(Excerpts from a message dated 11-12-99, Eddy Thilleman to Linda Proulx)

Hi Eddy--

    PMFJI.  I believe that I have quoted you correctly, this time :-).

ET>09 Nov 99 17:40, Linda Proulx wrote to John Thompson:

JT>> I doubt it will make a great deal of difference since OS/2 only
JT>> uses the BIOS for the initial system startup.  It switches to
JT>> protected mode within a few seconds and the BIOS drops out of the
JT>> picture completely at that point.

LP> Yes it does.  The DOS unit is AMI 1989 & according to Warp unleashed
LP> the minimum date is somewhere in 1990.

ET>I've here the book "OS/2 Warp Unleashed DeLuxe Edition" (3rd edition)
  >publisher SAMS PUBLISHING ISBN 0-672-30545-3

ET>I can't find any notion of a statement like "the AMI BIOS must have
  >a date somewhere in 1990 to support OS/2" in this book. Please tell
  >where I can find it in this book if it's in there.

    I have a suspicion that Linda has the original edition of "OS/2
Unleashed" rather than the later "OS/2 Warp Unleashed" (especially since
she has never given the latter book title in any of her posts!).  IIRC,
the prohibition against early AMI (and some other) BIOSes was never
mentioned in the documentation for Warp 3 (and later).  The following is
an edited excerpt (via clipboard) from Appendix G of the OS/2 2.1
"Installation Guide" as it appears on the 1993 CD-ROM edition of the
"OS/2 Online Book Collection":

.....
 G.2  AMI BIOS

   The later BIOS versions from American Megatrends, Inc. (AMI) provide
   a screen ID code, which is visible at the lower-left corner of the
   screen during the initial random-access-memory (RAM) count...  On an
   AMI BIOS or AMI BIOS Plus, the message will be in the form: 

             aaaa-bbbb-mmddyy-Kc

   On an AMI HI-Flex BIOS, the message will be in the form:

             ee-ffff-bbbbbb-gggggggg-mmddyy-hhhhhhhh-c

   1.  If an IDE-type hard drive is installed, the date mmddyy should be
       040990 or later for use with any operating system, including DOS.
       This is because of the special timing requirements of IDE drives,
       which were accommodated on the date noted.
.....

    Since I cnnot find this information in the reference material I have
for any later versions of OS/2, I cam make one of two assumptions: 1).

The restriction is no longer in existence for later versions of OS/2;
or 2)  By the time later versions of OS/2 came out, the people compiling
the documentation had forgotten that there were any old machines still
in use.

    You pays your money and takes your choice!  However, I see by later
posts that Linda has taken John's advice to ignore it, which seems to
have worked out OK.

    One of the troubles with third-party textbooks is that the authors
tend to believe what they read in the official documentation without
trying it first, especially when the book comes out too early after the
software GA release for any serious testing to have taken place.  The
"Unleashed" authors were pretty conscientious in this regard, but even
they had occasional lapses.

    Regards,

        --Murray

___
 * MR/2 2.25 #120 * Watching for speed bumps on the Information Highwy

--- Maximus/2 2.02