*NEW* SiI3x12: Serial ATA (SATA) RAID/IDE BIOS v.4250 Released

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Comments

  • edited February 2005
    EQuito wrote:
    I'd say the low-level format via SiI3112 bios probably killed it.
    Try another format but use Maxtors's utilities this time and run a diagnostic first. You'll have to do it on another board though because the utilities do not work on nVIDIA based boards.
    ...which is weird, because i used Powermax and Maxblast (maxtor utilities) and they recognized the disk..
    tried to format and test it, but it gave errors...

    Let's see what the store says..
  • EQuitoEQuito SoCal, USA
    edited February 2005
    Nefius wrote:
    ...which is weird, because i used Powermax and Maxblast (maxtor utilities) and they recognized the disk..
    You're right, that's weird...
    Note: PowerMax v 4.09 will not detect ATA or SATA hard disks connected to embedded or add in RAID controllers, NVIDIA Force 3, Force 4, VIA KT 600 and KT800 chipsets.
  • edited February 2005
    Brought it to the store yesterday, the guy connected it to a testsystem and the drive wasn't recognized there also (boottime of the pc had a big lag also).
    Anyhow.. he concluded the drive was gone to a place where it had a better life :D

    Now i hope i get a new one soon..

    But stil, i'm not sure what coused the dead of my baby... :scratch: Sil3112?
  • edited February 2005
    I want to flash the BIOS (from 4.2.47 to 4.2.50) of my PCI card SATA Controller Silicon Image 3112 RAID

    When i type 'updflash r4250.bin', this message appears :

    Updflash v3.19 (06292004)

    This utility is for flash chip used on PC add-on card only !
    This utility is not for flash chip in MacOS add-on card or onboard chipset!
    Continue? (Y/N)

    Flash memory status is dh
    Check for variable sector flash chips

    The flash memory chip in use is not one of the following:
    SST SST39SF010, SST39VF010, and SST39SF020
    AMD Am29F010B, Am29LV010B, Am29F040B, Am29LV400B
    STMicroelectronics M29F010B, M29W040B, M29W400B
    SANYO LE28C1001DT
    WinBond W29EE011 and W29EE512
    Atmel AT49BV512, AT49LV040, AT29LV010

    Select flash memory type:
    1. AMD 29F010B/29LV010B 1Mb compatible
    2. AMD 29F040B 4Mb compatible
    3. AMD 29LV400B 4Mb compatible
    4. SST 39SF010 1Mb compatible
    5. SST 39SF020 2Mb compatible
    6. WinBond 29EE011/Sanyo LE28C1001D 1Mb compatible
    7. WinBond 29EE512 512Kb compatible
    8. Atmel AT49BV512 512Kb compatible
    9. Atmel AT49LV040 4Mb compatible
    10. Quit

    Command:

    "What must i type ?"


    On my PCI card, i see "HT27C010-70"

    Best regards
  • edited February 2005
    Difficult.
    You have to seek the internet, maybe your chipset (HT27C010-70) is compatible with one of the supported chipsets.

    I had the same problem with another chipset, but after i searched, i found out that the chipset was technical the same as the AMD chip..

    Good luck finding..
  • EQuitoEQuito SoCal, USA
    edited February 2005
    Did any of you ever tried flashing from the 'properties' menu? it doesn't work for built-in controllers but maybe it works for PCI add-on cards.
  • edited February 2005
    EQuito wrote:
    Did any of you ever tried flashing from the 'properties' menu? it doesn't work for built-in controllers but maybe it works for PCI add-on cards.

    Hi all @ ShortMedia

    I have recently brought a Silicon Image Sil 3112 SATARaid Controller(SATA2000) card and a 200gb seagate hard disk. I have installed the card and hard disk fine, and on boot up the harddisk was detected and the drive is present in windows xp sp2 showing a 200gb drive. I have partitioned the drive but when it does the format it fails to complete and i can not access the drive. I have tried using windows disk management and also partition magic using different partition sizes etc...

    I have formated the drive on another system and the drive formats sucessfully and it will read and write, i have also tested the drive with seagates diagnostic tools and drive has no probs.

    However, when i put the drive back into the system with the Silicon Image Sil 3112 SATARaid Controller it is detected but windows can't seem to see a filesystem and wants to format it, if i format it, it always fails.

    Please help, its driving me insane.

    I'm using Silicon Image Sil 3112 SATARaid Controller driver version - 1.0.0.51
    Chip Type: Winbond W29C011A
    Don't know what bios version.

    OS: Windows XP(sp2)
    Motherboard: KX7-333 with latest bios

    Thanks in advance
    Matt
  • edited February 2005
    I have a PCI card 3112 RAID, and i can't flash my BIOS from the 'properties' menu.
  • K-BoomK-Boom Caribbean
    edited February 2005
    Spinner or EQuito, it would be great if any of you could post the way or method you use to upgrade/mod the bios rom (file).

    It all starts from http://www.freewebs.com/tmod/cbromtutorial.htm

    I think it is a good idea to explain or teach everyone how to mod the bios file, since the methods used at the original Bios Modding site are very specific or not everyone seems to understands it.... perhaps u could give me (anyone out there) a short but good step by step guide. :mullet:

    Thanks for yall collaborations. :cool:

    PS: *Knowledge is for all*
  • Johnr2Johnr2 British Columbia, Canada
    edited February 2005
    Thanks for a fantastic forum!

    I've been trying to recover from a harddrive failure for over a month and I'm getting fed up! I had a Maxtor SATA Diamond Plus 9 200GB drive fail and Maxtor replaced it with a Diamond Plus 9 250GB drive. I was running a RAID 0 using a SiI3112A controller and two 200 GB Maxtor drives. Since they sent me back a 250GB I decided to update my other 200 to a 250. I picked up a SATA DiamondMax 10 250GB because the store had not seen the old Plus 9's for a couple of months. The MB is a GA-7N400 Pro2 rev 1. Of course the DiamondMax 10 did not work with the controller until I found Spinner's post here for an updated SiI3112A bios (thank you!).

    SYSTEM SPECS:
    MB: GA-7N400 Pro2 rev 1
    RAM: 1 GB DDR333
    IDE drives: two Maxtor Diamond Plus 9 80GB
    SATA drives: Maxtor Diamond Plus 9 250GB
    Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB
    OS: WinXP Pro sp1

    PROBLEM:
    I've been running with the updated bios for about two weeks now and suddenly the DiamondMax 10 drive is gone again! The RAID controller recognizes the Diamond Plus 9 250Gb drive, but the DiamondMax 10 says "no device". I ran the powermax utility and it says the same.

    From other posts in this forum it appears that the SiI3112A controller is unreliable. Is this true? Has it got to do with the DiamondMax 10 using second generation SATA stuff? Should I stop wasting valuable time and buy a MB with none Silicon Image RAID controller?

    Help :scratch:
  • SpinnerSpinner Birmingham, UK
    edited February 2005
    Johnr2 wrote:
    PROBLEM:
    I've been running with the updated bios for about two weeks now and suddenly the DiamondMax 10 drive is gone again! The RAID controller recognizes the Diamond Plus 9 250Gb drive, but the DiamondMax 10 says "no device". I ran the powermax utility and it says the same.

    From other posts in this forum it appears that the SiI3112A controller is unreliable. Is this true? Has it got to do with the DiamondMax 10 using second generation SATA stuff? Should I stop wasting valuable time and buy a MB with none Silicon Image RAID controller?

    Help :scratch:
    There is nothing wrong with the Silicon Image controllers, at least as far as I am aware, possibly some Maxtor drives have issues with the SI controllers, but that could be just as equally Maxtors fault as it could be Silicon Image's. You do bring up a good point however about the '10 using a slightly newer SATA standard, but I can't really comment on that without reading up on it.

    However, this entire thread is littered with SATA problems with varying makes and types of drives, the only thing binding all the problems together in a relating bag of annoyance, is the fact that 99% of all the motherboards people have these problems with are made by Gigabyte!

    I would hate for you to have to get another motherboard mate, but if you did, you're better off just getting another make of mobo rather than a motherboard that doesn't use the SI SATA controller chips.

    My advice for your current problem regardless would be to try the '10 in another rig to test it still works, and if it does, make sure your PSU isn't on the way out. You could try to test this by unplugging all your optical drives to take the stress off the PSU and see whether that then allows the '10 to be detected.

    Try that then post back.

    Thanks mate.
  • edited February 2005
    K-Boom wrote:
    since the methods used at the original Bios Modding site are very specific or not everyone seems to understands it

    What is it that you don't understand from my tutorial?

    When I created it I had a person that had never even thought about modding a bios go through it and mod a bios according to it.

    Tmod
  • edited February 2005
    Wow!..... I think I'll just take my PA-2013 out and just bury it ;D I'm amazed it even runs XPpro having read this lot!
    Will definetly be back when I build my first Pc shortly and maybe give a certain mobo make a miss considering the 99% of "problems".
    Great site, great advice, Thanks ppl :thumbsup:
  • Johnr2Johnr2 British Columbia, Canada
    edited February 2005
    Spinner wrote:
    My advice for your current problem regardless would be to try the '10 in another rig to test it still works, and if it does, make sure your PSU isn't on the way out. You could try to test this by unplugging all your optical drives to take the stress off the PSU and see whether that then allows the '10 to be detected.

    I'm using an Enermax 465W power supply which is supposed to be a good one. However, I tried your suggestion and unplugged the optical drives and nothing changed. I also just bought a SiI3112A RAID controller PCI card. I plugged this into the GA MB, disabled the MB Sil3112A, plugged the drives into the PCI card, and got the same results. I did notice that the PCI card's chip is using ver 4.2.12 whereas, thanks to you Spinner, the MB chip is using ver 4.2.50. I looked on the www.siimage.com web site for the updated bios but all I could find was the flash programs (and I search many many different ways... 3512, 3112, 4250.bin, bios, etc. etc.). Where is the bios upgrade? After I flashed the MB chip, the system worked for a couple of weeks... I'm hoping that I can get the system working long enough to get our last project off the drives.

    I've recommended and used GA boards for many years and they've always been good, til now. Since downtime is money, I'm strongly leaning toward coughing up some dollars and switching to a Asus A8V-E deluxe MB that has a Promise RAID controller and selling the GA board to someone that does not need RAID. Anyone have any thoughts on the Asus board? :banghead:
  • edited February 2005
    Don't forget i have an Epox Nforce2 board and also have the problems (with PCI Sata controller, not embedded).

    I still think it is a combination of the 3112 chip and maxtor drives..
  • SpinnerSpinner Birmingham, UK
    edited February 2005
    Johnr2 wrote:
    I'm using an Enermax 465W power supply which is supposed to be a good one. However, I tried your suggestion and unplugged the optical drives and nothing changed. I also just bought a SiI3112A RAID controller PCI card. I plugged this into the GA MB, disabled the MB Sil3112A, plugged the drives into the PCI card, and got the same results. I did notice that the PCI card's chip is using ver 4.2.12 whereas, thanks to you Spinner, the MB chip is using ver 4.2.50. I looked on the www.siimage.com web site for the updated bios but all I could find was the flash programs (and I search many many different ways... 3512, 3112, 4250.bin, bios, etc. etc.). Where is the bios upgrade? After I flashed the MB chip, the system worked for a couple of weeks... I'm hoping that I can get the system working long enough to get our last project off the drives.

    I've recommended and used GA boards for many years and they've always been good, til now. Since downtime is money, I'm strongly leaning toward coughing up some dollars and switching to a Asus A8V-E deluxe MB that has a Promise RAID controller and selling the GA board to someone that does not need RAID. Anyone have any thoughts on the Asus board? :banghead:
    You need to confirm the drive still works by putting it in an other system. Until you do that, we can only speculate as to what the problem might be. The drive could be dead, you need to confirm it isn't before you start spending money.

    ASUS have always served me well even though for my personal rigs I choose ABIT. Every make of motherboard will have its quirks, but my opinion is if you stick to my prefered recommendations, MSI, ASUS or ABIT, you have the best chance of buying a quality piece of kit, with any quirks being resolved through regular and effective BIOS updates. ABIT certainly hold the crown for BIOS updates.

    I can't comment specifically on the A8V-E but at first glance it seems to be a worthwhile investment. Don't buy anything though till you know exactly where the problem lies with your current kit.

    With regard to finding a BIOS update file for your PCI card, that's a good question. Silicon Image recently re-designed their whole website and since they did that I haven't been able to obtain or find BIOS downloads for the 3x12 controller chip. The BIOS package you're looking for should contain three files, one for use when modding a motherboard BIOS plus a RAID bios file and a IDE bios file for use with a PCI card. I'll post links if and when I find a new download source.

    Cheers
  • SpinnerSpinner Birmingham, UK
    edited February 2005
    Nefius wrote:
    Don't forget i have an Epox Nforce2 board and also have the problems (with PCI Sata controller, not embedded).

    I still think it is a combination of the 3112 chip and maxtor drives..
    You may well be right, but as I said earlier, that could be just as much Maxtor’s fault as it is Silicon Image's. But a fair statement none the less, there is certainly evidence to support that possibility.
  • edited February 2005
    Spinner wrote:
    With regard to finding a BIOS update file for your PCI card, that's a good question. Silicon Image recently re-designed their whole website and since they did that I haven't been able to obtain or find BIOS downloads for the 3x12 controller chip. The BIOS package you're looking for should contain three files, one for use when modding a motherboard BIOS plus a RAID bios file and a IDE bios file for use with a PCI card. I'll post links if and when I find a new download source.

    Spinner,

    Just go to the support section and then go to resource center and click on Launch CRC at the bottom then click on downloads and then the bios section and finally the SiL3112A.

    Tmod
  • SpinnerSpinner Birmingham, UK
    edited February 2005
    Tmod wrote:
    Spinner,

    Just go to the support section and then go to resource center and click on Launch CRC at the bottom then click on downloads and then the bios section and finally the SiL3112A.

    Tmod
    My hero. :thumbsup:
  • Johnr2Johnr2 British Columbia, Canada
    edited February 2005
    Spinner wrote:
    You need to confirm the drive still works by putting it in an other system. Until you do that, we can only speculate as to what the problem might be. The drive could be dead, you need to confirm it isn't before you start spending money.

    ASUS have always served me well even though for my personal rigs I choose ABIT. Every make of motherboard will have its quirks, but my opinion is if you stick to my prefered recommendations, MSI, ASUS or ABIT, you have the best chance of buying a quality piece of kit, with any quirks being resolved through regular and effective BIOS updates. ABIT certainly hold the crown for BIOS updates.

    I can't comment specifically on the A8V-E but at first glance it seems to be a worthwhile investment. Don't buy anything though till you know exactly where the problem lies with your current kit.

    With regard to finding a BIOS update file for your PCI card, that's a good question. Silicon Image recently re-designed their whole website and since they did that I haven't been able to obtain or find BIOS downloads for the 3x12 controller chip. The BIOS package you're looking for should contain three files, one for use when modding a motherboard BIOS plus a RAID bios file and a IDE bios file for use with a PCI card. I'll post links if and when I find a new download source.

    Cheers

    Spinner and Tmod, Thank you very very much :)

    I found the bios for the SiI3112A PCI card and flashed the bios. I had moved the PCI card to the my HP box and now I've moved the DiamondMax 10 250GB drive to the PCI card it it works! I now moved both 250GB drives to the PCI card and I'm copying the data as I type!

    After looking around the net, it appears that wasn't anything negative about the Asus A8V-E MB so I took the step and bought it. I'll be putting it together Wed.

    Thanks,
    John :)
  • edited February 2005
    Hi all @ ShortMedia

    I have recently brought a Silicon Image Sil 3112 SATARaid Controller(SATA2000) card and a 200gb seagate hard disk. I have installed the card and hard disk fine, and on boot up the harddisk was detected and the drive is present in windows xp sp2 showing a 200gb drive. I have partitioned the drive but when it does the format it fails to complete and i can not access the drive. I have tried using windows disk management and also partition magic using different partition sizes etc...

    I have formated the drive on another system and the drive formats sucessfully and it will read and write, i have also tested the drive with seagates diagnostic tools and drive has no probs.

    However, when i put the drive back into the system with the Silicon Image Sil 3112 SATARaid Controller it is detected but windows can't seem to see a filesystem and wants to format it, if i format it, it always fails.

    Please help, its driving me insane.

    I'm using Silicon Image Sil 3112 SATARaid Controller driver version - 1.0.0.51
    Chip Type: Winbond W29C011A
    Don't know what bios version.

    OS: Windows XP(sp2)
    Motherboard: KX7-333 with latest bios

    Thanks in advance
    Matt

    I have now worked out that i can format the drive if i have no other PCI cards installed, but as soon as i put them back in i have problems again.. With a PCI card installed i can format as FAT but NTFS fails, why?

    Please help
  • edited March 2005
    I have a problem with my 2xSATA HDD (Samsung SP 1213C) on a EPOX 8RDA3+
    which has the Sil 3112 onboard
    I have the latest BIOS for my moab which has the 4247 BIOS for the SATA controller
    My problem is that the OS hangs for about half a minute while accessing the HDDs doesn't matter if they are RAID or not
    could it be that i dont have the 4250 BIOS for the controller :scratch:
    please help me!!!!

    any help greatly apreciated
  • edited March 2005
    Spinner wrote:
    He shoots... he scores! :Rocker:

    A response within 30 minutes with a modified BIOS to boot (if you excuse the pun). That beats even my record. Smooth EQ'. :respect:


    I'm having trouble Modding the FK BIOS, please help, thanks.
  • edited March 2005
    jgoltc wrote:
    I'm having trouble Modding the FK BIOS, please help, thanks.

    What exactly are you having problems with?

    Tmod
  • edited March 2005
    Spinner wrote:
    You may well be right, but as I said earlier, that could be just as much Maxtor’s fault as it is Silicon Image's. But a fair statement none the less, there is certainly evidence to support that possibility.

    --Update--
    I just received a new 160GB Maxtor, the old one has died a hard dead..
    :D

    So i inserted the PCI SATA controller again.. plugged in the maxtor... and prayed... alot..

    Conclusion: All went wickedly well.. installed it, formatted it (in XP), no problems at all. :p

    Have copied loads of crap to it.. no problems.

    So i'm a happy man now... So it looks like it might have been a defect disk, or maybe a serie of disks (other chipset or something?) which gives these problems...
  • zokzok
    edited March 2005
    Have funny problem with Maxtor Diamond 10, 160 GB SATA disk on
    7VAXP Ultra Gigabyte motherboard. Disk needs 5 minutes to be
    recognized by onboard Sil 3112A SATA controller. I can reset it
    quickly or just wait 5 minutes after turning computer on and then reset,
    in any case disk will not be recognized before, but after 5 minutes
    works fine.
    (Disk works without any problem on some Matsonic MB, no need
    to wait and reset there)
    Have see on this forum, the guys here made bios upgrade (which should
    be Gigabyte's job, but obviously they don't care) for Gigabyte's MB's. Did
    anyone do that for 7VAXP Ultra?
    Should disk work properly if i buy PCI-to-SATA controller?
  • edited March 2005
    Hi.

    1.)
    Is it this one?
    http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Products_GA-7VAXP%20Ultra.htm


    2.)
    The "3112A controller" does not seem to be supported by http://www.siliconimage.com anymore. :(

    ->Looking for: "http://www.siimage.com/products/sii3112.asp" on the web archive
    ( http://web.archive.org ) does not seem to help too.

    3.)
    After removing the old embedded Sil 3112A BIOS (ver. 4.1.36C 2002) from the 7VAXP Ultra BIOS,
    the new Sil 3112A BIOS (ver 4.2.47 2004) from this/these link(s):
    http://short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?p=123762 ->
    http://short-media.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=7677 cannot be added.

    CBROM (ver. 1.15, 1.17, 1.19, 2.20, CBROM32) brings an error message:
    Adding 4247.BIN ..... 51.5%
    7VAXPU.F7 have not enough space for adding ROM. (Over 028Ah bytes)
    .

    There is the same problem with this one:
    http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?p=242089 ->
    http://www.short-media.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=14881
    Sil 3112A BIOS (ver. 4.2.50 2004)

    Adding 4250.BIN ...... 44.7%
    7VAXPU.F7 have not enough space for adding ROM. (Over 01C8h bytes)



    Either I remove some unused modules such as: epa logo module
    or I/we/someone have to look for a Sil 3112A BIOS which suits into the free (compressed) space inside the BIOS file.


    <hr></hr>
    <fieldset style="border: 4px solid rgb(255, 0, 0);"><legend style="font-weight: bold;">This is the module content of/from your BIOS:</legend>
    CBROM32 V1.40 [04/30/04 release] (C)Phoenix Technologies 2001-2004
    
                  ********    7VAXPU.F7 BIOS component ********
    
     No. Item-Name         Original-Size   Compressed-Size Original-File-Name
    ================================================================================
      0. System BIOS       20000h(128.00K)  13798h(77.90K)  7VAXPU.BIN
      1. XGROUP CODE       0ACB0h(43.17K)   07A02h(30.50K)  awardext.rom
      2. ACPI table        03D02h(15.25K)   01503h(5.25K)   ACPITBL.BIN
      3. YGROUP ROM        05F20h(23.78K)   03F5Eh(15.84K)  awardeyt.rom
      4. GROUP ROM[ 0]     059B0h(22.42K)   0248Eh(9.14K)   _EN_CODE.BIN
      5. PCI ROM[ A]       10000h(64.00K)   09DEDh(39.48K)  RAID133.ROM
      6. PCI ROM[ B]       04000h(16.00K)   02524h(9.29K)   ATA133.ROM
      7. EPA LOGO          00B64h(2.85K)    00425h(1.04K)   dbios1.bmp
      8. OEM0 CODE         02419h(9.02K)    01A4Dh(6.58K)   dbf.bin
    
      Total compress code space  = 36000h(216.00K)
      Total compressed code size = 30C0Ch(195.01K)
      Remain compress code space = 053F4h(20.99K)
    
                              ** Micro Code Information **
    Update ID  CPUID  |  Update ID  CPUID  |  Update ID  CPUID  |  Update ID  CPUID
    ------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------------
    
    </fieldset>

    After converting the EPA logo into a common format you can see this:
    gigabyte-dualbios-dbios1.png

    After removing this EPA logo module I am able to add every/(the new) Sil 3112A BIOS to the 7VAXP Ultra BIOS without any problems.


    Now, I am waiting for your decision.
  • zokzok
    edited March 2005
    tnx, Borg Nb.1

    ...but, huh, looks a bit risky.

    1. yes, is that motherboard

    2. found official updates on
    - http://www.siliconimage.com/support/knowledgebase.aspx
    - "launch C.R.C."
    - DOWNLOADS/BIOS/Sil3112A
    - SiI3x12: Serial ATA (SATA) RAID/IDE BIOS - Released (from 22/2/2005)

    but they say: "The BIOS files attached here are intended for use with ADD-IN cards, not motherboards"

    3. In what way is bios on links you wrote different than official Sil bios?

    (Have never used awdflash before, so am not shure if i should take a risk.
    But if i do, i will report how did it work...)
  • SpinnerSpinner Birmingham, UK
    edited March 2005
    BNO Silicon Image do still support the SI 3112A controller. You can find the latest BIOS files by following zok's above instructions.

    zok, please find attached a modified version of the F7 BIOS for the GA-7VAXP Ultra motherboard. I've removed the EPA logo and the Promise controller BIOS rom to make space for the SI 3112A controller BIOS v4.2.50 which is the latest revision available. Your Promise RAID controller will no longer function using this BIOS file, however flashing back to the official un-modded BIOS will of course restore functionality if you decide you want to start using it.

    Also, please find below a couple of links you may find usefull in troubleshooting your current drive detection issues.

    http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29207
    http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29398

    Cheers
  • edited March 2005
    Hi.

    1.)
    Thanks for the link to unsuppoerted/outdated Silicon Image files & documents.

    2.)
    Well, I wrote the suggestion and Spinner executed/accomplished it.
    I "like" it to interfere/meddle/force. :thumbsup:

    Well, thanks for the work. :)

    It is important to not forget to add/mention phrases such as:
    Use the modified BIOS file at your own risk.
    I will not be responsible for any demages.


    I am sure that it will not happen. :)


    3.)
    The 4.2.5.0 release which was added to the BIOS file is exactly the same like the one which can be download from:
    http://12.24.47.40/display/2n/index.asp

    That means it is the SATA BIOS file with the warnings:
    The BIOS files attached here are intended for use with ADD-IN cards, not motherboards.

    I am sure it will work with your mainboard too.
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