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From: wales@valeria.cs.ucla.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Query about Award and Phoenix PC/XT BIOSes
Message-ID: <20343@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 10 Feb 89 08:30:09 GMT
Sender: news@CS.UCLA.EDU
Reply-To: wales@CS.UCLA.EDU (Rich Wales)
Distribution: na
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
Lines: 50

I have some questions about the BIOSes made for PC's and XT's by
the Award and Phoenix companies.

I work with and maintain two XT clones:  a Wugo (Taiwanese company)
"turbo" XT clone at home, and a Leading Edge Model D with a 30-meg hard
disk card at my church.

My home machine has an Award BIOS (version 2.03, 9/15/86).  My church's
Leading Edge Model D has a Phoenix BIOS (version 2.13; I don't remember
the date, but I think it's somewhere in 1986).

Both machines seem to run fine.  In particular, I have yet to encounter
any "100% IBM-compatible" software that gives me any problems on my home
machine.

However, I'm wondering whether there might be any point in upgrading the
BIOS on either of these machines.  Hence, a few questions:

(1) I have been told that the BIOSes produced by Award and Phoenix are
    very good, and that the two companies' products are essentially of
    equivalent quality -- i.e., that there is no real reason to prefer
    Award over Phoenix, or Phoenix over Award, or any third company over
    either Award or Phoenix.  Does anyone on the net have reasons for
    agreeing or disagreeing with this claim?

(2) Does anyone on the net know whether there are bugs or misfeatures in
    either of the above two BIOSes that are fixed in later versions?
    Please note that I am not interested in upgrading either BIOS if all
    a later version will give me is a wider range of hard disk or floppy
    disk capabilities; the two systems in question already run just fine
    with their existing hardware (including a 1.44Mb/3.5" diskette drive
    on my home system).

(3) Does Award and/or Phoenix have a US address that I could write (or a
    phone number I could call) in order to ask about the differences
    between my BIOS version and their latest version?  I am a bit hesi-
    tant to try to find coherent BIOS version info from local computer
    stores, because (a) most probably wouldn't know anyway, and (b) I
    would just as soon spare myself any "you ought to upgrade to the 
    latest BIOS version, just on principle" sales rhetoric.

(4) How much should I reasonably expect to pay for a new XT BIOS ROM?

Please e-mail me; if I get any useful replies (and/or info from either
BIOS company), I will summarize to the net later on.

-- Rich Wales // UCLA Computer Science Department // +1 (213) 825-5683
   3531 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, California 90024-1596 // USA
   wales@CS.UCLA.EDU      ...!(uunet,ucbvax,rutgers)!cs.ucla.edu!wales
"The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank."