VOGONS


First post, by pentiumspeed

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I received this wonderful 486DX 33 with ISA slots and 30 pin SIMMs of 16 slots motherboard, have two questions in respect of 33MHz and future 486DX running at 40MHz;

The 256K SRAM is 25ns and I want to keep that since it is packaged in ceramic. What maximum MHz 486 can run with this 25ns SRAM safely? 40MHz?

This board came with 4MB of 60ns SIMMs, can I run added SIMMs rated for 70ns for 33MHz and 40MHz?

Thanks and cheers,

Great Northern aka Canada.

Reply 1 of 3, by jakethompson1

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Depends what wait state configuration you want. The SiS 471 datasheet for example suggests that at 40MHz, 25 ns cache would require the slowest (3-2-2-2) but at 33 MHz, 25 ns would suffice for 2-1-1-1 for burst reads and "1 WS" for writes. Same idea goes for DRAM. Maybe your board's chipset datasheet is also out there and you can see what it calls for.

Reply 2 of 3, by The Serpent Rider

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Just like with SDRAM and more modern memory, printed access time does not represent subtimings or wait states which chip might be capable of. 70ns FPMs were stuffed into early Pentiums, so they are totally capable to work at 60 Mhz, albeit with relaxed timings.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 3 of 3, by GigAHerZ

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I'll have to check at home, what exactly the specs are on my 486. I have 50MHz FSB (CPU is at 3x50MHz) and with that, i was unable to use the tightest settings in bios (which is also modded to have all options available).

Cache chips were 10ns (Full 1024kB of it and potentially fake from china), RAM was 60ns. FSB is 50MHz and i think i had to loosen the cache timing by 1WS on the reading action and maybe something on the RAM as well. I have to confirm this.

Motherboard is SIS 471 based.

Maybe that gives at least some kind of ballpark feeling what specs can achieve 50MHz, and therefore what might be possible at other speeds.
In the end, you just have to test it yourself. DOOM is pretty good test - the demo starts behaving badly when anything is a miss in the system. The "3d bench" works also quite well to show errors - the elements on screen start to flicker.
https://www.philscomputerlab.com/dos-benchmark-pack.html

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." - And i intend to get every last bit out of it even after loading every damn driver!