Table of Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Hardware/Software Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
The Banner Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Program name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Elapsed Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
The Status Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Memory Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Errors: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Passes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Word Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Offset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
The Memory Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Comments/Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Releases and Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6







Extended Memory Test for 80286/386/486, J.M.Cyr,
25 October 1991

Introduction
============

Increased reliance on memory intensive products such as
Windows 3.0{1}, OS/2{2}, and large disk caches, has pushed us to
install more and more memory on our systems. Systems with four to
eight megabyte of extended memory are no longer uncommon. But
yet, other than the BIOS cold boot test and hardware parity
checking, there are few tools available to test extended memory
thoroughly. This protected mode program, called TESTEXT, was
designed to fill this gap, by providing intensive and varied
memory testing, over all the extended memory installed. Both data
storage and address decoding logic are exercised by using random
data and access patterns.

TESTEXT is FreeWare. This means you can use it, or distrib-
ute it as is and free of charge. You may not sell it, or include
it as part of package that is sold.

This program has been tested extensively, and is though to
be without defects. The author, however, is not responsible for
any damage caused by its use. The program is supplied as is, and
will be used at your own risk.


Hardware/Software Requirements
==============================

TESTEXT was designed to run on processors that support
protected mode and extended memory. It cannot be used to test
Expanded Memory (EMS), and will not run on IBM XT{3} clones. On
machines that do support protected mode, some extended memory
must be installed before TESTEXT will run.

Hardware
--------

- IBM AT{4} compatible, using 80286{5}, 80386, or 80486
processor.

- Monochrome or colour, 80 character by 25 line display.

- Installed extended memory.



{1} Windows 3.0 is a trademark of Microsoft
{2} OS/2 is a trademark of Microsoft and IBM
{3} PC XT is a trademark of IBM
{4} IBM AT is a trademark of IBM
{5} 80286, 80386, and 80486 are trademarks of Intel







Extended Memory Test for 80286/386/486, J.M.Cyr,
25 October 1991

Software
--------

- MS/DOS{1} 2.2 or later, PC/DOS{2} 2.2 or later.


Display
-------

This program can accommodate any Monochrome (MDA) or Colour
(CGA, EGA, or VGA) adapter, so long as it is configured to run in
25 line by 80 column mode. The display is broken up into three
areas: the banner box, the status box, and the data box.

The Banner Box
--------------

The banner box contains two pieces of information that are
necessary when reporting problems:

Program name:
This is the name and version of the program you are
running.

Elapsed Time:
This is the total amount of time, in hours, minutes and
seconds, that TESTEXT has been running.

The Status Box
--------------

The status box display various pieces of program status
information:

Processor:
The processor detected by TESTEXT. Double word accesses
will not be used on the 80286 processor.

Memory Size:
The amount of extended memory detected. This value is
in kilobytes and is obtained from the machine configur-
ation stored in CMOS.

Errors:
The total number of memory error encountered so far.




{1} MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft
{2} PC/DOS is a trademark of IBM







Extended Memory Test for 80286/386/486, J.M.Cyr,
25 October 1991

Passes:
The total number of passes performed so far. Each pass
consists of a single store phase, and a single verify
phase.

Word Size:
The data width of accesses used for memory testing.
Three widths are used by TESTEXT: byte, word, and
double word. Double word accesses are not supported on
the 80286.

Offset:
This is the offset, in bytes, added to all memory
address. An offset, varying from 0 to the current word
size minus one, is used to ensure that accesses
straddle hardware word and double word boundaries. The
following figure illustrates double word access with
offset of 3:

Physical memory |0 1 2 3|4 5 6 7|8 9 A B|C D E F|
Accesses |0 1 2 3|0 1 2 3|0 1 2 3|

->|1 2 3|<- Offset

Phase:
First a store phase is performed to set all of extended
memory to random patterns. The a verify phases checks
for the same patterns.

The Memory Box
--------------

The memory box serves to record a history of the errors
encountered. In this display box, extended memory is divided
into up to 15 lines, representing one megabyte each. Each
line is in turn divided into up to eight error status
values. Each of these values represents a 128K memory seg-
ment, and is displayed as eight hexadecimal digits. The
value represents the history of all the bits that were found
in error, in any double word (4 bytes) in this 128K byte
segment. A zero indicates no errors found. Any other value
indicates memory errors, and will be highlighted. The
following diagram illustrates how the top right value repre-
sents the first 128K of extended memory.







Extended Memory Test for 80286/386/486, J.M.Cyr,
25 October 1991

Address Byte 0 Byte 1 Byte 2 Byte 3
11FFFC: 00100000 00000000 00000000 00000000 Bits in error
11FFF8: 00000000 00010000 00000000 00000000
...
100008: 00000000 00000000 00100000 00000000
100004: 00000000 00000000 00110000 00000000
100000: 00000000 00000000 00000000 01000000
=
Total
Errors: 00100000 00010000 00110000 01000000 Bits in error
This value is then displayed in hex as:

0-127K 128-255K
1M 20103040 ........
2M ........ ........

A hardware manual for your computer is required to map
address and bit failure information to specific failing memory
chips. This mapping is specified in your mother board design, and
is beyond the scope of this program.


Operation
=========

TESTEXT was designed to run under DOS. It will not run under
OS/2. To invoke TESTEXT, type TESTEXT at the command line prompt.
You can supply a single optional parameter, the extended memory
size in kilobytes.

Examples:

>TESTEXT ;;; test all configured extended memory

>TESTEXT 512 ;;; test 1st 512K of extended memory

The rest is automatic. There is no way of returning direct-
ly to DOS once TESTEXT is started. If your computer is equipped
with a hardware reset button, you may use it to get out. Otherw-
ise, hit the ESCape key and you will get the same result. In
either case your system will perform a complete cold boot
sequence. This restriction is intentional. Previous versions
allowed keyboard exit back to DOS, but the risk was high. Many
angry netmails about clobbered caches and disk drives, have
convinced me that most individuals will ignore warnings about
disabling disk cache and ram drives when testing.







Extended Memory Test for 80286/386/486, J.M.Cyr,
25 October 1991

Be aware that for large extended memories it takes time to
do a thorough test. In extreme cases TESTEXT may take up to 5
minutes to complete a single pass.

It is recommended that TESTEXT by run on a system booted
with no installed device drivers or TSR programs. Programs such
as QEMM{1} or EMM386{2} will prevent proper operation.


Comments/Suggestions
====================

You may address comments and suggestions to me (Jean Cyr) on
Compuserve to Userid [76616,556].


Releases and Versions
=====================

Release 3 Version 0
- First FreeWare release.

Release 3 Version 1
- Code optimization, 30% speed improvement.
- Keyboard initiated cold boot.

Release 3 Version 2
- Fixes bug in memory size detection.

Release 3 Version 3
- Turn off drive motor when loaded from floppy.

Release 3 Version 4
- Add test for V86 mode at initialization. TESTEXT will not
run correctly with EMM386 or QEMM.














{1} QEMM is a trademark of Quarterdeck
{2} EMM386 is a trademark of Microsoft Inc.