Faster booting BIOS needed
Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 2:36 pm
Hello,
We have an embedded PC application (an automotive information system) which we would like to boot as quickly as possible. At present the Award BIOS takes 16 seconds to boot and Windows98 takes a further 16 seconds making a total time from cold to Windows desktop of 32 seconds. We need to reduce this. We are looking to make the BIOS boot take not more than 6 seconds and so are looking for custom or modified BIOS solutions.
The system is an Advantech PCM-5822 single board PC. The CPU is an embedded NS GXLV-200. The chipset is NS 5530(A). The BIOS is currently Award modular BIOS v4.51PG. The memory is 64Mb EDO. The disk is a CompactFlash 128Mb unit. The VGA interface is onboard, dealt with by the chipset. The board runs a very cut down Windows 98 installation and only ever runs our own bespoke software. There is no networking, USB or CDROM drive but our software does communicate though both RS232 serial ports and the parallel port. The only other plug ins are the monitor and a 4 button keypad. We occasionally replace the keypad with a PC keyboard and connect a 1.4Mb floppy drive for maintenance purposes. The user only ever operates our software through the 4 button keypad. Hardware and configuration changes never take place.
Would anyone be able to help with this?
Thanks,
Mark
mark@mnunn.fsnet.co.uk
We have an embedded PC application (an automotive information system) which we would like to boot as quickly as possible. At present the Award BIOS takes 16 seconds to boot and Windows98 takes a further 16 seconds making a total time from cold to Windows desktop of 32 seconds. We need to reduce this. We are looking to make the BIOS boot take not more than 6 seconds and so are looking for custom or modified BIOS solutions.
The system is an Advantech PCM-5822 single board PC. The CPU is an embedded NS GXLV-200. The chipset is NS 5530(A). The BIOS is currently Award modular BIOS v4.51PG. The memory is 64Mb EDO. The disk is a CompactFlash 128Mb unit. The VGA interface is onboard, dealt with by the chipset. The board runs a very cut down Windows 98 installation and only ever runs our own bespoke software. There is no networking, USB or CDROM drive but our software does communicate though both RS232 serial ports and the parallel port. The only other plug ins are the monitor and a 4 button keypad. We occasionally replace the keypad with a PC keyboard and connect a 1.4Mb floppy drive for maintenance purposes. The user only ever operates our software through the 4 button keypad. Hardware and configuration changes never take place.
Would anyone be able to help with this?
Thanks,
Mark
mark@mnunn.fsnet.co.uk