April 1999 This document describes fixes, feature changes, and problems discovered since the last Alphabios user’s Guide was published. Revision/Update Information

AlphaBIOS
Release Notes
April 1999
This document describes fixes, feature changes, and problems discovered since the last AlphaBIOS User’s Guide was published.
Revision/Update Information: Includes AlphaBIOS 5.69.
Compaq Computer Corporation
Houston, Texas
April 1999
COMPAQ COMPUTER CORPORATION SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR TECHNICAL OR EDITORIAL ERRORS OR OMISSIONS CONTAINED HEREIN, NOR FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES RESULTING FROM THE FURNISHING, PERFORMANCE, OR USE OF THIS MATERIAL. THIS INFORMATION IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND COMPAQ COMPUTER CORPORATION DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR PARTICULAR PURPOSE, GOOD TITLE AND AGAINST INFRINGEMENT.
This publication contains information protected by copyright. No part of this publication may be photocopied or reproduced in any form without prior written consent from Compaq Computer Corporation.
•1998 Compaq Computer Corporation
All rights reserved.
The software described in this guide is furnished under a license agreement or nondisclosure agreement. The software may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of the agreement.
Compaq is registered in United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Microsoft, Windows, and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
Other product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
AlphaBIOS 5.69 7
Improvements 7
Windows 2000 Advanced Configuration & Power Interface (ACPI) 7
New LSI/Symbios SCSI Adapters 7
New Mylex RAID Adapters 7
New Mylex RAID Configuration Utility 7
Adaptec AIC-7895 SCSI Adapter Support 8
Using Intel 8255x and DC21x4 Network Adapters 8
Timing the Start of the Operating System 8
Enabling or Disabling Network Adapters 8
Recognizing Supported PCI Devices 8
Displaying SCSI Adapters’ Manufacturer Names 9
Bug Fixes 9
Timing Out AlphaBIOS Upgrade 9
Disabling Network After AlphaBIOS Update 9
Bypassing Network Initialization May Crash System 9
Media Search Order During AlphaBIOS Update 9
Testing Partial Memory 10
Validating NTFS Paths 10
KGPSA Prevents Warm Reboot 10
Known Issues 10
SCSI ID of Storage Devices Attached to Mylex RAID Adapters 10
Incomplete Handling of Large IDE Disks 10
SCSI BIOS Configuration Utilities Prevent System Reboot 11
Failure to Convert FAT to NTFS 11
Lost Advanced CMOS Settings 11
Failure to Recognize DE425 EISA Network Adapter 12
TGA Graphics Adapter Prevents BIOS Emulation 12
AlphaBIOS 5.68 13
Overview 13
Support for New Hardware 13
Support for Windows 2000 Features 13
Serviceability Support 13
PCI Configuration Enhancements 13
Fixes in This Release 13
USB 13
ACPI 13
PCI 14
Other fixes 14
AlphaBIOS 5.67 16
Overview 16
PCI Configuration Enhancements 16
NT Serviceability Support 17
Post Windows NT 5.0 (Beta 2) Support 17
Fixes In This Release 17
Fixes Common to all Platforms 17
Known Issues in AlphaBIOS 5.67 18
Issues common to all AlphaBIOS products 18
Known Issues for AlphaServer 1200, AlphaServer 4000/4100, DIGITAL Server 5000/5300, DIGITAL Server 7100/7300, & Digital Ultimate Workstation 18
AlphaBIOS 5.66 19
Overview 19
SCSIBIOS Emulation 19
Enhanced PCI DMA Mode Support 20
Windows NT 5.0 Beta 2 Support 20
Fixes In This Release 20
Fixes Common to all Platforms 20
Miscellaneous AlphaBIOS network fixes. 21
Fixes for Digital* Personal Workstation 21
Fixes for Alpha XL 300/366/433 AlphaStation 600, AlphaServer 600A. AlphaServer 1000, AlphaServer 1000A & AlphaServer 800 22
Known Issues in AlphaBIOS 5.66 22
Known Issues for AlphaServer 1200, AlphaServer 4000/4100, DIGITAL* Server 5000/5300, DIGITAL* Server 7100/7300, & Digital* Ultimate Workstation 22
Known Issues for Alpha XL 300/366/433 AlphaStation 600, AlphaServer 600A. AlphaServer 1000, AlphaServer 1000A & AlphaServer 800 22
Appendix 24
These release notes document fixes, feature changes, and problems discovered since the last AlphaBIOS User’s Guide was published. For more detailed information about installing and using AlphaBIOS, download the AlphaBIOS User’s Guide from:
http://www.compaq.com/support/files/alphant/index.html
AlphaBIOS has scheduled and unscheduled (out-of-cycle) releases. It is released quarterly for all AlphaBIOS products, and it is released out-of-cycle for new products or subsets of products.
AlphaBIOS 5.69
AlphaBIOS 5.69 is a scheduled release and supports all the AlphaBIOS products listed in the Appendix.
Improvements Windows 2000 Advanced Configuration & Power Interface (ACPI)
Where system platform allows, this version of AlphaBIOS release provides the fullest support for Advanced Configuration & Power Interface (ACPI) features that will be present in Windows 2000. If you are planning to install the Beta 3 or later releases of Windows 2000, you must update your system with this AlphaBIOS release.
New LSI/Symbios SCSI Adapters
AlphaBIOS supports all LSI/Symbios SCSI adapters, built on the SCSI cores ranging from C810 to C896 inclusive, as boot devices.
New Mylex RAID Adapters
AlphaBIOS supports the following Mylex intelligent RAID adapters as boot devices:
KZESC-AA (EISA to 8-bit Single Ended SCSI RAID)
KZESC-BA (EISA to 8-bit Single Ended SCSI RAID)
KZPAC (PCI to Wide Single Ended UltraSCSI RAID)
KZPSC-AA (PCI to Wide Single-Ended SCSI RAID)
KZPSC-BA (PCI to Wide Single-Ended SCSI RAID)
AcceleRAID 150 (PCI to Ultra2SCSI RAID)
ExtremeRAID (PCI to Ultra2SCSI RAID)
New Mylex RAID Configuration Utility
Compaq offers the new ARCCF for configuring the Mylex intelligent RAID adapters. This utility supports all Mylex RAID products listed above. Compaq recommends using ARCCF, instead of the older SWXCRMGR utility, to configure your adapters. It is available at
http://www.compaq.com/support/files/alphant/drivers/index.html
Adaptec AIC-7895 SCSI Adapter Support
The AlphaPC 264DP on-board Adaptec adapter (AIC-7895) is now supported as a boot device.
Using Intel 8255x and DC21x4 Network Adapters
AlphaBIOS supports the network adapters that are built on the Intel 8255x and DC21x4 NIC cores. You can use the 8255x or DC21x4 network adapters separately, or you can use both types of adapters simultaneously.
Specifically, AlphaBIOS supports these adapters on the following Alpha models:
Compaq AlphaServer™ DS20
Compaq AlphaPC 264DP
Compaq Professional Workstation XP 1000
On other Alpha platforms, only the DC21x4 is supported by AlphaBIOS.
Timing the Start of the Operating System
Normally, if you do not select an operating system, AlphaBIOS automatically starts the primary operating system 30 seconds after the selection screen appears. The primary operating system is the one highlighted on the selection screen.
AlphaBIOS determines when to start the operating system by inspecting the Auto Start Count field in CMOS Setup. If you want more time to select an operating system, increase the value in the Auto Start Count field. If you want less time, decrease the value in this field.
If you do not want AlphaBIOS to automatically start the primary operating system when the Auto Start Count reaches 0, you must clear the Auto Start Enable field in CMOS Setup.
Enabling or Disabling Network Adapters
When the user enables or disables a network adapter, the system has to be rebooted to put it into effect.
This is no longer necessary.
When the user displays the PCI configuration, some new devices supported by AlphaBIOS were not recognized by it.
AlphaBIOS now recognizes the following PCI devices:
KZPCA (Compaq SCSI)
KGPSA (Compaq FibreChannel)
6021L (Compaq Video/Ethernet)
NC31XX (Compaq Ethernet)
PowerStorm 4D10 (Compaq Video)
Single RAID (Mylex AcceleRAID 150)
Multi RAID (Mylex ExtremeRAID)
C896 (LSI/Symbios 896 SCSI)
Displaying SCSI Adapters’ Manufacturer Names
On boot screens like the Hard Disk Setup screen, AlphaBIOS displays the manufacturers of devices. For example, the Compaq KZPSx adapter appears as: COMPAQ STORAGE - KZPSX #X.
Bug Fixes Timing Out AlphaBIOS Upgrade
When heavy LAN traffic forced a second attempt to upgrade the AlphaBIOS via the network, the system would hang.
This has been fixed.
Now, the users can also get out, by pressing the Escape key, amidst an unsuccessful attempt to upgrade AlphaBIOS via the network instead of having to wait until the timeout period (about 1 to 2 minutes) expires.
Disabling Network After AlphaBIOS Update
After AlphaBIOS was updated via the network, the network could not be disabled.
This has been fixed.
Bypassing Network Initialization May Crash System
If the user pressed the Escape key during network initialization to bypass it and subsequently tried to run an ARC application via the “Run a Program” menu, the system would crash.
This has been fixed.
Media Search Order During AlphaBIOS Update
When the user attempted an “AlphaBIOS Upgrade...” with a diskette containing FWUPDATE.EXE, and while Network was enabled, AlphaBIOS would overlook the local presence of FWUPDATE.EXE and proceeded to update the AlphaBIOS via the network.
This has been fixed.
The media search order is now as follows:
CDROM
A: Drive
Network Interface(s)
The user interface has been updated to notify users when image-loading error occurs.
Testing Partial Memory
When AlphaBIOS started to run a partial system memory test, it would continue to count past 256MB.
This has been fixed.
Validating NTFS Paths
AlphaBIOS has never been capable of validating an NTFS path and currently does not support that feature. However, when the user attempted to validate an NTFS path, AlphaBIOS would report that the path is valid, with no basis for doing so.
This has been fixed.
When AlphaBIOS detects a directory in an NTFS partition, it displays the message “NTFS path validation not supported”.
KGPSA Prevents Warm Reboot
When an AlphaServer 800 or Alpha XLT system was configured with a KGPSA FibreChannel adapter, the system would not perform a warm reboot successfully.
This has been fixed.
Known Issues
Despite the above improvements and bug fixes to AlphaBIOS, the following issues persist for which a temporary workaround exists or no solution exists.
SCSI ID of Storage Devices Attached to Mylex RAID Adapters
This behavior shows up on all AlphaBIOS systems.
Devices attached to SWXCR storage adapters (also known as KZPAC, KZPSC, KZESC, or Mylex DAC960 adapters) may seem to have large, erroneous, SCSI IDs.
This is cosmetic and will not affect the operation of these devices under Windows NT 4.0.
Incomplete Handling of Large IDE Disks
This behavior shows up on all AlphaBIOS systems that support IDE controllers.
AlphaBIOS can partition and format only the first 8GB of an IDE disk that is larger than 8GB.
You must partition and format the remainder of the disk under Windows NT 4.0.
SCSI BIOS Configuration Utilities Prevent System Reboot
This behavior shows up on the following Alpha models:
AlphaServer 4100
AlphaServer 1200
DIGITAL Server 7300
DIGITAL Server 5300
DIGITAL Ultimate Workstation Systems
Under certain conditions, running the Qlogic or Adaptec BIOS configuration utilities would prevent the system from being subsequently rebooted.
The workaround is to press the Reset button on the front panel.
Failure to Convert FAT to NTFS
This behavior shows up on the following Alpha models:
AlphaServer 4100
AlphaServer 1200
DIGITAL Server 7300
DIGITAL Server 5300
DIGITAL Ultimate Workstation Systems
Under certain conditions, during a Windows NT installation, the system would not be able to convert a disk partition from FAT to NTFS. This would likely to have happened if the system is being installed to a disk attached to an Adaptec 2940UW SCSI adapter.
The workaround is to place the adapter on the first PCI bus in the system (PCI-0).
Lost Advanced CMOS Settings
This behavior shows up on all AlphaBIOS systems.
AlphaBIOS may present erroneous information in Advanced CMOS Settings when the user interacts with it as follows:
Presses to enter AlphaBIOS Setup
Selects CMOS Settings
Presses to enter Advanced CMOS Settings
Changes a value
Presses to save the change and exit from Advanced CMOS Settings
Presses to enter Advanced CMOS Settings again
After Step 6, the change that was saved in Step 5 would now be lost.
Failure to Recognize DE425 EISA Network Adapter
This behavior shows up on all AlphaBIOS systems.
Under certain conditions, AlphaBIOS cannot detect the presence of a DE425 EISA Network Interface Card.
TGA Graphics Adapter Prevents BIOS Emulation
If an AlphaBIOS system is configured with the DIGITAL TGA graphics display adapter, no BIOS emulation will be allowed.
AlphaBIOS 5.68
AlphaBIOS 5.68 is a scheduled release and supports all the AlphaBIOS products listed in the Appendix.
Release 5.68 of AlphaBIOS primarily addresses support for new hardware, support for Windows 2000 features, serviceability support, and PCI configuration enhancements.
Overview Support for New Hardware
AlphaBIOS supports hardware that uses the next generation Alpha 21264 CPUs.
Support for Windows 2000 Features
Where hardware allows, AlphaBIOS supports features that will be present in Windows 2000, such as ACPI.
Serviceability Support
AlphaBIOS adds to the serviceability provided by earlier versions of AlphaBIOS.
PCI Configuration Enhancements
AlphaBIOS eliminates some problems with PCI configurations and allows new peripherals to run correctly.
Fixes in This Release
The fixes in this release fall into the following categories: USB, ACPI, PCI, and all other fixes.
USB
Initialize the USB port properly.
ACPI
Include all ACPI information required to boot Windows 2000.
Check for a video card before trying to get PCI configuration information about a video card.
If a parallel port is configured in standard mode, do not report that an ECP port is present. Similarly, if a parallel port is configured as an ECP port, do not report that a parallel port is present.
Exit the configuration mode in the SMC before returning the device status for COM1, COM2, or a floppy disk drive.
Change the key value of the ACPI BIOS node to zero. This value is what Windows 2000 expects.
Add AlphaBIOS support for ACPI for booting Windows 2000.
PCI
Enable 64-bit PCI after warm starts in AlphaServer 800 and DIGITAL Server 3300 systems.
Enable SERR when an Alteon Gigabit ACEnic (1Gb Ethernet card) is the only card on the PCI bus; otherwise, disable SERR when this card is not the only one on the bus.
Abbreviate terms on the PCI Config menu to prevent truncation of those terms.
Add PCI configuration failure warnings to AlphaBIOS. On the PCI menu, highlight the PCI devices that failed so that the user can go to the advanced PCI menu for those devices and identify the resources, which failed for each device.
Change AlphaBIOS PCI initialization and error handling to reflect multiple processors for PCI I/O.
Correct the regression introduced by defining BAD_ADDRESS_REGISTER as 0xDeadBeef by redefining BAD_ADDRESS_REGISTER as zero. This correction prevents the x86 emulator from interpreting 0xDeadBeef as a valid address for devices that cannot meet PCI requirements.
Add support for Ultra DMA with the AcerLabs IDE controller, and update the PCI configuration code to support the Polaris core logic and the Acer Labs PCI-ISA bridge chip. This includes the following PCI devices:
Polaris System Controller (PSC)
AcerLabs m1543C PCI-ISA Bridge
AcerLabs m5229 IDE Controller
AcerLabs m5237 USB
AcerLabs m7101 PMU
Other fixes
Provide Common Console support for UNIX/VMS by adding the “Install Operating System” command to the AlphaBIOS menu.
Make Common Console changes to SCB backward compatible with existing SCB definitions.
Update the DHCP client by removing code that obtains the server IP address from the option field of the DHCP packet.
Set the DHCP client to get the TFTP server IP address from the server field and do not allow the IP address to be overwritten with the server name. Adjust the UDP to read the size from UPD header.
Add a Reset routine and change the DC21X4 Driver Entry and Initialize routine, allowing the driver to initialize a network card that was not initialized at start up or to reinitialize a network card after it was shut down.
Add double error halt logging to HAL, AlphaBIOS (for Turbolaser and common code), and the Windows 2000 event log.
On the AlphaServer 1000a Model 5 platform, prevent a black-screen hang in the transition from HAL via PAL to AlphaBIOS by implementing a warm-start-enable option. Include in CMOS Advanced Settings a “Warm Restart” option under CMOS Settings, Advanced Setup that can set the Environmental Variable WARMREBOOT to YES or NO.
During debug, update the error logging callback API to allow frame sizes to be transferred between the HAL and AlphaBIOS.
Add error halt logging support to Turbolaser EV6.
Ensure that “Power-up Memory Test” changes in advanced CMOS setup are preserved when saved.
AlphaBIOS 5.67
AlphaBIOS 5.67 is an out-of-cycle release that addresses PCI configuration enhancements, NT serviceability support, and post NT 5.0 (Beta 2) issues.
The AlphaBIOS products supported by this release are:
DIGITAL* Personal Workstation
DIGITAL* Ultimate Workstation
Alpha Server 1200
Alpha Server 4000
Alpha Server 4100
DIGITAL* Server 5000/5300
DIGITAL* Server 7000/7300
Now owned by Compaq Computer Corporation.
Overview PCI Configuration Enhancements
PCI configuration enhancements were added to AlphaBIOS 5.67 to relax PCI configurator error handling of devices that reported non-compliant PCI resources. The enhancement allows devices that request PCI resources in a non-compliant manner to now function under Windows NT.
Previously, when AlphaBIOS encountered a non-compliant PCI resource, the entire configuration for the non-compliant device was filled with zeros thereby disabling the device. AlphaBIOS was changed to behave as follows:
Non-compliant PCI resources will be invalidated. Non-compliant resources will be written with the hexadecimal number 0xdeadbeef. Writing this unique value provides users with the ability to identify invalid PCI resources from the AlphaBIOS configuration menu.
All other settings will be honored. AlphaBIOS will attempt to assign, to the device, all PCI resources not identified as non-compliant. This will enable the device to function under Windows NT. The degree of functionality is dependent on the device.
Although this change was specifically required to support the Gerber Woodbridge device, it greatly enhances the flexibility of the AlphaBIOS PCI configurator.
NT Serviceability Support
AlphaBIOS 5.67 includes latent NT serviceability support for the following products:
DIGITAL* Ultimate Workstation Alpha Server 1200
Alpha Server 4000
Alpha Server 4100
DIGITAL* Server 5300
DIGITAL* Server 7300
Now owned by Compaq Computer Corporation
AlphaBIOS implements only a small component of the overall serviceability scheme. Customers must also update the SRM V5.3 console and Windows NT HAL revision E in order to obtain a system software configuration that includes NT serviceability.
Post Windows NT 5.0 (Beta 2) Support
AlphaBIOS release 5.67 contains fixes necessary to support post Windows NT 5.0 (Beta 2) on Alpha systems. See Fix Descriptions section for more detail.
Fixes In This Release
Following are the fixes for AlphaBIOS 5.67.
Fixes Common to all Platforms PCI Configuration
Relax error handling of non-compliant PCI resources.
NT 5.0 (Beta 2):
Add support for NT 5.0 advanced boot configuration menu (Safeboot). This menu is entered by pressing F5 or F8 from the boot selection menu and provides advanced boot options that enhance the repair of Windows NT 5.0. Entering this menu for non-NT5 boot selections has no impact on system boot behavior. Although this feature was not officially supported on Alpha systems for NT 5.0 (Beta 2), latent support in Windows NT 5.0 (Beta 2) does exist. See Windows NT 5.0 (Beta 2) release notes for more information.
Fixes for AlphaServer 1200, AlphaServer 4000/4100, DIGITAL* Server 5000/5300, DIGITAL* Server 7100/7300, & Digital* Ultimate Workstation
Add latent NT serviceability support. See Release Overview for more details.
Add SRM-dependency server-management warning to inform customers of potentially invalid firmware configurations. See Release Overview for more details.
Now owned by Compaq Computer Corporation
Known Issues in AlphaBIOS 5.67
Following are issues for which no solution exists or a temporary workaround exists.
The PCI configurator enhancement for this release may potentially cause problems for certain PCI configurations behind a PCI-to-PCI bridge (PPB). One side effect of the enhancement is for handling of errors where PCI configuration PCI IO or PCI memory resource requests cannot be satisfied for a device installed in a PPB slot. If this occurs, the PCI IO or PCI memory resources for all devices behind the PPB are invalidated. Invalidation is performed by writing the hexadecimal value 0xdeadbeef to PCI IO or PCI memory resources for all devices behind the PPB. If such configurations include devices that advertise a ROM BIOS, then AlphaBIOS may crash during BIOS emulation. The BIOS emulator will misinterpret the value 0xdeadbeef as a valid PCI address and attempt to read this address. This problem will be fixed in the next release.
Due to the focused nature of this out-of-cycle AlphaBIOS release, all Known Issues for the AlphaBIOS 5.66 release still exist in AlphaBIOS 5.67.
Known Issues for AlphaServer 1200, AlphaServer 4000/4100, DIGITAL Server 5000/5300, DIGITAL Server 7100/7300, & Digital Ultimate Workstation
Special steps must be taken to update the firmware configuration for NT serviceability support. This is because the AlphaBIOS firmware image has been moved to a new location in flash in order to provide space for fatal -error logging. SRM v5.3 will be the first SRM version to support the new flash layout. When updating the system firmware to obtain NT serviceability support, the following steps must be taken:
Update the SRM to v5.3 using the LFU.
Reboot the system so that we are now running SRM v5.3.
Update the AlphaBIOS to v5.67 or greater using the LFU. SRM v5.3 will put AlphaBIOS in the new flash location.
When the SRM required for NT serviceability support is made available, more details will be provided on how to update the firmware configuration.
AlphaBIOS 5.66
AlphaBIOS 5.66 provides support for SCSIBIOS emulation, enhanced PCI DMA mode, and NT 5.0 (Beta 2). This release supports all AlphaBIOS products.
Overview SCSIBIOS Emulation
SCSIBIOS emulation support has been added for platforms that incorporate the CIA/DSW host bridge chip-set, including:
Alpha XL 300/366/433
AlphaStation 600 5/266, 300, 333
AlphaServer 600A 5/500
AlphaServer 1000 5/266, 300
AlphaServer 1000A 5/266, 300
AlphaServer 800 5/333, 400, 600
DIGITAL* Server 3000/3300
Now owned by Compaq Computer Corporation
When AlphaBIOS 5.66 is first installed, SCSIBIOS emulation is disabled by default. This prevents undesirable changes to changes to system behavior. You can enable SCSBIOS emulation through the AlphaBIOS Advanced CMOS Settings Menu.
When SCSIBIOS emulation is enabled, AlphaBIOS scans the system for SCSI adapters containing a BIOS. If a SCSI BIOS is detected, AlphaBIOS initializes the BIOS for the corresponding adapter.
You might encounter the following issues after enabling SCSIBIOS emulation:
The first time SCSIBIOS emulation is enabled, you might be prompted to run the SCSIBIOS configuration utility to repair the SCSI adapter’s NVRAM settings. Run the configuration utility as instructed.
For systems that contain a Qlogic-based PCI adapter in addition to an on-board Qlogic SCSI device, you will notice that the system takes a long time to complete initialization of the Qlogic PCI adapter. Until this problem is resolved, you can minimize the impact of this problem by enabling SCSIBIOS emulation for Qlogic-based controllers only when it is necessary to run the Qlogic configuration utility.
Enhanced PCI DMA Mode Support
PCI Master DMA-Window Mode configuration support has been added for platforms that support PCI Scatter-Gather DMA. This new Advanced CMOS feature allows you to control the DMA resources allocated under Windows NT 4.0 for the PCI Master Scatter-Gather DMA Window.
To use the enhanced DMA functionality, your system must have Windows NT 4.0 with OEM HAL Revision D or later installed. You can avoid manually installing the updated HAL file by installing Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4 when it becomes available.
Supported DMA modes include:
Legacy Mode - use the legacy (original) settings with fixed window base and size. This mode may be required for certain non-compliant PCI devices.
Dynamic Mode - Dynamically size the Master DMA-window proportional to the amount of physical memory present in the system. Relocate the DMA-window base address to a location compatible with the system IO address space. This DMA mode is the default setting.
Maximum Mode - Select the maximum size, 512 MB, for the Master DMA-window. Relocate the DMA-window base address to a location compatible with the system IO address space. This mode may be required for large PCI device configurations.
Windows NT 5.0 Beta 2 Support
AlphaBIOS release 5.66 contains fixes necessary to support beta 2 of Windows NT 5.0 on Alpha systems. See Fix Descriptions section for more detail.
Fixes In This Release
Following are fixes for AlphaBIOS 5.66.
Fixes Common to all Platforms SCSIBIOS Emulation:
SCSIBIOS emulator fix to support configurations with more than ten drives when an AdvanSys SCSI adapter is installed in the system.
Changed the SCSBIOS emulated memory back to 512K to fix long KZPCM SCSIBIOS initialization times.
Remove interrupt-bitmask checking in SCSIBIOS emulator to fix problems with entering the Qlogic SCSIBIOS configuration utility when the Qlogic installed behind an Adaptec SCSI controller.
Network Support:
Speed optimizations for the AlphaBIOS DC21X4 network driver, including use transmit-threshold mode and reduce minimum wait time in polling to finish transmit.
Fix a check-sum error in the network file-cache that occurred after loading a smaller image with same file name from network.
Reduce TFTP server overhead by modifying the AlphaBIOS TFTP client to terminate the TFTP touch-file transaction. This will increase the reliability of TFTP file transactions.
Miscellaneous AlphaBIOS network fixes. NT 5.0 (Beta 2):
Update the AlphaBIOS ATAPI IDE Miniport driver to NT 4.0 (1381) version. For NT 5.0 and certain NT 4.0 configurations, the new driver is required to support AlphaBIOS clean IDE device reset after NT shutdown. The previous AlphaBIOS driver version was not able to reset devices that NT had configured in bus-master DMA modes, resulting in the device disappearing under AlphaBIOS.
Change the AlphaBIOS heap-sizing algorithm to reserve a maximum of 8 MB of space for AlphaBIOS heap. This restriction reduces the memory footprint of AlphaBIOS and is necessary to support NT 5.0 hibernation features.
To prevent conflicts with NT 5.0 network PnP support, shutdown the AlphaBIOS network device prior to loading NT.
CMOS Setup:
Add the Master DMA Window Mode setting to Advanced CMOS Settings for platforms that support PCI Scatter-Gather DMA. See Release Overview for more detail.
Align Advanced CMOS setting fields and single space Advanced CMOS entries to allow enlargement of help window.
Due to NVRAM space limitations, reduce the maximum number of Operating System (OS) boot selections from four to three. Attempting to install more than three instances of Window NT on a system will now result in failure to create the OS boot selection.
Miscellaneous:
Pass the PCI device present bitmap to HAL for all products. AlphaBIOS calculates this bitmap during PCI device configuration. By passing the bitmap to NT, we reduce boot time by saving the HAL from having to recalculate this bitmap.
Fixes for AlphaServer 1200, AlphaServer 4000/4100, DIGITAL* Server 5000/5300, DIGITAL* Server 7100/7300, & Digital* Ultimate Workstation
Add support for 8 MB BCache size CPU daughter cards by reporting the proper Bcache size to NT.
Implement a workaround to support Qlogic SCSIBIOS configure utility.
Now owned by Compaq Computer Corporation
Fixes for Digital* Personal Workstation
On systems with an on-board Cypress 82CY693U IDE controller, implement a workaround to prevent Windows NT 4.0 ATAPI miniport driver from generating NT EventLog entries. The workaround will prevent the second IDE PCI function from responding to PCI configuration accesses under NT. Note this does not prevent devices on the second IDE channel from functioning under NT because the IDE controller is configured in legacy mode. When configured in legacy mode, access to devices on both channels is supported from the first PCI IDE function. All necessary device configurations for the second channel is performed under AlphaBIOS.
Fixes for Alpha XL 300/366/433 AlphaStation 600, AlphaServer 600A. AlphaServer 1000, AlphaServer 1000A & AlphaServer 800
Add SCSIBIOS emulation support for CIA-based products. See Major Features for more information.
Disable SCSIBIOS emulation support by default on CIA-based products. See Major Features for more information.
Known Issues in AlphaBIOS 5.66
Following are issues for which no solution exists or a temporary workaround exists.
Known Issues for AlphaServer 1200, AlphaServer 4000/4100, DIGITAL* Server 5000/5300, DIGITAL* Server 7100/7300, & Digital* Ultimate Workstation
You might not be able to exit SCSIBIOS configuration utilities. When attempting to exit a SCSIBIOS configuration utility, the system may hang. To work around this issue, either perform a system reset or disable the “Warm Reboot” Advanced CMOS setting. Note that disabling “Warm Reboot” will cause AlphaBIOS to perform a full system reset during NT reboots.
Qlogic SCSIBIOS initialization takes longer when the Qlogic is installed behind an Adaptec-based controller and SCSIBIOS emulation is enabled for both adapter types. To work-around this issue, only enable SCSIBIOS emulation when it is necessary to run the adapter’s Auto-configuration utility.
Now owned by Compaq Computer Corporation
Known Issues for Alpha XL 300/366/433 AlphaStation 600, AlphaServer 600A. AlphaServer 1000, AlphaServer 1000A & AlphaServer 800
When running SCSIBIOS emulation for the first time, you might be required to run the SCSIBIOS configuration utility to repair the adapter’s NVRAM settings. See the Release Overview section for more information.
When Qlogic-based SCSI plug-in adapters are installed on systems with on-board Qlogic devices, Qlogic SCSIBIOS initialization will take up to two minutes, with one additional minute for each adapter installed. See the Release Overview section for more information.
Appendix
Following is a list of products supported by AlphaBIOS.
AlphaPC 164LX
AlphaPC 164RX
AlphaPC 164SX
AlphaPC 264DP
AlphaServer 800
AlphaServer DS20
AlphaServer 1000 5/xxx
AlphaServer 1000A 5/xxx
AlphaServer 1200
AlphaServer 4000
AlphaServer 4100
AlphaStation 255
AlphaStation 600A
Alpha XLT
Compaq Professional Workstation XP1000
DIGITAL Personal Workstation
DIGITAL Ultimate Workstation
DIGITAL Server 3000/3300
DIGITAL Server 5000/5300
DIGITAL Server 7000/7300
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