First post, by CoffeeOne
Knowing that a lot of people own such a board,
I have 2 questions.
Max RAM size: According to the manual max. RAM size is 64MB (2 times 32MB double sided or 4 times 16MB single sided).
According to the SIS471 data sheet max RAM size of the board is 128MB. Anyone who put successfully 128MB into that board (like 4 times 32MB)?
Second question is about L2 write back mode.
From the datasheet:
".....
The SiS85C471 can be configured to support a write-back or write-through cache. The TAG
address field of the SiS85C471 for the caches can either be programmed in 7-bit or 8-bit wide.
Besides tag and data RAMs, a write-back cache may need a SRAM for the dirty bits if the
TAG RAM and the ALTER RAM can not be shared in one SRAM. So, a write-back cache
may have better performance, but costs more than a write-through cache. The
cost/effectiveness is justified by application requirements
.....
"
The original Bios of the Asus SV2GX4, does not support the 7-bit mode.
7-bit mode makes the L2 write back mode very attractive. Moreover when using the board with the maximum 1MB L2 cache in the 7-bit mode the full 128MB are cacheable (also according to sis471 data-sheet)
But that brings me back to question 1 😁. But OK, also when I use only 64MB RAM, I would like to use the 7-bit mode, I know the chipset bit can be set with a software tool, but it would be nicer, when the bios sets it directly.
Are there Bios versions that have the 7-bit option?
Not sure if it matters, but I have a revision 2.0 of that board.
Also a REV. 1.2 of the VL/I-486SVGOX4.