ASUS NCCH-DL BIOS Modification to support Xeon MP "Tulsa"

[Duke2k]

Hello all,

I'm trying a BIOS modification to support the Xeon dual-core CPUs, specifically 2 Xeon MP's 7120M (SL9HC, CPUID 0f68h) on an ASUS NCCH-DL mobo.
The mobo hast an i875P chipset, supporting 2 Xeon Foster/Prestonia/Gallatin/Nocona/Irwindale processors. Now, all of these are single core chips.

Here's what I did so far:

I extracted the microcodes off of a Supermicro X6QT8 BIOS (Quad Dual-core Xeon 71xx board), since I learned that CPU microcodes are chipset-independent, and merged these with the microcodes from the most recent BIOS 1006.002 for the NCCH-DL, removing all duplicates and retaining only the latest microcode releases for each CPUID.
The original cpu microcodes of the NCCH-DL BIOS were 38k, my new, merged cpu microcodes are 51k total.

Next, CBROM 1.96 allowed me to remove the logo successfully, and modbin6 2.01.01 was used to enable the L3 cache feature and disable the logo on/off feature at the same time. Removing the logo was necessary to accomodate the extra cpu microcodes in the 512k BIOS file.

I also read that ASUS has its own "tinkering" with Award BIOS formats, so that certain features of CBROM won't work - one of them is removing and inserting CPU microcodes. It's the newer, non-compressed format being used here. There's a tool "ACBROM" (Asus CBROM) which I was unable to find so far, and I hope that this will solve the problem of inserting the microcodes. If anyone of you has a link to a more recent version (I have acbrom 2.08 from 2002, but that's too old) which supports the newer ASUS Award BIOS'es - please, let me know.

I also tried a plain binary approach using UltraEdit's hexedit mode on a logo-removed but otherwise "original" BIOS file. I replaced 13k of FF's + 38k of the original microcodes with my 51k merged microcodes, paying attention to total file size. That resulted in CBROM still showing me the 38k NCPUCODE.BIN in the contents list but no microcode information below. I thought there must be some sort of internal structure that's kept elsewhere in the file.

Does anyone have similar experiences or tried it successfully before? I can provide the microcodes, and bios files that I used so far. Thanks in advance for any help.

cu
D2k

EDIT:
Here are the files I mentioned, as direct links.

http://www.duke2k.de/files/1006.zip - Original ASUS NCCH-DL 1006.002 BIOS file;

http://www.duke2k.de/files/1006M1.zip Modified BIOS with L3 cache feature enabled and ONLY 0F68h microcode inserted (replacing the 0F29h microcode, at the end) - I flashed this on my mobo, still boots with a compatible processor just fine, but 7120M Xeon is not recognized despite the microcode and L3;

http://www.duke2k.de/files/1006M2.zip - Modified BIOS, as described above;

http://www.duke2k.de/files/NCPUCODE.zip - Microcodes only, as I merged them (description above).

[1234s282]

Wow i admire your skill here , would really appreciate how you extracted microcodes from an AMI bios and then added them to an Award NCPUCODE.bin

The reason it comes up blank in CBROM is because theres a special way of working with NCPUCODE.BIN.

I have taken your 51kb NCPUCODE , unlocked the L3 Cache feature and removed the splash screen . See Image Below



http://dl.dropbox.com/u/747181/Asus%20NC...34s282.zip

Try at your own risk!

Kind Regards
Admin

[Duke2k]

Whoa, nice go, thanks! :-D

Will try when I get home later today (and pray while flashing... ;-) )

If that doesn't work I suspect my next step would lead me to modifying the ACPI table of the BIOS. From the Supermicro AMI bios I'll extract the ACPI table in order to see how the first two CPUs of the actual four are mapped, and try to transfer that to the NCCH-DL's bios. For decompiling/compiling the ACPI "language" I use "iASL" (see acpica.org) and its accompanying documentation.

For extracting stuff from the AMI bios I use "MMTool V3.22 BKMOD", "CPU PATCH" tab.
The merging of CPU codes can be done using the hexeditor of your choice. ;-)

Thanks again,

D2k

Wow i admire your skill here , would really appreciate how you extracted microcodes from an AMI bios and then added them to an Award NCPUCODE.bin

The reason it comes up blank in CBROM is because theres a special way of working with NCPUCODE.BIN.

I have taken your 51kb NCPUCODE , unlocked the L3 Cache feature and removed the splash screen . See Image Below



http://dl.dropbox.com/u/747181/Asus%20NC...34s282.zip

Try at your own risk!

Kind Regards
Admin

[allenpan]

hello, did u able to get the dual core bios working on ncch-dl?

[Duke2k]

hello, did u able to get the dual core bios working on ncch-dl?

Unfortunately, no. I meanwhile sold the equipment.
Even modifying the ACPI table in the BIOS didn't work as hoped for. Plain ol' chipset limitations, then.

[Individiual]

I think the highest processor is the Intel Xeon MP 3.33 GHz (Potomac-core) with 8MB L3 cache. Now I try to bring work the potomac on the Asus NCCH-DL.
The CPU runs on Asus NCCH-DL, but I had to set the jumper for FSB200 on mainboard and disable hyperthreading in bios. The board have massive problems with FSB166 option. Only with disabled HT, the cpu boots into WinXP. The next problem is that the cpu throttled (temperature is at 39 degree). That means, the performance is very bad in benchmarks. The solution is rmclock to disable thermal monitor, which prevents throttling.

[Duke2k]

Did you enable the L3 cache feature in the BIOS?

you could use the modified 1006M1.zip in my link list above, that should work with your combination. The CPUID I replaced there is not one of the Potomac IDs, so it should work with your config.
(You will need to flash your BIOS, do so at your own risk.)

Maybe that solves the performance issues.
The fact that CPU-Z shows the L3 doesn't mean it's actually enabled.

cu
D2k

[Individiual]

I have use the normal and your modified bios.
With both bios versions is the L3-cache feature enabled.
I want isolate pin PROCHOT and Thermal Monitor 1 and 2 in bios have to disable, because the potomac throttled, although the cpus are cool.

[Individiual]

Can someone add two microcodes from supermicro x6qt8 bios to asus ncch-dl bios? These are the two microcodes, which are to be added to asus ncch-dl bios:


Here the link to the bios versions:

Supermicro x6qt8

asus ncch-dl

[Vink]

Hi!

I've found some SL8EW processors (Xeon 3.0Ghz 8MB cache). Any chance to make them work on my Asus NCCH-DL board using your bios?

Regards,

Vink