[Request] Modding a IBM\Lenovo RD640 for CPU Control

[detectivefoley]

Would anyone like to chat about BIOS modding? I have been analyzing a IBM/Lenovo RD640 server I got from a friend, its pretty stout, but its older Xeons E2600v2's could use a little boost. I have been doing poking around with a tool called UBU, can I extract the BIOS and enumerate the ROM's parameters to memory addresses in hex I found something like this: (edited)

0x1B691 Numeric: VID Override for Max Turbo Ratio, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x63, VarStore: 0x1, QuestionId: 0x54, Size: 1, Min: 0x0, Max 0xFF, Step: 0x0 {07 A6 9F 01 A0 01 54 00 01 00 63 00 10 10 00 FF 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00} 0x1B6B7 Default: DefaultId: 0x0, Value (8 bit): 0x0 {5B 0D 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00} 0x1B6C4 End {29 02} This is a pretty normal parameter to find an asus desktop board, but it does not exist on the server.

So now I'm looking for someone with some experience to have a chat It seems I can dump the rom, flips some bits, flash the rom and it might change the parameter.

I have uploaded the follow items to google drive:
A1TSIMG.ROM, the latest official rom for the default board that comes installed on an RD640.
body.bin, setup_extr.txt, fit.dump, and csmcore from UBU

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1...sp=sharing

Any advice? Perhaps we can mod this one together? I appreciate your time, thanks for being around.

Here is some more information, just in case it becomes important to our chat.

Current Hardware
IBM/Lenovo RD640 Server
Single Xeon E5-2620 v2, default 2.1 Ghz / 2.6 Ghz

Planned Hardware
IBM/Lenovo RD640 Server
Dual Xeon E5-2697v2, default 2.7Ghz / 3.5 Ghz

I am interested in exploring what's involved to unlock CPU multiplier and base clock settings on this board.  If they are not easily unlocked I am open to the idea of modifying the bios to change these limits for a specific cpu.

Thanks, have a great weekend.

[detectivefoley]

I have received and installed the new Dual Xeon E5-2697v2 CPU's, things are performing well, it seems that there are some limitations in the BIOS as I can not quite get the CPU to turbo all the up to 3.5Ghz, instead I am seeing a ceiling of 3.0 Ghz.

Does a BIOS mod for this system seem possible, I would like to reach out and touch that last bit of performance that is left on the table.

After working with this board, I can see that these chips run quite hot, I am interested in tuning some of these features:

Microcode updates
CPU Multiplier
Boost Multiplier and per core limits
Base Clock Control
CPU voltage control for underclocking

Anything I might have missed.

[detectivefoley]

Attached is a modified BIOS for the IBM RD640, this firmware must be flashed on an IBM RD640 Server that is already running the latest firmware and flashed with AFUDOS in FreeDOS. This was patched with UBU to add the latest Intel Microcode, If you are interesting in flashing this I recommend using UBU to create the modified BIOS file for your own system. I assume no responsibly for any system or any downtime if this happens to brick your server. Notably, the IBM RD640 does have flashback capabilities built in, but be careful.

System:
IBM RD640 Server

Features:
Updated Intel Microcode using UBU

AFUDOS a1tsf5a.bin /P /B /R /SP /ME /OEMCMD:ff