You can put it in any ROM socket as long as;
1) the CPU can access the ROM (in other words, the ROM is decoded into the PCs address space) and
2) it's not conflicting with another ROM (two ROMs in the same address range) and
3) the entire BIOS is available without any special handling (ie ROM paging).
So, using an extra graphics card just to hold the BIOS won't work due to rule number 2. (I'm guessing this is what you had in mind.)
Most people use NICs with ROM sockets (intended for PXE booting) or harddrive controllers with the original ROM replaced with XTIDE Universal BIOS. If you plan on using a "large" build of the BIOS then be mindful of rule number 3 as some NICs use paging to access code above 8 KB.
Other options might be unused ROM sockets on the motherboard or something like the Lo-tech ISA ROM board.
Yet another option is to find free space in the system BIOS ROMs (or any option ROM you might have in the machine) and stick XUB in there.
AFAIK, there is no reason to provide an extra ROM socket on a graphics card so an unused/free ROM socket most likely means that someone pulled the ROM for use elsewhere. And this would mean that the card no longer works of course.Regarding the use of a graphics card: I wasn't meaning to use an extra graphics card, just one with a free ROM socket. But regardless, I can see how that wouldn't work and I would better use a network card.
Or, which I find most intriguing, replacing the ROM on the disk controller!? I have not dealt with XT-class hard disk controllers (MFM, RLL and that odd XT IDE stuff), I have no experience, and very little knowledge, about them. Which hard disk controllers allow for the replacement of a ROM? I guess a RLL or MFM controllers would be right out of consideration, as I really want to interface with IDE drives and CF cards. But WOW, is that exciting, if it could be done!!
I did a quick search on ebay and found three controllers:
www.ebay.com/itm/141918463030
www.ebay.com/itm/172060415451
www.ebay.com/itm/321327359828
These links are just examples and are not meant to be endorsements of any kind or a guarantee that XUB will work with any of them.
Would one simply replace the BIOS on those cards?
Yes. Though I would use a NIC with a ROM socket instead if I were you (since you already have several IDE controllers). Do you have any such NICs?
Dear All,
please be aware the last Beta 3 version has a trojan on the file XTIDECFG.COM. My antivirus blocks it and deletes it from the ZIP file when I download it on my computer. Please fix that and take care next version will not have a trojan anymore.
Regards, Vincenzo.
Not even...Is it a false positive?
Dear All,
please be aware the last Beta 3 version has a trojan on the file XTIDECFG.COM. My antivirus blocks it and deletes it from the ZIP file when I download it on my computer. Please fix that and take care next version will not have a trojan anymore.
Regards, Vincenzo.
I would guess that you're using an old version of the BIOS, perhaps beta 3? If so, use a newer version.
Forgive me but where is the newer version available from? I have Google searched high and low and the only places I can find it are in the Google code repository; and the lo-tech website (which is down, so I cannot confirm if it is available there!)
Just leave it out in the sun for a month.Now I've got to find my UV-Lamp to erase the 27C256.....