============================================================================= AST RESEARCH, INC. SOFTWARE BULLETIN #0054D 02-02-90 ============================================================================= PREMIUM/386 AND 386C UTILITIES Production Release 5.00 Revision C Available January, 1990 Part Number: 910340-001 Includes all enhancements and problem fixes of previous versions plus the following: DESCRIPTION: This release of Premium/386 Utilities replaces the 1.2MB diskette part number 910266-001, Revision A, Release 4.01. It will ship with both the Premium/386 and the Premium/386C systems. PROBLEMS RESOLVED: The following items have been changed or added to this release to provide enhancements and problem fixes of previous releases: ASTDSK.DRV v1.12 - Fixed possible timing problems that can cause unreliable performance at low speeds. ASTCACHE v2.41 - Removed the ability to use the /H switch, (speed writing to hard disks). ASTEMM.SYS v4.08 - Added the ability to accept "ON" parameter to turn wrap on all the time. - Corrections of default value for NOXRAM. SPEED.EXE v1.20 - Corrected OS/2 protected mode support problem. SUPERSPL.COM v1.72 - Improved timing loop on output so that printing has a long enough strobe pulse to avoid printing garbage. HDFORMAT.EXE v2.01 - Fixed bug causing only the first bad sector in FMT.DLS to be used. - Added Miniscribe 8225 detection to AT drive section. - Operator intervention now allowed if AT Embedded drive found. Production Release 4.10 Revision A Available December, 1988 Part Number: 910340-001 DESCRIPTION: This release of Premium/386 Utilities replaces the 1.2MB diskette part number 910266-001, Revision A, Release 4.00. It will ship with both the Premium/386 and the Premium/386C systems. The Premium/386 Utilities diskette is a 1.2MB diskette which provides users with utility programs and a diagnostic test capability installed via the user-friendly ASTmenu. The end user files on the release diskette reside in two areas as before: The root directory and the subdirectory called ASTUTIL. PROBLEMS RESOLVED: The following items have been changed or added to this release to provide enhancements and problem fixes of previous releases: 386TEST.EXE v1.43 - Relocated from ASTUTIL directory into the root directory. - Modified existing Premium/386 cache memory diagnostics tests to run on the redesigned cache hardware; added tests for new cache module memory. - Deleted existing cache "tag RAM" tests and wrote new ones to work with new design. - Made changes to existing "auto-sense" and "config" routines to conform to new format. - New user-friendly "CUI"-style menu format. - New math coprocessor diagnostics; this test no longer detects a coprocessor when there is no coprocessor installed. - If the test detects that it is loaded above 256K memory area, it will allow the user to exit from the "Test Program" into DOS. - Inserted a lag in execution of Gate A20 routine to work with new keyboard controller. Prevents auto-sense routine from erroneously detecting system memory that does not exist, thereby preventing the memory diagnostics from testing the same non-existent memory. - Printer Test routines modified to allow "print screen" command during testing. - No longer receive serial port errors when running at low CPU speed. ASTMENU.EXE v1.38 - Replaces ASTMENU.BAT in the root directory to execute the menu. ASTMENU.MEN v1.44 - Some files were loaded erroneously onto drive F: in an earlier version. - Main menu HELP screens rearranged to appear less cluttered; system information was removed. ASTMS.EXE v1.40 - Supports ASTMENU.EXE configured in root directory. - When loading MSDOS, the menu was instructed by MSDOS to expect a minimum of five drives and then tried to format them all. Now all drives are checked for valid selection before being reported as a formatable drive. ASTUPDT.EXE v1.39 - Supports ASTMENU.EXE configured in root directory. - Recognizes Advanced FASTRAM and Rampage Plus 286 boards. - If the user has installed both FASTEGA.SYS and ASTEMM.SYS in the CONFIG.SYS file in reverse order (ASTEMM before FASTEGA), this program senses and corrects the order. - Now causes FASTEGA.SYS to be installed before ASTEMM.SYS in the CONFIG.SYS file. AUTOEXEC.BAT, Oct 19, 1988 - Supports new menu files which run ASTMENU.EXE from the root directory instead of ASTMENU.BAT. - Edited to Remove a tab from end of file. ASTSETUP.EXE v2.0 - Upon Exiting SETUP, a soft boot flag is no longer set. ASTEMM.SYS v2.67 - Supports cache systems; v2.32 used to hang the system. - Does not support discontiguous RAM for the FASTboard. ASTSERV.SYS v1.00 - This is a new driver which interfaces between MSDOS and OS/2 so that SPEED.EXE can access both the cache and the non-cache memory boards when running OS/2. It is installed in Config.OS2. SPEED.EXE v1.15 - Runs properly RAM non-cache memory boards; used to hang the system in this configuration. - When default settings are requested, this version looks into CMOS memory and sets the cache depending upon the default values. Production Release 4.00 Available July, 1988 Part Number: 910266-001 PRODUCT OVERVIEW: The PREMIUM/386 UTILITIES Rel 4.00 Rev A provides users with a set of AST Utility programs including system setup and a diagnostic test capability. This 1.2 MB diskette replaces 360 KB utilities diskettes, Rel 3.40 Rev F Part Number 910241-001 and Rel 3.30 Rev D Part Number 910241-002. ENHANCEMENTS: - 386TEST.EXE provides confidence level system testing. - The third floppy device driver, ASTDSK.DRV has been updated to version 1.04. - ASTMENU now offers support and installation of the third floppy device drivers. - FASTEGA has been updated to version 1.7A. - ASTCACHE Ver 2.19 provides: 8 sector floppy support, and support for hard disks greater than 1024 cylinders. - ASTEMM.SYS has been updated to version 2.27. - HDFORMAT has been updated to version 1.60. - README.DOC has been updated to clarify that ASTMENU loads only the ASTCACHE.COM for Bernoulli box users who must install the ASTCACHE.SYS manually. Also, an added note on ASTEMM when used with FASTEGA; ASTEMM must use the "x=E000-F000" exclude switch or load ASTEMM after FASTEGA. PROBLEMS RESOLVED: - Upgrade of system boot files and DOS command files to AST MS-DOS 3.3A Rel 1.20. - ASTMENU now offers support and installation of the third floppy device drivers. - FASTEGA version 1.7A fixed the problem with the system hanging when "buffers=n" preceded "device=n" and FASTEGA.SYS was the last line in the CONFIG.SYS file. - ASTEMM version 2.27 fixes the problem with the system hanging or continuously rebooting when there was 1 MB RAM installed and SHADOW RAM was disabled. - HDFORMAT now correctly handles EC command for the 1003 and 1006 hard drive controllers. Also, an interleave problem has been corrected. PROGRAM FILES: The files and programs included with this release can be found in the root directory and the subdirectory ASTUTIL. The following lists the files in each directory. Volume in drive A is 386UTIL400A Directory of A:\ ASTUTIL 5-12-88 2:58p AUTOEXEC BAT 65 3-16-88 2:52p COMMAND COM 25308 2-02-88 12:00a CONFIG SYS 23 10-21-87 12:01p COUNTRY SYS 11254 2-02-88 12:00a FDISK COM 48983 2-02-88 12:00a FORMAT COM 11671 2-02-88 12:00a KEYBOARD SYS 19783 3-09-88 2:50p MODE COM 15440 2-02-88 12:00a README DOC 8146 4-13-88 3:03p SELECT COM 4132 2-02-88 12:00a XCOPY EXE 11216 2-09-88 12:00a 12 File(s) 653312 bytes free Volume in drive A is 386UTIL400A Directory of A:\ ASTUTIL 5-12-88 2:58p AUTOEXEC BAT 65 3-16-88 2:52p COMMAND COM 25308 2-02-88 12:00a CONFIG SYS 23 10-21-87 12:01p COUNTRY SYS 11254 2-02-88 12:00a FDISK COM 48983 2-02-88 12:00a FORMAT COM 11671 2-02-88 12:00a KEYBOARD SYS 19783 3-09-88 2:50p MODE COM 15440 2-02-88 12:00a README DOC 8146 4-13-88 3:03p SELECT COM 4132 2-02-88 12:00a XCOPY EXE 11216 2-09-88 12:00a 12 File(s) 653312 bytes free Production Release 3.4, revision F Available April, 1988 Part number: 910241-001 Revision F NOTE: This release does not affect part number 910241-002 - Utilities Disk 2 PROBLEMS RESOLVED: - A defect detected during verify pass was not being marked on the disk. Modifications were made to insure all defects are marked. - If there were multiple byte errors on the same cylinder, head, and sector, only the first entry was being processed. Modifications were made to process the additional entries for the indicated cylinder and head. ENHANCEMENTS: - The programs DFMT.EXE and HDFORMAT.EXE were combined into one file. Production release version 3.3 Available March, 1988 Part Numbers: 910241-001 Revision D 910241-002 Revision D PROBLEMS RESOLVED: ASTEMM.SYS: - Fixes incompatibility between ASTCACHE and ASTEMM programs. - ASTEMM.SYS now can load extended memory drivers and TSR programs after ASTEMM.SYS is installed in AUTO mode. - Change made to correct the invalid memory size returned by the memory manager in real-address mode. ENHANCEMENTS: CUI (Common User Interface) - Expanded and extended memory range is now correct - it used to have a lower limit of 16. - Does not install ASTEMM automatically; the user installs by requesting option to install. - Improved defaults for memory allocation. - Removed warning in HDFORMAT before formatting of hard disk begins. - Changed request from press "RETURN" key to "ENTER" key. - Changed CUI to be able to discern whether there is one or two diskettes for MS-DOS. Production release version 3.2 Available February, 1988 Part Numbers: 910241-001 Revision C 910241-002 Revision C PROBLEMS RESOLVED: HDFORMAT.EXE - Rebuilt to link in correct user interface. - Debug error corrected. - Note added to README.DOC for Western Digital Controller WD-1006 - "HDFORMAT n=6". ASTEMM.SYS - Default speed bug fixed. SPEED.EXE - Has been modified to read the speed from CMOS. ENHANCEMENTS: CUI (Common User Interface) - Removed bonus memory. - Clear default entry upon first keystroke. - Added range checking to numeric entries. - Warning added to reset system before running confidence tests. - Avoid prompt for utilities diskette if file exists. - Force installation if ASTCAHE.COM is not already on drive C. 386TEST.EXE - Omits DMA Controller test. - Omits Keyboard Controller test. - Changes serial port test. - Comes up in "STOP ON ERROR" mode. Production release version 3.1 Available January, 1988 Part Numbers: 910241-001 Revision B 910241-002 Revision B PROBLEMS RESOLVED: ASTSETUP.EXE - This program has been modified to support REV B release of the Premium/386 BIOS. FASTEGA.SYS - This program has been modified to support the update of the 3G Plus II BIOS, REV C. ENHANCEMENTS: HDFORMAT.EXE - Modified support for ESDI drives. The HDFORMAT parameters are now taken directly from the controller instead of the drive table. Production release version 3.0 Available December, 1987 Part Numbers: 910241-001 Revision A 910241-002 Revision A This is the initial production release of this software.