Parent

NOTE:

This web site is not some kind of 'official' documentation hub for the XT-IDE card. It is simply the result of someone who decided to add to the documentation that exists elsewhere.

RAYXTIDE Tool


Description

RAYXTIDE.EXE is a DOS program that can be used in support of the VCF's XT-IDE card.

Presently, RAYXTIDE does the following:

	•	Looks for the XTIDE Universal BIOS (XUB) in memory space.
	•	Identifies the motherboard class (PC/XT/AT).
	•	Attempts to identify the motherboard BIOS.
	•	Looks for and reports on certain problems.

An example screen output is shown at here.   (One where the XTIDE Universal BIOS was found, and no problems reported.)


Problems reported on

•	Warn-then-exit if the motherboard BIOS (if identified) is known not to support BIOS expansion ROM's.   (Usually, 1981 and 1982 dated motherboard BIOS'.)
•	Warn-then-exit if unable to find the XUB in memory space.
•	Warn-then-exit if XUB is found at multiple locations in memory space.
•	Warn-then-exit if XUB is found in segment 'A' or segment 'B'.
	(Segments A and B are reserved for video RAM.  Any BIOS expansion ROM code [e.g. XUB] placed there will not be found by the motherboard BIOS.)
•	Warn-then-exit if XUB is found in segment 'F'.
	(Segment F is for motherboard BIOS ROM's.  Note that on an IBM 5150, address space F0000-F3FFF is used by the motherboard - see here.)
•	Warn (but do not exit) if XUB is found in conventional memory.
	(No exit is done because perhaps the XUB was placed there via 'optromloader' software.)
•	Warn-then-exit if the XUB is at an address that is not a multiple of 2 KB, e.g. D0400.
	(The motherboard BIOS searches for BIOS expansion ROM code in increments of 2 KB.)
•	Warn (but do not exit) if the XUB is at an address that is not a multiple of 8 KB.
	(That is unusual because the ROM address switches/jumpers on XT-IDE cards set an address that is a multiple of 8 KB, however, maybe the XUB is somewhere other than on the XT-IDE card.)
•	Warn-then-exit if the declared size (third byte of BIOS expansion ROM) is zero.
•	Warn-then-exit if the declared size (third byte of BIOS expansion ROM) is not a multiple of 2 KB.
•	Warn-then-exit if the declared size (third byte of BIOS expansion ROM) is less than 4 KB.
•	Warn-then-exit if the declared size (third byte of BIOS expansion ROM) is greater than 32 KB.
•	Warn-then-exit if the 8-bit checksum of the declared size is not 00.
•	Warn-then-exit if AT version of the XUB running on a PC or XT class computer.
•	Warn-then-exit if the string "XTIDE Universal" is in the header of a segment, but the first two bytes of the segment are not AAh and 55h.  (Indicating a particular case of corrupted ROM contents.)
•	If IBM 5170 BIOS, and 01/10/84 motherboard BIOS found, warn of possible 01/10/84 BIOS incompatibility with XUB.   (See note 1 at the bottom of here).
•	If IBM 5170 BIOS, and XUB found at E0000 (i.e. in sockets U17/U37 of IBM 5170 motherboard), warn-then-exit if the 8-bit checksum of segment 'E' is not 00.

Exclusions

•	It cannot detect if the XUB is misconfigured for your particular situation.
•	It does not look for the 'IDE interface' (the I/O ports) part of the XT-IDE card.
•	It cannot identify a resource conflict. For example, in the IBM 5170, segment 'E' (E0000 to EFFFF) is decoded by the motherboard for motherboard hosted ROM, and therfore, configuring the XT-IDE card to a start its ROM at address E0000 (or above) would be a conflict (in this case, resulting in bus contention on the data bus).

Optional copy of RAYXTIDE screen output to a text file

Here, RAYXTIDE's output will be copied to a text file.  That can be useful for providing information to others.  The file created is named RAYXTIDE.TXT

To do this, use the FILE switch as follows.

A:>rayxtide /file


Download

Click here.


Yet to do

• Identify more motherboard BIOS'