080 ST: M50FW040 and M50FW080 SST: SST49LF004, SST49LF004A, SST49LF008 and SST49LF008A - Enabled support for Etherboot and 82540EM - New Intel Video BIOS V.2975 - Changed mode of green user LED (at bottom of front panel): LED now switched on after Reset, switched to blink mode if RAM test passed and switched off immediately before booting. 2003-08-15: BIOS release for CD1, Build #022 production ===================================================================================== - Added support for DVI-D (digital displays) - Added support for Boot via Ethernet (Intel PXE) - Default size of Video Memory is now 1MB - Added Setup option to continue POST, even if an error occurred - Removed a bug when BIOS tries to programming FWHs of type ST M50FW080 2003-10-21: BIOS release for CD1, Build #026 production ===================================================================================== - Added support for ATA/IDE UDMA transfer modes 3-5 (UDMA-3=44MB/s, UDMA-4=66MB/s, UDMA-5=100MB/s). To allow these modes, set option "Support of UDMA Modes 3-5" in BIOS Setup to "Enabled". Please note, that for these modes an IDE cable with 80 conductors is always necessary. - Corrected Interrupt Routing for PMC/PCMIP Modules and CompactPCI. - Removed a bug, which doesn't support certain monitors with Analog interface (DSUB15). Used a new Intel Video BIOS V.3201 - Added support for DVI-D monitors with wrong or unexpected DDC/EDID data. A new option "DVI-D Special Mode" in BIOS Setup "Advanced" -> "Advanced Chipset Control" must be set to "Enabled" to support DVI-D digital displays which misleadingly signals a bad interface. - Changed mode of green diagnostic LED (undermost, left) in frontpanel of CD1-OPERA: --> LED is always off during Reset --> LED immediately switched on when BIOS/POST starts. This signals successful accesses to the FWH/Flash device (which contains the BIOS). --> LED switched off immediately after Video BIOS initialization. This signals a successful initialization of the graphics controller hardware. --> LED switched on again after RAM test passed (signals complete SDRAM is working) --> LED is switched off again just before the BIOS tries to boot an OS. If this fails, the LED remains off. Additionally, the middle yellow LED in frontpanel of CD1-OPERA is switched on during Video BIOS initialization. 2004-02-09: BIOS release, Build #030 production ===================================================================================== - BIOS Setup restructured Moved ATA/IDE options from "Main" to "Advanced -> ATA/IDE Configuration" Moved BIOS/POST options from "Main" to "Advanced -> POST/BIOS Options" Moved Floppy Config. from "Main" to "Advanced -> I/O Device Config. -> External SIO Device Config." Show manufacturer, board type, installed memory and BIOS build/date in "Main" Setup. - Added counters for various BIOS/POST events - Decreased number of floppy disk retries before boot. If no floppy drive is present, this speeds up boot significantly. If a legacy floppy disk drive is never used, Setup option 'Main -> Legacy Diskette A:' can be set to 'Disabled'. This further reduces boot time by some seconds. - Changed default mode for IDE/ATA PIO transfers to 32 Bit IO. In some cases this significantly increases transfer speed for "PIO" devices (e.g. CompactFlash). - Added PCI PnP Configuration Setup Screen for UMB memory exclusion Setup (F2): Advanced -> PCI PnP Configuration -> PCI/PNP ISA UMB Region Exclusion This screen allows to reserve four 16KB blocks in upper memory (D-Segment) for ISA devices. Reserved blocks cannot be used as Shadow-Memory, i.e. the available space for Expansion ROMs is significantly decreased. - Added PCI PnP Configuration Setup Screen for IRQ exclusion Setup (F2): Advanced -> PCI PnP Configuration -> PCI/PNP ISA IRQ Resource Exclusion This Setup menu allows to exclude certain IRQs used by PCI. Main application for this feature is to use only one IRQ for all PCI Devices (sometimes necessary). To do this, set IRQs 3, 4, 5, 7 and 10 to 'Reserved' and set IRQ 11 to 'Available'. Now only IRQ 11 is used for PCI devices. - Added Setup option for SMART Monitoring of ATA/IDE Master Devices (Primary and Secondary). - Added option which allows to enable a delay (about 10-12s) after Power-Up Setup (F2): Advanced -> Miscellaneous Configuration -> Execute Delay after Reset: This option can be used to possibly solve Power-Up problems of some devices. - Added Ethernet Configuration Setup Screen Setup (F2): Advanced -> Ethernet Configuration This new Setup menu concentrates all Ethernet Setup adjustments into one screen - Added a message to press F12 key for boot via Ethernet - Added code to allow disabling of certain Expansion ROMs: Setup (F2): Advanced -> Expansion ROM Configuration, allows ... a) to disable the embedded SMBIOS BIOS c) to disable an external IDE/ATA BIOS for Silicon Image Controller (SiI-648/649) d) to disable an external SCSI BIOS for LSI Controller (SYM53C8XX) e) to disable an external SATA BIOS for Silicon Image Controller (SiI-3114) Disabling of above BIOS' makes room for other Expansion ROMs. - Added setup option to select between onboard graphics and a graphics device on CompactPCI as Primary VGA Setup (F2): Advanced -> Graphics Device Configuration -> Default Primary Video Adapter - Added options to configure the graphics device: Setup (F2): Advanced -> Graphics Device Configuration a) Added Setup option to select Video mode during POST b) Added Setup option to select Video mode after POST - Added setup options to configure Keyboard and Mouse - Added a message to press F11 key to enter the 'Boot Menue' Key to enter 'Boot Menue' changed from ESC to F11. - Improved indication of POST messages: a) Added Setup options to control behaviour after POST messages Setup (F2): Main -> Boot Options -> Delay after POST messages b) Warning messages are now yellow, error messages are now red - Added options to control display time of summary screen. Setup (F2): Main -> Boot Options -> Summary Screen Changed default time for summary screen from four to two seconds. - Added option to control red LED in front panel of CD1-OPERA. This option is useful if a RTC Date/Time error occured. - Added support for BIOS setup data saved in Flash. Currently one base table and 3 user tables are supported. - Option 'Halt on POST Errors' is now disabled per default - Internal Intel graphics device is now also enabled, even if bad CMOS data is detected - IDE/ATA drives now always displayed in POST, even if set to Non-Auto in Setup - If jumper JRTC on CD1-OPERA is bypassed for a short time, CMOS is now reset to default values on next boot. CAUTION: The board should be in power-off state when jumper JRTC is bypassed. If jumper JRTC is not installed (default), use the correspondent drill holes to bypass. - If Top-Block-Swap-Bit in Intel ICH4 is set for any reason, the bit is cleared now and the board is reset automatically. - Expanded space for Expansion ROMs by 16KB 2005-04-27: BIOS release, Build #040 production ===================================================================================== - Added support for PCMCIA and CardBus boards like EKF CPx series Setup (F2): Advanced -> PCMCIA/CardBus Configuration For Windows XP and more than one EKF CP3-HOUSE the following item must be set to 16 MByte (default): Setup (F2): Advanced -> PCMCIA/CardBus Configuration -> Select CardBus Allocation Size - Added support to display messages and prompts in legacy black and white color Setup (F2): Main -> BIOS Options -> Messages/Prompts colored - A lot of additional information is now shown in Setup 'Main' - Improved handling for (yellow) warning messages and for (red) error messages - Added support for IDE slave only operating. Now it is not necessary anymore to have an IDE Master device installed, when only a IDE Slave device should be used. This is valid for both IDE buses (Primary and Secondary). A new option allows to enable or disable support of IDE Slave only. Default mode is Disabled. Setup (F2): Advanced -> ATA/IDE Configuration -> Support of IDE Slave only - Added support for doing a Hard-Reset instead of a PCI-Reset on BIOS Warm Start entry. A Hard-Reset is the same as pressing reset button in front panel of CD1-OPERA. Compared to PCI-only-Reset it additionally resets some registers in Intel chipset ICH4. New BIOS setup option allows to select Reset Mode on Warm Start: Setup (F2): Advanced -> Miscellaneous Configuration -> Select Mode on Warm Start: Default is set to Hard-Reset. - Added option which allows to execute a delay before accessing any hard disk Setup (F2): Advanced -> ATA/IDE Configuration -> Hard Disk Pre-Delay This option can be used to solve Power-Up problems with slow ATA devices. The delay can be set to disabled or to 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 21 or 30 seconds. Default is 3 seconds. - Added option which allows to select retry mode if Boot failed at end of POST Setup (F2): Advanced -> Miscellaneous Configuration -> Select Mode after Boot failed - Added code to send BIOS POST-Codes to a COM port. The COM port used is serial port COM1 in front panel of CD1-OPERA. The serial protocol is always set to 19200 Baud, 8N1 and cannot be changed. This feature is automatically enabled if the BIOS detects unvalid CMOS data and will be leaved enabled until next boot. - Changed support for saving BIOS setup data as Custom Defaults. The algorithm used is now the same as on every other EKF CPU board. Setup (F2): Exit -> Save as Custom Defaults - Added option to enable or disable APM support (default mode is 'Disabled'). - Shown a yellow warning message before ESCD Flash table is updated - Added support for fixed processor speed throttle. This is controlled with a new setup option: Setup (F2): Advanced -> CPU (Pentium 4) Configuration -> CPU fixed Speed-Limiting - Moved option 'Enable memory gap' to new 'Memory Configuration' screen - New option allows the selection of 4 different modes during memory test Setup (F2): Advanced -> Memory Configuration -> POST Extended Memory Test Mode 1: Makes a full memory address and data test (is quite slow). Clears memory. Mode 2: Same as hitherto (default mode). Makes a memory data test and clears memory. Mode 3: Same as mode 2, but does not clear memory. Is a little bit faster than mode 2. Mode 4: Skips all memory tests. This speeds up boot time by some seconds (time depends on size of memory). Regard these two notes before using mode 4: - Be sure memory is correctly working by running one of modes 1-3 previously - If memory size is changed in this mode, the new size is not recognized until running one of modes 1-3. - Added: Show time used for POST in summary screen - Added a setup option which allows to switch to maximum performance at the earliest in POST, at end of POST or never: Setup (F2): Advanced -> CPU (Pentium 4) Configuration -> CPU Maximum Performance Mode - Added code to issue error codes (beeps and flashes) in case of non-functioning memory. - Now all error codes are additionally displayed on red LED 'GP' (bottom/right) in front panel of EKF CD1-OPERA. This is useful in systems where no beeper is available. The list of possible error codes is now documented in file 'biosinfo.txt' (included in ZIP file). - Added code to ignore invalid ESCD - Removed ESCD overflow error. This error occurred if too much PCI devices were detected during POST and leads to invalid or destroyed flash data (ESCD, ECMS and other). - Added PCI device related menu in Advanced BIOS setup - Added support for more than 48 PCI devices. To support this, PCI device records are removed from ESCD. The following new BIOS setup option controls this: Setup (F2): Advanced -> PCI Configuration -> PCI Device Configuration -> Save PCI Device List Previously PCI device records were always saved in ESCD. Cause ESCD has only place for 48 PCI devices, the new default mode is 'PCI Records' for an unlimited number of PCI devices. Mode 'ESCD' is for compatibility to older versions, i.e. for systems who need it. - Added option to reset ESCD without entering BIOS setup (F2) To do this press SHIFT-ALT-F9 during POST (timeframe: keyboard LED 'NUM' goes on until boot starts). The system restarts immediately after SHIFT-ALT-F9 and ESCD will be reset. - Added two options to reset CMOS to factory defaults: If the BIOS is configured in such a way, that it is not possible anymore to enter BIOS Setup, there exists now two options to completely reset CMOS to factory defaults: 1. Press CTL-ALT-F9 during POST (more info -> biosinfo.txt) 2. Press Reset-Button three times in series after any Reset (more info -> biosinfo.txt) These new options to reset CMOS have been added, cause the old option "bypassing jumper JRTC to reset CMOS" could not be used if the board has no or an empty battery and/or if new feature 'Custom Defaults' is used. Old option 'JRTC' is therefore unnecessary anymore, but still works. - Ethernet Expansion BIOS (Intel PXE) is now disabled by default - Added code to load Ethernet Expansion ROM only once, even if more than one appropriate Ethernet controller is found during scan (e.g. on CompactPCI). This avoids error messages like "Resource Conflict - Allocation error static node # xx". - Added feature to disable all external Expansion ROMs, which are found during ROM scan and which are not selective controllable by other options (-> IDE/ATA, SCSI, SATA). External Expansion ROMs are those ROMs which are detected on a non-CPU-internal PCI bus, e.g. on CompactPCI. Control this with: Setup (F2): Advanced -> Expansion ROM Configuration -> Other External Expansion ROMs - Removed check of Expansion ROM version for SATA controller SiI-3114 (e.g. used on EKF CE5-CADENZA or EKF DE2-TIGER). Now all Exansion ROM versions for this controller can be disabled via BIOS setup. - Added feature to load any Ethernet Expansion ROM (Intel PXE) AFTER any other (external) Expansion ROM has been loaded. This is sometimes necessary, if a OS installation to a SCSI harddisk or to SATA harddisk should be made from a remote (Ethernet) device. This feature can be controlled with new option: Setup (F2): Advanced -> Ethernet Configuration -> Load Ethernet ROM late: If set to Enabled, Ethernet Expansion ROMs are loaded after a SCSI BIOS (for EKF CS3 or CS5) or after a SATA BIOS (EKF CE5-CADENZA) has been loaded. Some Expansion BIOS' decreases their size after they have initialized itself. This additional size gives Intel PXE a chance to load additionally. If this option is set to Disabled (default), INtel PXE is loaded first and then there is not enough space to load an Expansion ROM for mass storages. - Added feature to select an IRQ number for all eight PCI interrupts PIRQ[A-H]. Setup (F2): Advanced -> PCI Configuration -> PCI IRQ Configuration This ability allows to select a dedicated IRQ number for a special PCI device, to select one IRQ for all PCI devices or whatever ... any combination is allowed. - Now IRQ numbers 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14 and 15 are allowed for PCI devices. Previously only IRQ numbers 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11 and 12 could be used. - Added IRQ numbers 9, 12, 14 and 15 in ISA IRQ Exclusion list Setup (F2): Advanced -> PCI Configuration -> PCI/PNP ISA IRQ Resource Exclusion Note that IRQ14 and IRQ15 can only be selected if not used by local IDE controller. 2006-03-30: BIOS release, Build #108 production ===================================================================================== - Added option to enable (Default) or disable VGA/GFX Video-BIOS Setup (F2): Advanced -> Expansion ROM Configuration -> VGA (GFX) Video BIOS: - There are now two BIOS with the same build number available. One is the BIOS for the CD1 System Slot CPU (indicated with Build #---), the other is the BIOS for the CD1 Peripheral CPU (indicated with Build #---s). A error message "Wrong BIOS detected" is issued during POST, if the BIOS detects a System Slot BIOS on a CD1 Peripheral CPU or if it detects a Peripheral BIOS on a CD1 System Slot CPU. - Show CompactPCI slot number during POST if CD1-OPERA is inserted in a Non-System Slot - If Top-Block-Swap bit (ICH4) is set due to a hardware fault, it is now automatically reset and a counter in CMOS is incremented to reflect this. 2006-05-19: BIOS release, Build #112 production ===================================================================================== - Added a two second delay before boot sequence is retried. This delay is only valid if setup item 'Advanced -> Miscellaneous Configuration -> Select Mode after Boot failed' is set to mode 'Retry BS'. - Update latest microcode for 'Mobile Pentium 4 Processor - M' if CPUID is F24h or F27h - Added latest microcode for 'Mobile Pentium 4 Processor - M' CPU with CPUID F29h - Added setup option to let user decide what to do if a keyboard error occurs: 'Advanced -> BIOS/POST Options -> Ignore Keyboard Error' Default mode is 'Disabled' to be compatible to earlier BIOS versions. 2006-06-01: BIOS release, Build #114 production ===================================================================================== - Changed setup option which allows to enable or disable a VGA Video-BIOS. This option now only controls a VGA BIOS of an external graphics board: Setup (F2): Advanced -> Expansion ROM Configuration -> External VGA Video BIOS: - Added support of CD1-OPERA board revisions 3.1 and 4 2006-10-12: BIOS release, Build #116 production ===================================================================================== - Removed feature to boot from a LAN (Ethernet) device by pressing F12 key during POST. Boot from LAN can now just as well made by pressing F11 key during POST and then selecting the Ethernet device in the boot menu. Note that loading of an Expansion ROM for an on-board Ethernet controller must be previously enabled in Setup: Setup (F2): Advanced -> Ethernet Configuration - Added code to indicate that key is pressed for Boot Menu - During POST keys F2 and F11 can now be typed in any sequencing - Key F11 (for boot menu) now additionally recognized in Setup - Removed a bug which prevents saving of Custom Defaults if Custom Defaults have just been loaded - Added new feature to force input of correct date and time in case RTC contains illegal data for date or time, or if date is too old. This can be controlled with a new Setup option: Setup (F2): Advanced -> BIOS/POST Options -> Select mode if bad RTC data: Available modes: Legacy, Message (default), Prompt (force date correction) If mode 'Prompt' is selected and date in RTC is too old, a special Setup menu pops up, which only allows to change date and time. After updating date and time, menu entry 'Exit Date and Time setting' can be used to continue. Note that 'Exit Date and Time setting' can only be selected if RTC date is set to a date younger than 2008-02-11. 2008-02-12: BIOS release, Build #120 production ===================================================================================== For any further questions contact EKF at: Email : support@ekf.de Internet : www.ekf.de or www.ekf.com