gt0159a@prism.gatech.EDU (LEVINSON,MARC LOUIS) (02/27/90)
I would like to bring up a rather confusing subject, though I'm certain it has
been discussed in detail before.
It used to be compatibility was measured in the bios. For clones, Pheonix
was the right choice. Compaq did a good job too. There were lots of others
out, none of which had a fantastic, error free reputation. Today, many clone
makers have gone to AMI.
What I know about the bunch is rather basic.
1. IBM is the one to clone for bios compatibility. Lately, very little
support of all of the wonderful new periphs and drives, or diags.
2. Compaq. Very software compatible, rapidly becoming more hardware
proprietary. (My Compaq P1 bios drive table won't properly support a
Seagate ST-151 - according to Seagate !)
3. Pheonix, long the standard for clone compatibility, lately being
overshadowed (no pun intended). I've never had nor heard of problems with
Pheonix.
4. AMI is rapidly becoming the new clone-in-a-box standard, apparently
because of its built in diags and setup routines.
OK. I probably left out a few good ones here, so feel free to post additions
as you see fit. The ten-thousand-dollar question is:
Which bios (for clones) is most functional [notice I did not say better]
for hardware and software compatibility and support ? Why?
Let's try to save the net some bucks and keep posted responses short and
direct.
Please save long responses for E-mail - I'll post a summary.
- Marc Levinson
--
LEVINSON,MARC LOUIS
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
uucp: ...!{allegra,amd,hplabs,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!prism!gt0159a
ARPA: gt0159a@prism.gatech.eduphil@pepsi.amd.com (Phil Ngai) (02/28/90)
In article <6473@hydra.gatech.EDU> gt0159a@prism.gatech.EDU (LEVINSON,MARC LOUIS) writes: |3. Pheonix, long the standard for clone compatibility, lately being |overshadowed (no pun intended). I've never had nor heard of problems with |Pheonix. One very nice feature of the Phoenix BIOS is that only the last 32Kbytes is needed after bootup. With the appropriate hardware (386, All Charge Card, SOTA Pop, shadow RAM, etc), you can change F000:0-7FFF to RAM and with QD's QRAM or QEMM, load network drivers and such in there. Phoenix made a mistake in trying to get into the Unix market. They are now concentrating on their BIOS line and they should regain some of their market share in the coming years. |4. AMI is rapidly becoming the new clone-in-a-box standard, apparently |because of its built in diags and setup routines. I was very pleased to discover my 9/89 AMI Bios lets me use F000:0-7FFF, just like Phoenix. I positively hate their C&T NEAT setup software because instead of using hex, they use decimal addresses. Quick, what segment is 896K? -- Phil Ngai, phil@amd.com {uunet,decwrl,ucbvax}!amdcad!phil A PC without DESQview is like Unix without ^Z.
elund@pro-graphics.cts.com (Eric Lund) (03/01/90)
In-Reply-To: message from gt0159a@prism.gatech.EDU
Marc, my leggo-built AT clone came with Award BIOS, and I have never had any
compatability problems, with the exception of two programs designed to run
only on an XT. I love the setup facility, and have no complaints.
Eric W. Lund *DISCLAIMER "Disclaimers are for weak people."* Prodigy: xcbr22b
UUCP: ...crash!pro-graphics!elund *COWS FOR RENT* ProLine: elund@pro-graphics
Internet: elund@pro-graphics.cts.com ** ARPA/DDN: pro-graphics!elund@nosc.mil