Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ames!amdcad!pepsi!phil
From: phil@pepsi.amd.com (Phil Ngai)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: BIOS variety - How to make a proper choice?
Keywords: IBM, Compaq, Pheonix, AMI, bios
Message-ID: <29308@amdcad.AMD.COM>
Date: 27 Feb 90 18:32:54 GMT
References: <6473@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Sender: news@amdcad.AMD.COM
Reply-To: phil@pepsi.AMD.COM (Phil Ngai)
Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Sunnyvale CA
Lines: 26

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.