TITLE: HP xw8600 Workstation System BIOS Packaged for Linux VERSION: 01.10 Rev. a DESCRIPTION: This package contains the System BIOS image (BIOS Family 786F5) and BIOS flash utilities for the HP xw8600 Workstation, packaged in a way that is easily usable within a Linux operating system environment. These utilities can be used to restore or update the System BIOS. PURPOSE: Routine SOFTPAQ NUMBER: SP38519 SUPERSEDES: None EFFECTIVE DATE: March 26, 2008 CATEGORY: BIOS SSM SUPPORTED: No PRODUCT TYPE(S): Workstations HARDWARE PRODUCT MODEL(S): HP xw8600 Workstation: HP xw8600 Workstation SOFTWARE PRODUCT(S): None OPERATING SYSTEM(S): Red Hat Ent Linux 4 (AMD64/EM64T) Red Hat Ent Linux 4 (x86) Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Desktop (x86) Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Desktop (x86_64) LANGUAGE(S): Brazilian Portuguese Bulgarian Chinese(PRC Simplified) Czech Danish Dutch Finnish French German Hungarian Italian Japanese Korean Latvian Lithuanian Norwegian Polish Romanian Russian Slovak Spanish Swedish Taiwanese Chinese Turkish US English ENHANCEMENTS: The following enhancements have been added since BIOS version 01.07 (SP38376) was released: - Adds microcode and BIOS support for future processors. - Adds a number of changes to hardware initialization sequences. These may further reduce rare instances of boot failure and slightly improve the performance of certain benchmarks. - Adds the ability to store and retrieve any errors detected by the processor or chipset. - Increases the completion timeout value for PCI devices. This allows certain PCI devices to function reliably during periods of heavy system load. - Optimizes fan control when 8-GB memory DIMMs are installed. The following enhancements have been added since BIOS version 01.01 (SP37880) was released: - Enables an additional CPU power saving mode in the Computer Configuration Utility (F10). The new mode is enabled when Idle Power Savings is set to "Extended." - Adds BIOS support for additional CPU speeds. FIXES: The following fixes have been made since BIOS version 01.07 (SP38376) was released: - Corrects an issue that allows occasional failures to occur when entering or resuming from Standby (also known as Save-to-RAM or ACPI S3) state. This issue only occurs when running Microsoft Windows XP 32-bit version with dual processors installed and an audio card in slot 7. - Fixes an issue that prevents the system from completing Power-On Self-Test (POST) when certain graphics cards are installed in both slots 3 and 6. - Corrects an issue that causes certain DOS programs to fail when accessing serial ATA (SATA) optical storage devices while the SATA controller is in Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) mode. - Corrects the Multi-Processor Specification (MPS) table to properly describe the embedded network interface controller and x1 PCIe slot. The following fixes have been made since BIOS version 01.01 (SP37880) was released: - Adds new CPU microcode updates to resolve a processor erratum. - Corrects an issue that could have reduced the reliability of Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) save-to-RAM cycles in certain situations. - Fixes an issue that prevented the correct messages from being displayed when enabling Drive Lock in the Computer Configuration Utility (F10). - Fixes an issue that prevented the maximum CPU temperature from being correctly reported through the Microsoft Windows Management Interface (WMI). PREREQUISITES: None INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS: LINUX USERS: After downloading the SoftPaq file, verify that the SoftPaq file has a .tgz extension. If it does not, change it to .tgz. Some browsers automatically rename the file with a .tar extension, which makes the SoftPaq unusable. 1. Download and extract the .TGZ file. For example, to extract the contents, at console prompt type (where ''filename'' is replaced by the name of the file to be extracted): ''tar -xzvf filename.tgz'' 2. For more information about flashing the system BIOS, see the README text file that is provided in the SoftPaq. Copyright (c) 2008 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.