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Chips & Technologies "CHiPs" CS82310 "PEAK/DM" 386 chipset

Anonymous Coward

Anonymous Coward

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I have a Silicon Star FU340 386 motherboard based on the PEAK/DM chipset. Existing documentation claims it supports 32MB and 256kb cache memory, however neither 32MB nor 256kb configurations work properly. I know my board is not damaged, because there are one or two others with the same board that have the same issues. Even a BIOSTAR MB1340CH based on the same chipset and BIOS exhibited the same problems.

According to the Peak/DM datasheet, this chipset should be able to handle up to 128MB of memory (in 4 banks), 256kb cache. It also supports "page interleave" mode, which is another "feature" that doesn't work on my board. The "page interleave" setting is hidden in the BIOS setup, but I tried to enable it using AMIsetup V2.99. Page interleave mode is one of the main reasons I was interested in a PEAK/DM board in the first place, but it seems either my BIOS, board or chipset is just complete crap.

Is there anyone else out there with a PEAK/DM based 386 that supports page interleave mode, or large amounts of DRAM and/or cache? Even better, one with a BIOS that is not American Megatrends. I am pretty sure Award, Phoenix and MR-BIOS all exist for PEAK/DM. I am particularly interested in MR-BIOS, but I do not believe the old ROMs are still for sale. I think they were bought out by Award/Phoenix quite some time ago. I do have MR-BIOS for OPTi-495SX, and it is quite nifty.

DSCN2458.JPG


Also, I should mention this photo is old. The barrel battery has already been removed, and the cache has been replaced with 32kx8 with two 64kx4 tags. I am able to test SRAMs, and they all pass.
 
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Noob question but did you jumper it correctly? Also did you try 128K cache and maybe more relaxed cache settings in the BIOS?
BTW, where did you get that MR-BIOS for the Opti-495SX? I'm interesting is something both for this and the Opti-495SLC
 
It's jumpered according to TH99, the only manual available. I checked it over many times.
Relaxed cache timings do not work. I went over BIOS settings very carefully, even undocumented ones.
128kb cache does work.
Here is the link to the BIOS image: http://chukaev.ru54.com/bios/3opr001.zip
It should work with any of the opti 82c495 series chips.
 
Anonymous Coward said:
It's jumpered according to TH99, the only manual available. I checked it over many times.
Relaxed cache timings do not work. I went over BIOS settings very carefully, even undocumented ones.
128kb cache does work.
Here is the link to the BIOS image: http://chukaev.ru54.com/bios/3opr001.zip
It should work with any of the opti 82c495 series chips.
Click to expand...

If 128K works it is a start. I've had one 386 board that refused to work with 256K cache no matter what I tried. It is the FIC 4386-VC-HD with a 386DX-40 CPU. It would start, display 256K cache but would hang on boot while accessing the floppy. 128K was fine. BTW thanks for the link.
 
I've got a similar PEAKDM 386 motherboard with 4x32kx8 cache, but it has another CHIPS chipset version. I don't know if my (AMI) BIOS version is compatible with your mb & chipset, if you're interested, I'll make a BIN image of my BIOS and post it.

PEAKDM-ADVANCED CHIPSET SETUP.jpgPEAKDM-BIOS.jpgPEAKDM-CHIPS.jpgPEAKDM-MB.jpg
 
Hi, thanks for the offer. I doubt it would make much difference though since it's another AMI BIOS based on the same core. Your board only goes up to 128kb anyway.

Your chipset seems to be the Peak/DM B1 revision just like mine.
 
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