BIOS For 10Mhz PIM-TB10 Turbo Mainboard

[Moonferret]

Hi Folks!

Anybody got a ROM image for one of these boards? Just got a pair of them but both are missing the BIOS ROMs

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Anonymous Coward]

It looks like a fairly standard 8088 clone motherboard. Any clone bios chips should work. I found a bunch of DTK ROMs in a box in my basement the other day, I think they're all from 286 systems but I'll have another look.

 

[Anonymous Coward]

I do indeed have the chips you need, and apparently they are an exact match for your board. That is the DTK "ERSO" BIOS.
Do you need both even and odd? I believe I have a matching set, but they do not have "even" and "odd" stamped into them.

 

[modem7]

The manual is at http://members.dodo.com.au/~slappanel555/manuals.htm

According to page 20:
U38 is a 2764 EPROM and contains the BIOS
U49 is a 27256 EPROM and contains BASIC (you can get by without BASIC)

Do you need both even and odd? I believe I have a matching set, but they do not have "even" and "odd" stamped into them.

Odd/even (high/low) is something seen in some 286 based computers and later.

 

[the xt guy]

I've got the same MB and it only needs a single BIOS chip. Modem7 is correct, even/odd was used in 286 and later.

The typical 8088 BIOS should work, such as the generic DTK/ERSO 2.32, 2.40, 2.42, etc. The Phoenix BIOS should work too (the latest one I've seen is 2.52). In my "IBM XT Clone Buyer's Guide and Handbook" it says the DTK/ERSO BIOS is "adequate but not very fast" and that the Phoenix BIOS "is much faster than the ERSO BIOS".

 

[MikeS]

Phoenix 2.51 (Micro-Universe 1.0B)

m

 

[Moonferret]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the info and thanks to Mike for the ROM image. Now off to dig out my EPROM programmer.....

Cheers,
Dave

 

[modem7]

DTK/ERSO 2.42 BIOS taken from my PIM-TB10-Z board:

 

[Anonymous Coward]

Does the DTK ERSO bios contain any support for extra goodies like high density floppies or F11 and F12 keys?

The reason I thought there were even and odd BIOS is that was what I saw on the TH99 entry. 8086 systems also use the EVEN/ODD scheme.

 

[Druid6900]

Phoenix 2.51 (Micro-Universe 1.0B)

m

Micro-Universe is a name I haven't heard for a VERY long time. I dealt with the distributor for a number of years until that house brand went down the tubes.

 

[modem7]

Does the DTK ERSO bios contain any support for extra goodies like high density floppies or F11 and F12 keys?

High density floppies: I don't know - my motherboard is packed up in a truck, not in use. But since the version 2.42 BIOS is copyrighted 1986 and 1.2MB drives appeared about 1984, that suggests that at least 1.2MB drives will be supported (providing a high density floppy controller is used).

F11 and F12: I can't see why not.

The reason I thought there were even and odd BIOS is that was what I saw on the TH99 entry. 8086 systems also use the EVEN/ODD scheme.

In an 8088 based system, memory (RAM and ROM) reads are 8 bits wide (data bits). 8 bit ROMs were used. If the BIOS code fitted into one ROM, good, otherwise multiple ROMs would be used, addressed one after the other. But that's not odd/even (hi/low).

In an 80286 based system, memory (RAM and ROM) reads are 16 bits wide. For what I believe was cost reasons, most makers of 286 boards chose to use two 8 bit ROMs rather than a single 16 bit one. And so one 8 bit ROM feeds the upper (high) 8 bits of the data bus and the other ROM feeds the lower 8 bits of the data bus. Hence the use of "high" ROM and "low" ROM. And the contents of one of the ROMs appears in odd numbered addresses and the other in even numbered addresses, and because of that, some board makers choose to label the ROMs as "odd" and "even" instead of high/low.

 

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know if a BIOS date is really a good indication of whether or not the BIOS would have the extra features. My XT board has a 1988 BIOS, and it doesn't have any goodies. I know the last versions of XT BIOS from Award and Phoenix support the extra features, but I've never been able to find images of them. I think they're very rare. I don't know much about the DTK XT BIOS at all.

I'm familiar with the 8-bit datapath of the 8088, but you'll notice I mentioned "8086" which has the 16-bit datapath like a 286. My confusion came from not being sure whether this board was 8088 or 8086, because the TH99 has a lot of errors.

 

[modem7]

I don't know if a BIOS date is really a good indication of whether or not the BIOS would have the extra features. My XT board has a 1988 BIOS, and it doesn't have any goodies.

Yes, 8K is not much space to play with.

I know the last versions of XT BIOS from Award and Phoenix support the extra features, but I've never been able to find images of them. I think they're very rare. I don't know much about the DTK XT BIOS at all.

Attached are the dumps of the BIOS from some of my clone XT boards. One is an Award, but is dated '86.

I'm familiar with the 8-bit datapath of the 8088, but you'll notice I mentioned "8086" which has the 16-bit datapath like a 286. My confusion came from not being sure whether this board was 8088 or 8086, because the TH99 has a lot of errors.

Well, when I think about it, an 8088 based computer can have high/low BIOS ROMs - two 4 bit ROMs.
.

 

[Anonymous Coward]

One thing I know about the final release of the award XT BIOS is that it is actually contained in two ROM chips. The basic stuff I believe was in an 8k ROM, and all the goodies were contained in an extra 64k ROM.