maybe a bit OT: EEPROMs and PCs

Hello,

I was thinking about adapting a few old diskless PCs to serve me for some network / hardware interface stuff by changing (rewriting) the BIOS program.

I'm ready to learn everything I need, however I'm having a hard time finding the information I need. Google isn't being very helpfull.

1. I'll need hardware to access the data in the EEPROMs. I got an old HW-9007 ISA RAM-EEPROM card with supporting programs, so I could write to the EEPROMs using that, but I'd preffer to buy myself something more for the purpose (I have yet to sucessfully align the EEPROM legs to insert one into that old thing). How cheap can I get what I need?

2. I got the i386 computer with it's BIOS in two 128 kb EEPROMs (meaning lots of room and x86 assembly). My assembler makes .com files, to write to EEPROM I'll need properly alligned bits in raw .bin files. How exactly is the EEPROM being fed into the CPU on PC bootup? Can I use a normal assembler to make the binaries I can burn directly? What do I have to do to make that work right?

3. Where can I find any hints on how not to screw up? I suppose IBM never made a document on how to write BIOSes and give it around on the internet freely. Any way for me to get that sort of information for free?

4. Obviously I'll have to know the internals of some peripherial hardware (e.g.: NICs). Any hints on where to find that sort of info? I guess reading chip manufacturer specs will have to do for most things, but where (or how ;) do I get things such as base addresses and such?

I realize all this may be a bit complex, but I think I can do it when it's just me and the I/Os (no workarounds to worry about).

Thanks for all the info!


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Relevant Pages

  • Re: maybe a bit OT: EEPROMs and PCs
    ... Jure Sah asked about BIOS re-write: ... My assembler makes .com files, ... | to EEPROM I'll need properly alligned bits in raw .bin files. ... Learn all about your hardware by fully disassembling the original BIOS-ROM. ...
    (alt.lang.asm)
  • Re: [bug] e100: checksum mismatch on 82551ER rev10
    ... You're saying that the driver is broken because it doesn't fix an error in the EEPROM? ... We're trying extremely hard to fix real errors here (especially when we find that hardware resellers send out hardware with EEPROM problems) and you are asking for a workaround that will introduce random errors and failure into your kernel. ... The bottom line is that your problem is that a specific hardware vendor is/was selling badly configured hardware, and you buy it from them, even after it's End Of Lifed for that vendor. ...
    (Linux-Kernel)
  • Re: [bug] e100: checksum mismatch on 82551ER rev10
    ... With the recent driver change, it now does not work at all. ... You're saying that the driver is broken because it doesn't fix an error in the EEPROM? ... that hardware resellers send out hardware with EEPROM problems) ... ... Even though that vendor did buy the units properly configured and had all the tools needed to configure them properly. ...
    (Linux-Kernel)
  • Re: Saving data in CPU on-chip EEPROM
    ... Thank you for your suggestions.The hardware is already closed, ... The EEPROM is on-chip the AT89C51ED2 microcontroller. ... The data recorded consist of 20 failure counters (when one ... each one ends with checksum. ...
    (comp.arch.embedded)