AST RESEARCH, INC.        TECHNICAL BULLETIN # 1595          09/24/96 
 
 
 
TITLE:  Ascentia J and PC Card Point Enablers 
 
 
SUMMARY 
 
   Ascentia J may not be able to use PC Card point enablers.    


ISSUE 
 
   The Ascentia J system may be unable to use PC Card point enablers. 
   When a point enabler is used to initialize a PC Card, the software 
   may report that the PC Card slot is not present or defective.
   
   This issue affects the following systems: 501788, 501945, 501946, 
   and 501947.    

 
BACKGROUND 
 
   The Ascentia J mobile systems were designed with several
   enhancements for PC Card support. 
   
   1. The system was designed to Plug-and-Play specifications.
   
   2. The system uses a PCMCIA to PCI bridge and the Cirrus Logic
      PD-6729 PC Card controller to allow PC Cards to use the 32bit
      PCI bus instead of a traditional 16bit ISA bus.
   
   The PC Card controller is located at address FCFCh instead of the 
   traditional ISA bus address of 3E0h. This can present a problem 
   for some PC Card point enablers. Point enablers do not usually 
   provide Plug-and-Play support for PC Cards and are generally 
   written to address the PC Card controller at address 3E0h.    

 
ACTION 
 
   Download BIOS version 1.09 (AST part number 905577-035) for the 
   Ascentia J10, J30, and J50. File 05577035.EXE is available from 
   any of AST's On-Line! services as follows:
   
      AST WWW Site: http://www.ast.com
      AST On-Line! BBS*: See IB0001.TXT
      CompuServe: GO: ASTFORUM
      Prodigy: Jump: astsupport
   
      * Refer to IB0001.TXT for a list of AST's international BBS numbers.
   
      To decompress this file, create a temporary directory on your 
      hard drive, copy the downloaded file to that directory, and run 
      the file. 
   
   
   This version of the BIOS will remap the PC Card controller to 
   address 3E0h which will allow PC Card point enablers to work with 
   the Ascentia J. The readme file included with the BIOS contains 
   the installation instructions.    

 
NOTES 
 
   BIOS version 1.09 is for the Ascentia J10, J30, and J50 models 
   only. If you have an Ascentia J20, this issue does not apply.    

 
TAN 004033GW 
 
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