Micron 2MB 16-bit ISA memory board setup utility?

[rvdbijl]

I bought a 2MB Micron memory expansion board off eBay. Micron PN 235-0149. I plugged it in one of my machines, and it works. Seems to fill in address space from 1M to 3M. I have a similar board which is defective (235-0140), which has dip switches. This board appears to have a ROM and no dip switches. Just one jumper. No option ROM message pops up when booting, and I can't find any memory space occupied by an option ROM aside from the VGA and system BIOS. Removing the jumper makes the memory "disappear" after 640k based on a memory test.

So... I suspect there are some utilities / drivers / setup programs for this board. Some Googling didn't turn up anything useful. Hoping someone here has a hint....

 

[phil_s]

The ROM probably holds the bitstream for the Xilinx chip that's just above it -- I believe FPGAs need to be configured at startup. Seems like a very fancy setup for a memory expansion though...

With the jumper removed, does any of the RAM appear in the option ROM area? It might toggle the card into a mode that provides expanded memory (EMS).

 

[rvdbijl]

The ROM probably holds the bitstream for the Xilinx chip that's just above it -- I believe FPGAs need to be configured at startup. Seems like a very fancy setup for a memory expansion though...

With the jumper removed, does any of the RAM appear in the option ROM area? It might toggle the card into a mode that provides expanded memory (EMS).

I haven't tried that yet, but will give it a shot this week. All in all, it should have settings somewhere for start address of the XMS board and perhaps below 640k backfill, like its sister-board with dip switches (235-140). I'm guessing this will be a 2 MB board at the 1MB mark as I doubt I'll be able to find the software for it.

 

[Chuck(G)]

My guess is that the 27C32 holds the configuration data for the LCA (calling it an FPGA is a bit of a stretch--it's a very old device). The Xicor X2816 is an 2Kx8 EEPROM that probably holds configuration data.

But all that's just a guess because the photo's too blurry to make out all the chip numbers.