Whizpro BIOS: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 06:27, 24 July 2023

Whizpro BIOS was a computer BIOS developed by Whizpro Technology Co. Ltd. in late-90s and early/mid-2000s. It was mostly used with embedded and/or industrial computer motherboards. Earliest known release of it is from 1999, while the last known trace of the company copyright is for a February 2005 version of WFLASH, a BIOS Flashing Tool made by Whizpro.

List of known versions

COMDEX Fall '99 Demo Release

This release is mentioned in one of the Whizpro websites and is the earliest known release of Whizpro BIOS. A demo of it was apparently showcased at COMDEX Fall '99 in Las Vegas in November 1999. Nothing else is known about this demo release.

2000 Release

According to the same website, Whizpro BIOS was already finished and released in 2000. The 2000 release seems to have supported the following chipsets for desktop computers:

VIA 693 Family (Apollo Pro Plus and Apollo Pro 133, VT82C596B southbridge only)
VIA 694 Family (Apollo Pro 133A, VT82C596B southbridge only)
VIA KX133 and KT133
Intel 810 and 810E
Intel 815E

Support for VIA's DDR RAM supported chipsets and Intel's Timna codenamed processors were also announced (neither was released at the time), although the latter got cancelled by Intel in September 2000 before it got released.

Meanwhile, the following chipsets were supported with the Embedded version of the BIOS:

Intel 430TX
Intel 440BX and 440ZX
National Semiconductor Geode GXLC, SC1400 and 5530 series of processors
STMicroelectronics STPC chipsets

January 2002 Release

Same chipsets supported by the 2000 release were still supported, and according to the newer Whizpro website, support for the following chipsets/southbridges were already added at some point with the desktop version:

Intel 845
VIA P4X266 and P4M266
VIA KT133A and KM133
VIA PM133
VIA PRO266 and KT266
VIA "VT82C593A" (assumed to be a misspell of VT82C596A), VT82C686A and VT82C686B southbridges
Transmeta Crusoe TM3xxx and TM5xxx processors
National Semiconductor Geode GX1 and GXM

May 2002 Release

Support for ALi (Acer Labs Inc.), AMD and SiS (Silicon Integrated Systems) chipsets have been added at some point (exact models have not been listed), along with support for "any x86 architecture based processor".

June 2003 Release

Support for the following chipsets have been added at some point:

Intel 875P
Other Intel 845 variants (845D/G/GL/E/GE/PE/GV)
VIA CLE266
VIA P4X266A, P4X333 and P4M333
VIA KT266A, KM266, KT333, KT400 and KM400
VIA PLE133, PLE133A, PLE133T and PM133.

November 2003 Release

Support for the following chipsets have been added at some point:

VIA K8T800 and K8M800

November 2003 was also the last time the website was updated.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-Whizpro BIOS was a computer BIOS developed by Whizpro Technology Co. Ltd. in late-90s and early/mid-2000s. It was mostly used with embedded and/or industrial computer motherboards. Earliest known release of it is from 1999, while the last known trace of the company copyright is for [https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/bios-tools.529/page-13 a BIOS flashing tool dated 2005].
+Whizpro BIOS was a computer BIOS developed by Whizpro Technology Co. Ltd. in late-90s and early/mid-2000s. It was mostly used with embedded and/or industrial computer motherboards. Earliest known release of it is from 1999, while the last known trace of the company copyright is for [https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/bios-tools.529/page-13 a February 2005 version of WFLASH, a BIOS Flashing Tool made by Whizpro].
 == List of known versions ==
@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
 *Intel 815E
-Support for VIA's DDR RAM supported chipsets and Intel's Timna codenamed processors were also announced (neither was released at the time), although the latter processors got cancelled by Intel in September 2000 before they got released.
+Support for VIA's DDR RAM supported chipsets and Intel's Timna codenamed processors were also announced (neither was released at the time), although the latter got cancelled by Intel in September 2000 before it got released.
 Meanwhile, the following chipsets were supported with the Embedded version of the BIOS:
@@ Line 36: / Line 36: @@
 === May 2002 Release ===
-Support for ALi (Acer Labs Inc.), AMD and SiS (Silicon Integrated Systems) chipsets have been added at some point (exact models are not listed on the website), along with support for "any x86 architecture based processor".
+Support for ALi (Acer Labs Inc.), AMD and SiS (Silicon Integrated Systems) chipsets have been added at some point (exact models have not been listed), along with support for "any x86 architecture based processor".
 === June 2003 Release ===