Specifications

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6.2.1 Operation of the Setup Program
The Setup program is menu driven, and its operation should be self-explanatory.
Users are advised not to change parameters that they do not understand.
Setup parameters are stored in the on-board CMOS memory, and it is backed-up if
an external battery is provided. If no external battery is present then the Setup
parameters can be stored in an on-board serial EEPROM, as described in section
6.7. If neither the CMOS SRAM nor the serial EEPROM contain valid data then
default settings will be loaded from the BIOS. This will load in default values suitable
for operation with the TCDEVPLUS Development System.
The default values can also be restored by an option in the Setup program’s Exit
menu. In addition, the F9 key can also be used to reset only those settings on the
currently displayed Setup menu.
Many on-board peripheral devices can be enabled or disabled by the Setup program,
in the Advanced/Integrated Peripherals menu. When peripherals are disabled they
are placed into a low power mode, and their I/O addresses and interrupt signals
become available for other PC/104 boards. This could be required, for example, to
allow the TP400 to co-exist with other PC/104 boards that are already using the
standard COM1, COM2 and PRN I/O addresses.
The IDE and floppy disk controllers are amongst those devices that can be enabled
and disabled using the Setup program. If the floppy and IDE disk controllers on the
TCDEVPLUS development system are to be used then the on-board controllers
should be disabled. The default is for the on-board disk controllers to be to be
enabled, to facilitate use of the TCDEVPLUS Development System.
We recommend that you do not attempt to use one on-board disk controller and one
off-board disk controller, as the floppy and IDE disk controllers share the use of one
I/O address.
The BIOS interrogates the drives attached to the IDE port and attempts to optimise
the parameters for speed and drive format. However, these values can be over-
ridden by the Setup program that allows hard disk drive parameters to be manually
defined.
The Setup menu includes a security menu. This allows access to the Setup program,
floppy disk and hard disk boot sector to be password protected. Care should be taken
with this, as if the password is forgotten the battery on the CMOS RAM must be
removed to reset the password protection. Worse still (or better still!), if the serial
EEPROM is being used to save the CMOS settings in the event of battery failure, the
EEPROM will need to be erased or removed before the password protection can be
removed.
The Setup program also provides control of the power management features of the
TP400. This is described in detail in section 7.
Options exists to allow the BIOS to issue reminders concerning virus checking and
disk backup.