Tornado 2 © 1994 Alaris
The Tornado 2 is a highly distinctive late-generation 80486 Baby AT motherboard developed by Alaris, Inc. around 1994, with manufacturing tightly bound to IBM's microelectronics production lines. The board features a unique architecture driven by the EFAR EC802GL core logic chipset (extensively known as a high-performance clone of the SiS 85C471 architecture). Rather than utilizing standard Intel Socket 3 configurations exclusively, this hardware design was specifically optimized to deploy soldered or interposer-mounted IBM-licensed x86 processors, such as the clock-tripled IBM 486BL (Blue Lightning) running internally at 75 MHz or advanced IBM 486SLC2 variants. Its multi-bus expansion matrix provides an exotic blend of two 32-bit VESA Local Bus (VLB) slots alongside an integrated OPTi 82C822 VL-to-PCI bridge chip, providing early PCI and ISA lines. System memory handling is governed by four 72-pin SIMM sockets supporting up to 64 MB of RAM, backed by a 256 KB L2 write-back static cache (SRAM) matrix and a native high-speed MR-BIOS ROM core.
The IBM Processing Alliance: Alaris occupied a unique niche in the mid-1990s PC clone industry by serving as a major retail vehicle for IBM's proprietary CPU designs. Because IBM's cross-licensing agreement with Intel prohibited them from selling their custom x86-cloned microprocessors (like the Blue Lightning) as standalone chips to end-users, IBM bypassed this restriction by soldering them directly onto Alaris motherboards like the Tornado series.
The MR-BIOS Distinguishing Feature: Unlike 95% of competing clone motherboards that natively licensed standard AMI or Award BIOS layouts, Alaris equipped the Tornado 2 with a specialized MR-BIOS (Microid Research) core. Highly praised by power-users for its lightning-fast POST times, MR-BIOS featured incredibly granular real-time chipset and RAM timing modification panels built directly into the CMOS assembly.