XTIDE Universal BIOS

[Malc]

Not that i know of, Never looked into it, China takes in a lot of electrical waste and we get it back so probably not. What i meant was bridges in the trace, Not solder bridges, Looking thru a magnifying glass i have often found burn spots in the solder mask where the trace has burned underneath.

[Sir_Fartalot]

Can IDECFG.COM be used ONLY with the XTIDE card, or can it somehow be also used with a network card hosting the EEPROM?

[Malc]

IDECFG.COM is for the very old v1x XUB, XTIDECFG.COM is for the v2x > XUB but neither can be used to flash an EEPROM in situ on a network card, However You can flash an EEPROM using an XTIDE card for use in a network card.

[shirsch]

I'm using XUB r602 to configure my XTIDE rev 2 board (built from scratch) in an IBM PC portable (early XT motherboard w/ CGA graphics). On this system, the boot time menu bar is completely unreadable. By trial and error I discovered that 'A' would start from floppy and 'C' from hard drive. It looks like there's supposed to be legend text to the right of 'A>' and 'C>', but it's not legible with any setting of brightness and contrast. I can also see what I think is 'F6' and 'F8' but text cannot be read. There are otherwise no issues with the display on this machine.

[Twospruces]

Hi, you could try using the "xtl" version of XUB..that includes the boot menu option I believe.
I compiled and use a version that does not include the hotkey bar on the top.

[shirsch]

Hi, you could try using the "xtl" version of XUB..that includes the boot menu option I believe.
I compiled and use a version that does not include the hotkey bar on the top.

Thanks, but the xtl version is too large to fit in a 28C64 EEPROM. I finally discovered the boot display option settings and 80x25 monochrome seems to correct the problem.

[Sir_Fartalot]

IDECFG.COM is for the very old v1x XUB, XTIDECFG.COM is for the v2x > XUB but neither can be used to flash an EEPROM in situ on a network card, However You can flash an EEPROM using an XTIDE card for use in a network card.

Thank you very much! That does make sense.

Is there a chance/way to select an appropriate version of XUB that I could put in a 16 bit ISA network card and which would work with an 8 bit ISA slot - not as a network card but just to boot the XUB?

[Malc]

You just need to configure the XUB for the PC you are going to use it in and configure the network card appropriately, I only have 3 Com 3C509B network cards and have used them just for that purpose in my IBM XT's not for networking, With the 3C509B cards you have to configure the card using an AT PC ( 16-Bit slot ) for use in an 8-bit slot, EEprom size, Address etc, Try the latest r602 XUB and configure it for the PC you intend to use it in.

[vol.2]

I have a 486 Dell Laptop with a pcmcia slot but no ISA expansion. I could find an obvious solution with a search. Is there a way to get XTIDE on it? I'm not opposed to buying a pre-made solution.

Thanks

[blackepyon]

I have a 486 Dell Laptop with a pcmcia slot but no ISA expansion. I could find an obvious solution with a search. Is there a way to get XTIDE on it? I'm not opposed to buying a pre-made solution.

Thanks

PCMCIA was a 8/16-bit expansion bus, but not directly compatible with ISA. It's got the data and address lines, but the control lines are different. See pinout here. It's possible to design a PCMCIA card, but at best it would all be fine-pitch surface mount, and there's no way to make this easily. Dig-Key does have the Female PCMCIA headers

The question is though, what do you need it for? If the laptop has a dead hard drive, it'd be far easier to just yank out the dead harddrive and stick in a 44-pin to CompactFlash adapter, like this guy on the right
44-pin CF adapter.jpg

Apparently, there were PCMCIA to micro-harddrive adapters around at one point, which I think used the CF card interface anyways, so you MIGHT get lucky and find one of them if you absolutely need the PCMCIA slot for an extra hard drive. If I'm reading this right, it almost looks like the PCMCIA to micro-harddrive adapter is just a straight-through adapter with no logic, because the PCMCIA pin designations look almost identical to a CF card (pinout here), with a few pins moved around.

Somebody else might be able to confirm that.