No BIOS video chip?

olexy · Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2003 9:29 am Post subject: No BIOS video chip?

Strange to say, but my new VideoCard "Radeon 9000" has no BIOS chip at all! The place for it is free with 2x(7+9)=32 pins. The same problem is for the following videocards:
GigaByte (Maya series): Radeon9000Pro/i
PowerColour: RV25XT, RV250, RV25A-B3, RV25A-C3.
Is it true? Where is the video BIOS is saved?

PS: ATI utility atiiprxx.exe shows the nesessary info about graphic chip.
Furthermore, RV250 & RV300 videocard are working well without BIOS chip.
_________________
raya

NickS · Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2003 12:55 pm Post subject:

That empty space is not for BIOS. Most likely the BIOS is in a small 8-pin serial EEPROM device, interfaced through the GPU
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olexy · Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2003 2:14 pm Post subject:

I saw only ATI site:
http://www.ati.com/support/identify/visualinspectionBIOSnumber.html
where BIOS chipsets are presented (32 pins).
_________________
raya

NickS · Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2003 5:12 pm Post subject:

Yes, they used to be like that. It depends on the chipset.

olexy · Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2003 5:41 am Post subject:

I downloaded ATMEL's pdf with ERROM list and find chips about 5x8 mm with 8 pins (128K- 1M). Furthermore, I saw similar size chip on my v-card, but I couldn't decifer it label.
So, the problem is solved. Thanks for reply.
My interest in that theme is due to the NONAME v-card, produced on RV250 VGU.
_________________
raya