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B-5
COMPATIBILITY WITH THE PC/AT* ARCHITECTURE
B.1.7 Port B
The Port B register found on the PC/AT is not supported on the Intel386 EX processor. It can be
implemented externally with a PLD. The EXPLR1 (Explorer Evaluation board) supports this
Port B.
B.2 SOFTWARE CONSIDERATIONS FOR A PC/AT SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
B.2.1 Embedded Basic Input Output System (BIOS)
The BIOS provides low-level drivers to interface to the hardware. The BIOS is hardware depen-
dent and typically requires changes for the embedded design. There are several third party BIOS
vendors that support the Intel386 EX processor.
Embedded PC features supported include PCMCIA, Flash, Advanced Power Management
(APM), Source, Remote Floppy, OEM Configurable, and Video/Keyboard rerouted through the
serial port. For a complete list of vendors and their features, call the Intel BBS as described in
“Electronic Support Systems” on page 1-6. A good evaluation vehicle is the EV386EX Evalua-
tion Board which comes with five different third party BIOS demonstrations. New and updated
demonstrations are also available on the Intel BBS.
B.2.2 Embedded Disk Operating System (DOS)
The DOS operating system offers functions for I/O communication, floppy/hard disk, video, key-
board, program handling, memory management, and network support. All these are available to
the Intel386 EX embedded processor user.
Embedded PC DOS features include Advanced Power Management (APM) support, ROMable,
Source, Disk Compression, and XIP. A variety of third party DOS vendors support the Intel386
EX processor. For a complete list of vendors and their features, call the Intel BBS. The EV386EX
Evaluation Board also provides a variety of DOS demonstrations. New and updated DOS dem-
onstrations are also available on the Intel BBS.
B.2.3 Microsoft* Windows*
The Intel386 EX processor can run both Microsoft Windows 3.1 and Microsoft ROM Windows.
Both require RAM and disk space to execute. Other hardware such as a keyboard controller, real
time clock and video controller may be required. For more information on implementing ROM
Windows, refer to Mobile Intel486™ SX CPU PC Designs Using FlashFile™ Components (Or-
der Number 292149).