Extracting microcode from this Award BIOS possible ?

Only for programmers and BIOS gurus with technical questions.
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gpontis
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I'm having a hard time extracting the microcode from this board with Award BIOS, using CBROM215. Here's what I try, and when I get done there isn't any file named cpucode.exe.

[C:\BIOS]CBROM215.EXE i010010f.bin /d
CBROM V2.15 (C)Award Software 2001 All Rights Reserved.

******** i010010f.bin BIOS component ********

No. Item-Name Original-Size Compressed-Size Original-File-Name
================================================================================
0. System BIOS 20000h(128.00K)12A75h(74.61K)i0110f-4.BIN
1. XGROUP CODE 0ACB0h(43.17K)079ACh(30.42K)awardext.rom
2. ACPI table 030B9h(12.18K)01408h(5.01K)ACPITBL.BIN
3. EPA LOGO 0168Ch(5.64K)002AAh(0.67K)AwardBmp.bmp
4. GROUP ROM[ 0] 053A0h(20.91K)02573h(9.36K)_EN_CODE.BIN
5. YGROUP ROM 04AA0h(18.66K)031DDh(12.47K)awardeyt.rom
6. LOGO BitMap 4B30Ch(300.76K)02ECBh(11.70K)vpsd.bmp
7. VGA ROM[1] 0FE00h(63.50K)085C6h(33.44K)c1622i19.rom
8. PCI ROM[A] 0A000h(40.00K)05FF2h(23.99K)pxe.lom

Total compress code space = 35000h(212.00K)
Total compressed code size = 326A6h(201.66K)
Remain compress code space = 0295Ah(10.34K)

** Micro Code Information **
Update ID CPUID | Update ID CPUID | Update ID CPUID | Update ID CPUID
------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------------
SLOT1 13 0630|
[C:\BIOS]

Then:

[C:\BIOS]CBROM215.EXE i010010f.bin /cpucode extract
CBROM V2.15 (C)Award Software 2001 All Rights Reserved.

[C:\BIOS]


No file is written. This is all in the effort to add support for the newer Via C3 Nehemiah core CPU.
ajzchips
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There's a new BIOS that's 9 months more recent than yours that might be worth trying.

http://www.viamainboard.com/product/epi ... boardId=81
gpontis
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Appears to (not) work in the same way. On Tmod's forum, it was posted that I can't extract it becuase the information is not stored as a cpucode module. What about reading it from the copy in the CMOS - can anyone give me a pointer to doing that ?
sulbert
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gpontis wrote:This is all in the effort to add support for the newer Via C3 Nehemiah core CPU.
Adding VIA CPU support is not that easy (AFAIK VIA CPU-s don't have Intel-type microcodes):

http://www.wimsbios.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4033
gpontis
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Maybe I was going about it the wrong way when I tried to find microcode. The motherboards and BIOS that I am working with already have support for an earlier Via C3 processor. But they don't recognize the new core, and the CPU is not properly initialized. The CPU with the new core runs but performance is very poor. I have heard that it is due to not initializing the caches, although in some benchmarks I saw almost 100:1 slower performance than I expected.

I think that if the BIOS just treated it like the Via CPU that it knows about, it would probably work fine. So perhaps instead of additional microcode it just needs an entry in a table of CPU IDs.

Is that something that I can edit ? I do have a board and CPU to use for the experiment.
sulbert
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What board are you using for the experiments?
gpontis
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An MSI 694T Pro, with AMI BIOS. I ordered a DFI board with Award BIOS that also supports the older C3 but not the Nehemiah core.

It's interesting that Via sells these CPUs in socket 370 format, but I don't know of any socket 370 motherboard that supports them. Via's own EPIA-M series motherboards uses a BGA version of the new CPU. I have one of those too, and of course the CPU is properly supported there.
sulbert
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gpontis wrote:It's interesting that Via sells these CPUs in socket 370 format, but I don't know of any socket 370 motherboard that supports them.
VIA C3™ Verified Motherboard List <- official.
gpontis
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The official list is really funny. The two boards that I mentioned are on it. Most of the boards there do not have a BIOS more recent than early 2002, about a year before the Nehemiah was released. For an even funnier read you should check out the Via approved list of chipsets supporting the C3. On that list are chipsets for the socket A Athlon.
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