                             ASTRA - What's New

            Version 4.00 (September 24, 2001)
            ---------------------------------
      - Added SPD memory module detection (size,  type,  vendor,   speed
        parameters, manufacturing date and others)
      - Added detection of ISA/PnP devices and used resources
      - Added detection of CD-drives'  read/write  speeds  and  extended
        features
      - Added detection of Intel Xeon,  Intel  Pentium  III  (Tualatin),
        Intel Pentium III-M,  Intel i376,  AMD Athlon 4,  AMD Athlon MP,
        AMD Duron (Morgan), AMD Duron Mobile and VIA C3 processors
      - Added detection of Intel i387SL co-processor
      - Added detection of original (not-overclocked) frequency of Intel
        Pentium Pro and higher processors
      - Added new Pentium III-M and Xeon BrandID values
      - Added detection of AMD SSE features
      - Added SystemSoft BIOS support,  SystemSoft BIOS for CTX support,
        TVS BIOS support,  SurePath BIOS for Matsushita support,   Award
        BIOS for Acer support,  Phoenix BIOS for ZEOS support,   Phoenix
        for Matsushita support,  Phoenix for Tulip support,  Phoenix for
        Toshiba support,  Phoenix for Gateway  support  and  Phoenix for
        Asustek support
      - Added detection of EGA/VGA video adapters and their video memory
        size
      - Added identification of Windows builds
      - Added detection of resources used by LPT and COM ports
      - Added monitor type detection (color/monochrome) and input signal
        type (analogue/digital)
      - Added Total Memory to the System Summary section
      - Added detection of the Windows directory
      - Added context help both in English and Russian
      - Added window of report saving where you  can  name  your  report
        yourself and write any comments
      - Added saving of brief report (including saving in a command line
        mode - /RS key)
      - Added saving RJS report in a program's interactive mode
      - New version of the  library  'x86  CPU/FPU  Detection  Library'.
        TMi0SDGL Revision 2  Version  2.06.    Copyright(c)  1996-98  by
        B-coolWare is used for detection  of  processors  without  CPUID
        support and detection of frequency of 486 processors and lower
      - Fixed bug when program was  not  responding  on  computers  with
        EGA/VGA video adapters
      - Added 2 vendors of motherboards with Award BIOS and 6 vendors of
        motherboards with AMI BIOS
      - Added 3 vendors and 183 of PCI devices to the program's database
      - Added detection of 15 monitor vendors and 1029 new models
      - Program has become SHAREWARE
      - Program  is  renamed  in  ASTRA  -  Advanced  Sysinfo  Tool  and
        Reporting Assistant

            Version 3.41 (April 8, 2001)
            ----------------------------
      - Added detection of system PnP nodes and used resources
      - Detects clock ratio and frequency of external bus  of  AMD  K6-2
        processors and higher, Duron, Athlon, Intel Pentium 4
      - Added support of ATA/ATAPI-6 standard,  including  detection  of
        Automatic  Acoustic  Management  support,    its  current    and
        recommended value,  S.M.A.R.T.  Self-test,   S.M.A.R.T.    Error
        Logging, 48-bit Address and others
      - For  some  monitors  added  detection  of    internal    monitor
        parameters: vendor name, model, serial number and horizontal and
        vertical frequency rates
      - Detects Toshiba BIOS, IBM SurePath BIOS,  Microid Research BIOS,
        Phoenix NoteBIOS,  Phoenix BIOS for HP,    Phoenix  for  Fujitsu
        Siemens,  Phoenix for Siemens Nixdorf,  Phoenix for TI,  Phoenix
        for Twinhead, Phoenix for Fujitsu and Phoenix for Sharp
      - Detects Asustek motherboards
      - Program's data file is zipped
      - Optimized ATAPI device detection
      - Optimized monitor  detection  (no  program's  shut  downs  under
        Windows)
      - In Summary section added information on ATAPI devices, different
        from CD-ROM, and names of network cards models
      - In Video section added information whether video  card  supports
        AGP bus or not, and video card speed
      - Fixed HDD detection  on  external  UDMA/RAID  controllers  under
        Windows
      - Fixed program's shut down in a command line  mode  on  some  AMD
        processors
      - Optimized detection of clock  ratio  of  Intel  processors  with
        CPUID 0681
      - Fixed false detection of PCI bus on some old Brand Name computers
      - Added 4 new keys of the command line:
          /RJ - creating JoyStock format report
          /M - save DDC dump
          /nVESA - disabling VESA test
          /nPNP - disabling PnP test
      - Added 2 vendors of motherboard with Award BIOS
      - Added 3 vendors and 119 PCI devices
      - Added 11 monitor vendors and 64 new models

            Version 3.40 (January 28, 2001)
            -------------------------------
      - Due to the use  of  the  external  Win32  module  there  are  no
        restrictions if the program is started in  a  DOS  window  under
        Windows 9x/Me. Now the program:
      - Detects IDE devices in a DOS window under Windows
      - Detects processor clock ration under Windows
      - Fixed program's shut down while  detecting  processor  frequency
        rate under some Windows versions
      - Fixed memory size detection under Windows Me
      - Detects network computer name
      - Added  detection  of  AMD  Sledgehammer  and  Transmeta   Crusoe
        processors
      - Detects Compaq BIOS, IBM BIOS, Phoenix for Dell, Phoenix for IBM
        and Phoenix BIOS for Intel
      - Detects  ATA/ATAPI  devices  installed  on  external   UDMA/RAID
        controllers
      - Optimized disk detection under BIOS
      - Fixed running on Cyrix 6x86 processors
      - Optimized detection of Centaur processors cache
      - In the Summary section  displays  information  on  all  HDD  and
        CD-ROM (earlier the program could detect only master HDD)
      - Program won't work in a DOS window under OS/2
      - Added new key '/P' of the command line - saving results  of  the
        CPUID instruction performance to a file
      - Default file report name is your network computer name
      - Program will ask you to send  me  your  file  report  if  it  is
        started  on  computers  with  a  configuration  that   can    be
        interesting for me
      - Added 1 vendor of motherboards with Award and AMI BIOS
      - Added 1 vendor and 67 PCI devices
      - Added 2 monitor vendors and 87 new models

            Version 3.31 (November 8, 2000)
            -------------------------------
      - Detects ATA/ATAPI devices  installed  on  external  UDMA/66  and
        UDMA/100 controllers, even under Windows
      - Added detection of additional information on PCI  devices  (used
        memory areas, IRQ, subsystem name, etc.)
      - For AGP devices - added detection of AGP bus  supported  version
        and its speed
      - Detects big (over 8.5) processor clock ratios
      - Detects full video memory size of NVidia video cards
      - Optimized diagnostics of disk errors while creating a file report
      - Optimized processor frequency detection,  so that  there  is  no
        need in the external module clock.prg
      - Optimized AMI BIOS detection
      - Optimized VESA video modes detection
      - Fixed bug of some BIOS while detecting parameters of drives over
        8 Gb
      - Fixed bug on AMD processors when it  was  impossible  to  detect
        processor cache parameters and extended features
      - Fixed detection of UDMA modes and ATAPI devices features
      - Added 22 monitor vendors and 867 new models
      - Part of the documentation is translated into English

            Version 3.30 (August 31, 2000)
            ------------------------------
      - Detects vendors of motherboards with AWARD  and  AMI  BIOS  (323
        vendors)
      - Detects processors
          Intel:  Pentium 4
                  Pentium II Mobile
                  Pentium II OverDrive for Pentium Pro
                  Celeron Mobile
                  Pentium Mobile
                  i486DX4/DX4WB OverDrive for 486DX
                  i486DX2WB OverDrive for 486DX
          AMD:    Duron
                  K6-III+
                  K6-2+
          Cyrix:  VIA Cyrix III
          Centaur/IDT:
                  WinChip 4
          NexGen: Nx686
      - Detects clock ratio and  frequency  of  external  bus  of  Intel
        Pentium Pro processors and higher
      - Detects internal processor name, its type and kernel version
      - Added L3 cache support of Pentium 4 processor
      - Added detection of new  Pentium  4  feature  -  Automatic  Clock
        Control and of AMD processors - x86-64 Long Mode
      - Detects the biggest function number supported by CPUID command
      - Detects Phoenix, Acer BIOS and AMI BIOS for Intel Corporation
      - For AWARD BIOS - detects chipset and type of system bus, for AMI
      - detects BIOS size
      - Supports ATA/ATAPI-5 standard,  including 8  Gb  HDD  controller
        level and higher,  detects UDMA modes of CD-ROM drives,  detects
        Single Word DMA mode, number of sectors per interrupt,  bytes of
        ECC correction,  Security Erase Time,  detects new  features  of
        ATA/ATAPI-5 devices, active DMA/UDMA modes
      - Identifies Windows 9x version
      - When starting,  program detects Windows NT/2000 and  closes  the
        application displaying a message
      - Added new key '/B' of the command line - saving dump  of  system
        and video BIOS
      - Default extension when creating a file report from  the  command
        line is '.rpt'
      - Added full path name of the report file
      - Added progress bar of the detection process
      - Increased database search speed (using totally new algorithm)
      - Increased speed of saving a file report
      - Added 23 vendors of PCI devices and 503 devices
      - Added 12 monitor vendors and 954 models
      - Fixed  bug  of  detecting  cache  and  internal  name  of  Cyrix
        processors
      - Fixed minor bug when detecting processor features
      - Fixed bug of AMD Duron (stepping A0) processors  when  detecting
        L2 cache size
      - Optimized AWARD BIOS detection
      - Fixed detection of non-existed PCI devices
      - Fixed minor bug if drives are no installed
      - Deleted 0h symbol from BIOS copyright lines - in some cases this
        led to incorrect program operation
      - Fixed bug when detecting additional S3 video modes
      - In 3 months program will be asking you  to  update  the  current
        version

            Version 3.22 (March 30, 2000)
            -----------------------------
      - Added L2 cache size and parameters  of  AMD  Athlon  and  K6-III
        processors
      - Added L1 cache size and parameters of  Cyrix  6x86MX  processors
        and higher, and also of Centaur processors
      - On numerous requests added saving a file report from the command
        line
      - Added detection of int13h extension version
      - When starting,  program detects presence and version of OS/2 and
        displays a message
      - The 64 Mb barrier while detecting memory size is overcome
      - Detects HDD size over 8Gb
      - Detects  new  Intel  processors  features:  36-bit  Page    Size
        Extension,    Processor  serial  number,    Cache  Line    Flush
        Instruction,  Debug Trace and EMON Store,  ACPI,  Streaming SIMD
        Extension (SSE-2), Selfsnoop, IA64
      - Detects new AMD processor  features:  Page  Address  Extensions,
        APIC,  Memory Type Range Registers,  Machine Check Architecture,
        Page Attribute Table,  Page Size Extensions 36  bit,    AMD  MMX
        Instruction Extensions, FXSAVE/FXRSTOR
      - Added detection of monitor model under Windows 9x
      - Optimized detection of IDE devices,  no non-existing drives  can
        be detected since now
      - Program runs in a command line mode on 8086 processors:-)
      - Optimized information display format on processor cache
      - Detects Intel Pentium III 512kb cache and Intel Pentium III Xeon
        512kb cache manufactured by 0.18mk  technology  due  to  BrandId
        analysis
      - Added 178 vendors of PCI devices and 136 new devices  (including
        chipsets VIA KX133, SIS 540, SIS 630, videochips S3 Savage 2000,
        NVidia NV11 and NV15)
      - Added 2 monitor vendors and 114 new models
      - Fixed bug when processor information was not displayed for  some
        Cyrix 6x86MX processors
      - Blocked  displaying  Cyrix  processor  name  in    a    extended
        information window as these processors don't support it
      - Fixed minor bug when IOMEGA drive is installed as  master  while
        CD-ROM - as slave
      - Fixed bug when detecting HDD UDMA modes
      - Fixed bug when data file couldn't be opened on some computers
      - Informer on the Web: http://www.informer.newmail.ru

            Version 3.21 (December 23, 1999)
            --------------------------------
      - Added detection of Centaur/IDT WinChip2A (C2A),  WinChip3  (C3),
        Rise mP6 and mP6-II processors
      - Detects SSE instructions  of  Pentium  III  processors  and  AMD
        Extended 3DNow!
      - Added information on bit per pixel number in VESA modes
      - Added 242 vendors of PCI devices and 398 new devices,  including
        new chipsets i810,  i820,  i840,  VIA Apollo Pro,  etc.  Added 1
        monitor model
      - Code names of new processors changed  to  their  official  names
        (Intel Itanium and AMD Athlon)
      - Fixed minor bug when detecting APM
      - Fixed bug when displaying additional  information  on  Intel  P6
        processors cache
      - Fixed bug of  detection  of  non-existed  CD-ROM  named  A  when
        running under Windows 95/98
      - Internal model of IOMEGA drive was earlier detected as CD-ROM
      - Blocked  displaying  extended  information  on  AMD  K5    PR100
        processors and lower, as these processors don't support it
      - Fixed minor bug when detecting some AMD chipsets
      - E-mail has changed to kkv@krata.tambov.ru;  new FidoNet address:
        2:5009/5.17
      - Program is available at FTP-server:
        ftp://ftp.krata.tambov.ru/pub/informer

            Version 3.20 (March 31, 1999)
            -----------------------------
      - Internal program structure is totally changed
      - Added overlays
      - New library x86 CPU/FPU Detection Library.  TMi0SDGL Revision  2
        Version is used/installed for detection  of  processors  without
        CPUID support; new library is used for detection of frequency of
        486 processors and lower 2.06. Copyright(c) 1996-98 by B-coolWare
      - Added detection of sound card type and its installation
      - For Intel P6 processors and higher - detects  L1/L2  cache  size
        and type.  For AMD K5 processors and  higher  detects  L1  cache
        size and type.
      - Detects HDD support of Ultra DMA modes,  S.M.A.R.T.  technology,
        etc.
      - Detects processors:
          Intel:  Pentium III Xeon
                  Pentium III
                  Pentium II Xeon
                  Celeron
                  Pentium II Over Drive fo P54C (P55CT)
                  80386SL
                  80C86
                  80C88
          AMD:    K6-2-3D
                  K6-Plus-3D
                  Am486DX
                  Am486SX
                  AMD Elan SC400 Microcontroller
          Cyrix:  Cx486SRx/SRx2
                  Cx486SRu/SRu2
                  Cx486DRx/DRx2
                  Cx486DRu/DRu2
                  Cx486S_a
          SGS-Thomson:
                  ST486DX2
          C&T:    38600
                  38600SX
          Centaur (IDT):
                  Centaur (IDT) C2
      - Detects coprocessors:
          Intel:  RapidCAD
          IIT:    4C87DLC
          ULSI:   84x87
      - Detects  new  processor  features  (Fast  Save/Restore,    Cyrix
        Extended MMX, AMD 3DNow!, internal processor name, etc).
      - Detects COM port with mouse installed
      - Added detection of 407 vendors of PCI devices and  391  new  PCI
        devices (including i440BX, i440GX and VIA MVP3 chipsets)
      - Added 8 monitor vendors and 56 new monitor models
      - Corrected  CRT  module  version  -  earlier  program  was    not
        responding at computers with processors higher than  Pentium  II
        233 MHz
      - Fixed  bugs  while  detecting  mouse  presence    and    getting
        information from VBE 2.0 BIOS
      - FIDO address has changed: 2:5009/7.12
      - You can contact author at e-mail: informer1@chat.ru

            Version 3.11 (April 18, 1998)
            -----------------------------
      - At last but not the least!  Fixed  bug  when  detecting  monitor
        vendor
      - Detects Centaur (IDT) C6 processor
      - Detects ATAPI device type
      - Added Samsung SyncMaster 400b monitor

            Version 3.1 (April 9, 1998)
            ---------------------------
      - Detects AGP bus (Pentium II) and 3Dfx Voodoo2 accelerator
      - Detects UMC U486DX2 and UMC U486SX2 processors
      - Added 2 vendors of PCI devices and 11 monitor vendors
      - Added 235 new PCI devices and 3 monitor models

            Version 3.0 (April 2, 1998)
            ---------------------------
      - Detects free base memory size
      - Fixed bug known in computers with two HDD

            Version 3.0 beta (March 25, 1998)
            ---------------------------------
      - Detects model and parameters of monitor!!!

            Version 2.1 beta (March 21, 1998)
            ---------------------------------
      - Detects model and parameters of CD-ROM
      - Information on all system disks including Primary/Master is  now
        available
      - Detects mouse type
      - Fixed bug when frequency of  UMC  U5S  and  U5D  processors  was
        increased twice if compared with a real one

            Version 2.0 (March 15, 1998)
            ----------------------------
      - Detects vendor and type of all PCI devices
      - Detects chipset
      - Detects PCI video card type
      - Detects Universal Serial Bus (USB) presence
      - Optimized search of chipset ID in AMI BIOS

            Version 1.1 (March 11, 1998)
            ----------------------------
      - Added saving of a file report
      - Fixed AMI BIOS bug. When detecting parameters of a  non-existing
        HDD,  the program returns a 10 MB HDD instead of  displaying  an
        error message
      - Written documentation

            Version 1.0 (December 23, 1997)
            -------------------------------
      - First official release of  the  program.    Earlier  there  were
        numerous beta versions.

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