Rom bios, Shadowing, Bios recovery – Ampro Corporation LITTLE BOARD 5001451A User Manual

Page 28: Interrupt and dma channel usage, Rom bios –10 shadowing –10 bios recovery –10, Interrupt and dma channel usage –10

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2-10

Table 2-6. System Memory Map

Memory Address

Function

FE0000h - FFFFFFh

Duplicates BIOS at 0E0000-0FFFFFh.

100000h - FDFFFFh

Extended memory

0E0000h - 0FFFFFh

128K ROM BIOS

0D0000h - 0DFFFFh

BIOS extension option, if enabled. Otherwise, free.

0CB000h - 0CFFFFh

USB

0C0000h - 0CAFFFh

Video BIOS (44K)

0A0000h - 0BFFFFh

Normally contains video RAM, as follows:

CGA Video: B8000-BFFFFh
Monochrome: B0000-B7FFFh
EGA and VGA video: A0000-AFFFFh

000000h - 09FFFFh

Lower 640K DRAM

ROM BIOS

The standard BIOS is installed in a 256KB Flash device at the factory. The top 128KB of the Flash
device is reserved for the system BIOS, located at 000E0000h – 000FFFFFh and mirrored at the top
of the memory address space. The remaining 128KB are mapped only to the top of memory.

A utility program, PGM6X.COM, can be used to program the on-board Flash device. It can be used
to update the system BIOS, video BIOS, or user area. The utility is included on the utility diskette
that accompanies the Ampro Development Platform. The diskette includes documentation about
how to use the program.

Shadowing

To improve system performance, the contents of the ROM BIOS and video BIOS are copied into
DRAM for execution (“shadowed”), where they are accessed as 64-bit wide data. Shadowing a BIOS
ROM substantially enhances system performance. Shadowing for both the ROM and video BIOS is
built into the Ampro Extended BIOS. There is no user setting.

BIOS Recovery

If the BIOS Flash device somehow becomes corrupted, the Little Board P6d system may not boot.
In this case, the BIOS will have to be reprogrammed. A disk with an image of the current BIOS
along with the Utility PGM6X.COM may be used to restore the BIOS image. Before this can be
done, the Little Board P6d system needs to be Booted and running DOS.

Interrupt and DMA Channel Usage

The PC architecture provides several interrupt and DMA control signals. When you expand the
system through the ISA portion of the PC/104-Plus bus with MiniModule products or plug-in cards
that require either interrupt or DMA support, you must select which interrupt or DMA channel to
use. Typically this involves switches or jumpers on the expansion module. In most cases, these are
not shared resources. It is important that you configure the new module to use an interrupt or

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