Need to know release notes from VXIpc-870 BIOS Updates

[Hitman]

I just flash updated my VXIpc-870 embedded controller to version 2.06, I really need a BIOS release notes or something.

[drkovrlord]

Hitman,

The latest version of the BIOS that I saw on NI's FTP site is version 1.3. This version includes the release notes in the .zip file. Where did you download version 2.06?

<-*DrkOvrlord*->

[Hitman]

I have an older VXIpc-870, not an 870b.

[JLS]

Hello,

The existing documentation can found at:

ftp://ftp-stage.ni.com/support/vxi/drivers/vxipc-87x/bios/


You'll want to look at the readme file in 870_206_bios.zip.

Hope this helps!

Best Regards,

JLS

[Hitman]

Okay, this tells me how to install the BIOS updates, not what it just did to my VXIpc-870. I need to know what this BIOS update will do to the Controller. I know from updating my home PC how to flash update a BIOS, I need to know specifically what does this update do for the VXIpc-870.

[JLS]

Hello,

Unfortunately, it turns out that the update log for the 2.06 BIOS is not available. If you don't have a specific issue which required you to upgrade the BIOS, you may consider reverting back. Or, if you can test your desired functionality on the upgraded BIOS perhaps you will not encounter problems.

Unfortunate as it is, apparently there is not much else that can be done.

Best Regards,

JLS

[Josh_KNH]

Hello Hitman,

We don't have any release notes for that particular BIOS at this stage, but I think I can shed some light on the difference between the 2.00 and 2.06 BIOS for the VXIpc-870 (original series). The BIOS was primarily updated in order to support faster processor speeds of the Pentium III CPU. This has to be done on occassions when Intel releases new CPU ID's for new processors if we are planning on upping the controller's speed (case in point, the VXIpc-870 was bumped from a speed of 450Mhz up to 700Mhz later in its life). I do not think the new values were ever actually used, but were put there just in case.

There were also changes made to the BIOS to support more types of flash chips on which the BIOS resides. The BIOS has to be aware of the type of media on which it is contained for the purposes of write protecting itself. I did not find any information on bug fixes or otherwise, so I imagine you will see very little performance difference between the two versions.

In short, basically just a minor maintenance release. Hope this helps.

Joshua Hernstrom
PXI/VXI Software
National Instruments