Thoughts about "generic" PC's.

Hardware
BIOS

• Phoenix BIOS's seem to work, but CTOS III may falsely report a Hardware ID.
• AMI BIOS's don't seem to.
• ACER BIOS's are a maybe.  Unisys used these in the SG2700.
• Consider setting Bus Priority to ISA.  Further details here.

• The original Clusterlan/Clientcard do not work with Pentium class machines.
• Setting for the Clientcard II is detailed here
• Setting for the Clientcard III is detailed here

• Adaptec 15xx cards were first supported by CTOS III R1.3.1
• SCSI disks which may work with CTOS are listed here.

• CTOS Video Card - works on systems <= 12MB memory.  May conflict with Cluster speeds of 3.68.
• Cirrus chipset may work.  Unisys used these with the, SG1600, SG1650, SG2400, SG2500, SG2600, SG2601, SG3400, SG3500, SGS4200 machines.  VAM 4.4 may be required.
• S3 Trio chipset may work.  Unisys used these on the SG3600/SG3700 machines.  VAM 4.4 may be required.
• Weitek chipsets may work.
• ATI AGP Rage Pro Turbo cards appear to work.
• Matrox video cards do not.

Software
CTOS III

• BTOS/CTOS II does not work on PC equipment.
• CTOS R1.3.1 was the first CTOS to support Adaptec 15xx SCSI cards.
• CTOS R1.3.1 had many problems, it would advisable to obtain the latest patch release available.

• R12.3.100 was the first STD-SW to support disks >1GB.
• Several patches to R12.3.100 have been released to support these large disks.

• VAM s4.3.15x/s4.4.5x patch may be required for some S3 Trio chipsets.
• VAM 4.4 has built in WYSIWYG support.  As this is a software emulation, it tends to be a bit slow.

Disclaimer
This article is provided as is without any express or implied warranties.  While every effort has been taken to ensure accuracy of the information contained in this article, the author assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.
 

Dale 'Cat' Robinson - catfromdarwin@geocities.com
7 May 1999

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