12 PIPE M9800 BIOS!!! - maybe

this is based on info from the creator of rivatuner which allows removing of hardware masks in 6800s:

"Opposing to NV40 series, R300/R350's pipeline config is set by _driver_ after loading OS using PCI DeviceID as pipeline count selection factor. It is impossible to change R9800SE's PCI DeviceId to R9800(Pro)'s one in VGA BIOS without changing strapping resistor located at GPU package. So forget about it."

so i took rabit and changed the 3 values in the device id section. there are 6 bioses in the newest "suicide bundle" found here : http://www.angelfire.com/games5/clan_sh5/

m9800_desktop_x800_deviceid.bin
m9800_desktop_x800_deviceid_subsystemid.bin
m9800_desktop_x800_deviceid_subsystemid_subvendorid.bin
m9800_mx800_deviceid.bin
m9800_mx800_deviceid_subsystemid.bin
m9800_mx800_deviceid_subsystemid_subvendorid.bin

each one has varying degrees of changes made. the names should be adequate at describing each one. the desktop x800 bios is from ati's x800 pro 256mb card w/ Samsung 2.0 memory... found it in techpowerup's bios collection.

because only the device ids were changed and not random chunks of code in the bios, i would NOT expect any negative effects or fried cards... only neutral ones... ie nothing happens. but if unwinder is correct and pipe configs is at least partially determined by pci device id at startup, then this may have some potential.

i'm at work and i left my laptop @ home. also i have no idea how atiflash/flashrom works.

here's the idiot's way... at least this is what i'd do.

1) download the "harddrive" bios installer from the dell site
2) unpack the files and when it autoruns the installer, hit cancel
3) replace the "81719217" file in the dell/drivers directory that's created with one of mine.. renaming it to "81719217" obviously
4) then click on the flash executable
5) pray

file size for those bioses correct. and yes flash with caution. the disclaimer remains the same: i take no responsibility nor will i be liable for damaged hardware via flashing with my software.

but if you read what i actually did in creating those files, there should be no cause for concern. i honestly don't expect anything to happen. but if the pipe config is dependent on device id during driver initialization like unwinder believes, then maybe if the driver thinks the card is an mx800, it'll enable 12 pipes and not just 8.

but yeah, i don't really know what i'm doing coz i don't have the proper tools. check out this sample output from rivatuner for nvidia cards:

$ffffffffff ---------------------------------------------------
$ffffffffff NVIDIA specific display adapter information
$ffffffffff ---------------------------------------------------
$0100000000 Graphics core : NV40 revision A1 (16x1,6vp)
$0100000001 Hardwired ID : 0042 (ROM strapped to 0041)
$0100000002 Memory bus : 256-bit
$0100000003 Memory type : DDR (RAM configuration 06)
$0100000004 Memory amount : 131072KB
$0100000005 Core clock : 420.750MHz
$0100000006 Memory clock : 425.250MHz (850.500MHz effective)
$0100000007 Reference clock : 27.000MHz
$010000000b HW masked units : pixel 1100b, vertex 001100b
$ffffffffff ---------------------------------------------------
$ffffffffff NVIDIA VGA BIOS information
$ffffffffff ---------------------------------------------------
$1100000000 Title : nv40 p212 sku0 VGA BIOS
$1100000002 Version : 5.40.02.32
$1100000100 BIT version : 1.00
$1100010000 Perf. level 0 : 420MHz/425MHz/1.20V
$1100020000 VID bitmask : 00000011b
$1100020100 Voltage level 0 : 1.10V, VID 00000000b
$1100020101 Voltage level 1 : 1.20V, VID 00000011b
$1100020102 Voltage level 2 : 1.40V, VID 00000010b
$1100000003 SW masked units : none
$ffffffffff ---------------------------------------------------
$ffffffffff NVIDIA graphics processor registers
$ffffffffff ---------------------------------------------------
$020100003c CR3C : 00000060
$0200000000 NV_PMC_BOOT_0 : 440100a1
$0200001080 NV_PBUS_DEBUG_0 : 00000000
$0200001084 NV_PBUS_DEBUG_1 : 00205609
$0200001088 NV_PBUS_DEBUG_2 : 000211f0
$020000108c NV_PBUS_DEBUG_3 : 00000092
$02000010b0 NV_PBUS_DEBUG_CTRIM_0 : 00000092
$02000010b4 NV_PBUS_DEBUG_CTRIM_1 : 00000092
$02000010b8 NV_PBUS_DEBUG_CTRIM_2 : 00000092
$02000010bc NV_PBUS_DEBUG_CTRIM_3 : efffffff
$02000010c4 NV_PBUS_DEBUG_CTRIM_4 : efffffff
$02000010c8 NV_PBUS_DEBUG_CTRIM_5 : efffffff
$02000010cc NV_PBUS_DEBUG_CTRIM_6 : efffffff
$02000010e0 NV_PBUS_DEBUG_PRIV_ASRC : 00000000
$0200100000 NV_PFB_BOOT_0 : 00000000
$0200100080 NV_PFB_DEBUG_0 : f1000020
$0200100200 NV_PFB_CFG : 03003023
$020010020c NV_PFB_CSTATUS : 08000000
$0200100220 NV_PFB_TIMING0 : 060d1513
$0200100224 NV_PFB_TIMING1 : 06010407
$0200100228 NV_PFB_TIMING2 : 00240406
$02001002c0 NV_PFB_MRS : 00000052
$02001002c4 NV_PFB_EMRS : 00000052
$0200101000 NV_PEXTDEV_BOOT_0 : a0ced11b
$0200101004 NV_PEXTDEV_BOOT_0_AND : 7e0f403f
$0200101008 NV_PEXTDEV_BOOT_0_OR : 00c09100
$020010100c NV_PEXTDEV_BOOT_1 : 80000090
$0200101010 NV_PEXTDEV_BOOT_1_AND : 7fffffef
$0200101014 NV_PEXTDEV_BOOT_1_OR : 00000010
$020060081c NV_PCRTC_GPIO_EXT : 06055604
$0200680500 NV_PRAMDAC_NVPLL_COEFF : 00040701
$0200680570 NV_PRAMDAC_NVPLL_COEFF_1 : 80001104
$0200680504 NV_PRAMDAC_MPLL_COEFF : 0006fb74
$0200680574 NV_PRAMDAC_MPLL_COEFF_1 : 00000401
$020068050c NV_PRAMDAC_PLL_COEFF_SELECT : 10004704
$0200001540 NV40_UNITS_CFG : 00013f0f
$0200004004 NV40_PRAMDAC_NVPLL_COEFF : 11030b02
$0200004000 NV40_PRAMDAC_NVPLL_COEFF_1 : c001001c
$0200004024 NV40_PRAMDAC_MPLL_COEFF : 15040601
$0200004020 NV40_PRAMDAC_MPLL_COEFF_1 : e000001c
$020000c010 NV40_UNITS_MASK_DEFAULT : 030c0000
$020000c020 NV40_UNITS_MASK

best of all, you can change those values in the program. having something like that would be alot easier than trying to decode an entire page of only hex. that being the case, i can only make educated guesses on what to change through pattern recognition when comparing bioses. i see something that's different in the x800 bios... ok copy that region into the m9800 bios and see what happens. but without any way to decode a few thousand lines of this:
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i don't see what more i can do. pretty much shooting blind here, but at least i'm trying to help out the community. i asked repeatedly for help with coding but nobody's stepped forward.