InfoSpotter  -  Wrong/Misleading Information


Misleading information - IBM 5150 - F0000-F4000

On PC family computers, and clones, it is not possible for software to say with 100% certainty that certain hardware is not in use.
For example, if I run InfoSpotter 2.5 on my IBM 5150 (IBM PC), InfoSpotter informs me that the address space used by the motherboard BIOS is F6000 to FFFFF.
But InfoSpotter is unintentionally misleading me.
Per the diagram at here:
1. The IBM 5150 motherboard decodes the address space of F0000-F4000.
2. The IBM 5150 motherboard decodes the address space of F4000-F6000 for optional motherboard ROM.  Irrespective of whether or not a ROM is fitted.
3. The motherboard's BASIC+BIOS start at address F6000.

Had I mapped a card's ROM into anywhere in the F0000-F6000 address space, I would have ended up with bus contention (both the card and the motherboard simultaneously driving the data bus).

InfoSpotter should, when it detects that it is being executed on an IBM 5150, show the address space of F0000-FFFFF as being used by the motherboard.


Misleading information - Early IBM 5160 - F0000-F6000

On PC family computers, and clones, it is not possible for software to say with 100% certainty that certain hardware is not in use.
For example, if I run InfoSpotter 2.5 on my early IBM 5160 (IBM XT), InfoSpotter informs me that the address space used by the motherboard BIOS is F6000 to FFFFF.
But InfoSpotter is unintentionally misleading me.
Refer to the diagram at here.  The IBM 5160 motherboard decodes all of the address space between F0000-FFFFF (irrespective of BIOS revision).

Had I mapped a card's ROM into anywhere in the F0000-F6000 address space, I would have ended up with bus contention (both the card and the motherboard simultaneously driving the data bus).

InfoSpotter should, when it detects that it is being executed on an IBM 5160, show the address space of F0000-FFFFF as being used by the motherboard.


Problem - ROM on XT-IDE/XT-CF card is not shown

I fit an XT-IDE card to my IBM 5160 (IBM XT).  The BIOS ROM on the card sits at address D0000, and contains the 'XTIDE Universal BIOS' (XUB) of version R625.
I boot from the XT-IDE card.

PROBLEM:  If I use InfoSpotter 2.5's [Memory][Upper memory area] functionality, that functionality does not show the XT-IDE's BIOS ROM !!

NOTE:  I see that if I use CheckIt 3 software on the same computer, it too does not 'see' the BIOS ROM !!

NOTE:  The RAYXTIDE tool at here is designed to detect the BIOS ROM (loaded with XUB) on the XT-IDE card.