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 BIOS flashing tool dated 2005.
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 processors got cancelled by Intel in September 2000 before they 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 are not listed on the website), 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.