Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!news
From: smsmith@hpuxa.acs.ohio-state.edu (Stephen M. Smith)
Subject: Re: hard 80386 questions
Message-ID: <1991Mar29.225053.25698@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Keywords: 80386 (80286)
Sender: news@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
Nntp-Posting-Host: hpuxa.acs.ohio-state.edu
Organization: The Ohio State University
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 29 Mar 1991 22:50:53 GMT
Lines: 104

feg@moss.ATT.COM (Forrest Gehrke) writes:
>
>You did not answer another question of the original poster which also
>puzzles me: I happen to have a Micronics ascic motherboard and supplied
>with it is their software called SETSYS.  With this I can set three
>different bus speeds as well as turn on shadow ram of the bios.
>Software tests with shadow ram show significantly higher write speed
>to the screen.  However, with my Diamond controller of the 
>non-interlaced monitor is supplied software called FASTBIOS.  The
>manual explains that this is the same as shadow ram.  However,
>tests show that crt write speed is nearly double the rate of
>the SETSYS shadow ram bios.  Obviously, something is different and I
>am wondering if somewhow the memory cache (I have 64kb of sram)
>is now getting into the act?  But, this raises the question
>why the SETSYS shadow ram doesn't.

I have the Micronics ASIC board too.  I'm posting this because if
there are any Micronics users out there I want to spare them some
headaches, especially if they are using SETSYS!!!  Please note
that I have the 386-33 MB, though I think all the 386 Micronics
motherboards have the same dip switch settings and SETSYS ustilities
(I suspect this to be the case because my MB manual is for all
the ASIC boards;  ASIC, BTW, simply means it has memory cache.)

First of all, when switch 4 is enabled, the system BIOS is shadowed
to F000-FFFF and the video BIOS is shadowed to C000-C800.  This
is the way most clones do it.  BUT, the motherboard manual when
talking about BIOS shadowing refers to 128k of ROM that is used
in the shadowing process.  THIS IS WRONG.  Only 64k gets shadowed.
This is important, because if you use an EMM like QEMM which puts
the 64k page frame at D000-DFFF, SETSYS will show "PAGE FRAME"
in its setup screen under SHADOW BIOS instead of saying "ENABLED",
and it will give a warning message saying something like "page
frame address cannot be in D000 segment; check your EMM manual
to switch the address of the page frame."

The solution is to move the page frame to C800-CFFF.  This makes
SETSYS happy, and you can then turn cache on and off, set the system
speed up or down, and turn the BIOS shadowing on and off with SETSYS
without any problems.

Another warning about SETSYS--I called my computer company, and they
said that Micronics discontinued using SETSYS because it had some
problems.  Instead of using SETSYS, the latest version of the BIOS
(Phoenix version M11) uses a hotkey combination on the keyboard to
disable/enable the memory cache, and to set the system speed up or
down.  Here's the combinations:

CTRL-ALT-ESC: enter CMOS setup
CTRL-ALT-minus sign (numeric keypad): lower system speed (turbo button
                                      needs to be OUT to do this)
CTRL-ALT-plus sign (numeric keypad): system speed set to fast
CTRL-ALT-SHFT-minus sign (numeric keypad): disable memory cache
CTRL-ALT-SHFT-plus sign (numeric keybad): enable memory cache

WARNING: These hotkey combinations do NOT work when an extended
memory manager like QEMM is in use!!!  (You don't know how many
hours I spent on the phone with Micronics and with my computer
company trying to figure all this out!)  Since these hotkeys don't
work with QEMM loaded, what I have to do is use SETSYS which works
fine--just as long as I have my HARDWARE doing the shadowing
(switch 4 enabled, in other words), instead of using the ROM 
parameter in QEMM.  Also, I have to put the parameters FR=C800
to move the page frame, and NRH so that the entire 64k of ROM
is untouched (otherwise QEMM blows it by using 16k for itself--
this also caused me problems!).

Now, as to your observations about various video speeds with
different configurations:

I too have noticed this.  The video shadowing file that came with
my Orchid II is called SPEED_UP.SYS.  When I load this file in
my config.sys file without QEMM loaded (hence, in low memory)
I get TWICE THE SPEED THAT I OTHERWISE GET!!!  And if I disable
my memory cache the speed is reduced to HALF of what it used to
be.  Here's a summary of different configurations:

QEMM loaded, hardware shadowing, cache on: ~15,000 CPS
QEMM loaded, hardware shadowing, cache off: ~8,000 CPS
QEMM loaded, hardware shadowing, SPEED_UP.SYS loaded high: ~19,000 CPS
QEMM loaded, hardware shadowing, SPEED_UP.SYS loaded low: ~19,000 CPS
QEMM not loaded, hardware shadowing, SPEED_UP.SYS loaded: ~32,000 CPS

I know it sounds redundant to have hardware shadowing on, and THEN
to load SPEED_UP.SYS on top of that, but it's kind of hard to
switch motherboard switches...  and anyway, I've tried ALL
configurations--both with the hardware shadowing on and with it off.
And yes... I've tried using QEMM's ROM parameter to shadow the
BIOS, and I still can't get more than ~19,000 CPS.

In summary: I can't get the video speed I would like with QEMM loaded.
When Microsoft's HIMEM.SYS is loaded I CAN get the amazing 32,000 CPS,
but only when SPEED_UP.SYS is loaded low.

So what's going on here? 


>Forrest Gehrke feg@dodger.att.com

Stephen M. Smith  \  +  /
<smsmith@hpuxa.   \+++++/    " #*&<-[89s]*(k#$@-_=//a2$]'+=.(2_&*%>,,@
 ircc.ohio-state. \  +  /      {7%*@,..":27g)-=,#*:.#,/6&1*.4-,l@#9:-)  "
 edu>             \  +  / 
 BTW, WYSInaWYG   \  +  /                              --witty.saying.ARC
