VOGONS


First post, by tizzdizz

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Hey guys, I have this Data General Machine that I've gotten running on Dos 6.22. May install win3.1, or possibly Win95 if it's up to the task. Currently it's set up with:

-Single Pentium 100 CPU
-112MB ram
-on board video (unknown board/chipset, apparently Intel) with 3x PCI and 6xEISA
-Soundblaster 16
-SCSI controller (not in use)
-3.5" floppy, 56x CD rom (not period, but more functional)

I'd like to beef this thing up and fully utilize the dual socket motherboard. I'm sure it would probably run win95 as is, but what's the fastest dual CPU combo that would work?

The main goal is to play old LAN games with my brother. I gave him my HP Vectra with a P-150 in it, which has 64 megs of ram, 1MB onboard video, and runs well. I just want them to be roughly comparable with one another.

By the way, this thing weighs a TON. I thought about selling it, because it's pretty big for the space I have it in, but it's just too well built and heavy to get rid of it. I couldn't find much information on these machines from Data General.

It came with SCSI tape and CDrom (Caddy) drives. I swapped in a spare IDE drive I had, and a 40 GB drive set up in 4 2-gb partitions. Cleaned up some sharpie and other blemishes and it's really clean now. Case is very well made. No HD when I got it, so it may well have come with Windows 95 for all I know?

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Reply 2 of 31, by tizzdizz

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Thanks, the case has definitely grown on me as I've been playing with other systems that are very flimsy and basic.

What about dual boot NT4/95?

I don't currently have the machine with me - since it's a P1 100 Mhz, that means it's a Socket 5, right? Max speed for Socket 5 is 120Mhz? I always had AMD stuff, and don't know the pentium stuff as well.

Reply 3 of 31, by SW-SSG

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It should say on that^ part of the socket whether it's socket 5 or 7. I'd assume 5, meaning 120MHz Pentiums are the limit (though it may take faster Overdrives or non-Intel parts instead? I'm not the best one to ask).
EDIT: Welp, there is a tiny '5' visible on the lever indeed... I didn't see that. Oh well, carry on.

Looking at your photos, the motherboard is based on the Intel 430NX chipset, while the video is a Cirrus CL-GD5430 with an extra memory chip in the socket, for (probably) 2MB total.

As this is a Huge Expensive Workstation, it more likely shipped with some version of WinNT. Win95 might run, but will only work with one of the CPUs if you decide to install a second.

Last edited by SW-SSG on 2017-08-20, 21:05. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 5 of 31, by tizzdizz

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Ah, yes thank you for that info! I'm currently reading other threads about using an overdrive processor, but apparently because of the higher voltage of the p5 you need really solid cooling, which isn't a big deal.

It really feels silly to have 8 expansion slots and only have 1 of them populated. I need to get me some accessories and add-ons!

There are some pretty inexpensive CPUs on EBAY, I may grab a couple pairs of different ones and see what I can do with them.

Is there a way to get an MMX processor to work properly with this board? I know they're meant for Socket 7s, but it seemed like other thread discussions indicated it might be possible.

Reply 6 of 31, by Errius

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I recognise that case. It's an Intel Columbus II Server Chassis. I have one, but mine is missing the drive cage, so I'm having to waste one of the 5'25" slots for a drive mount. I would really like to get hold of that cage.

ETA: I have identified this computer. It is an Intel Altserver/CS, which is an Altserver motherboard in a Columbus case. Everything is by Intel. Data General is just the retailer. The computer I have is an Intel RC440LX Server Platform, which consists of an R440LX motherboard in a Columbus II case. The only difference between the Columbus and Columbus II cases appears to be the selection of motherboards they accept. (Similarly the Intel Columbus III, Astor and Astor II cases are all externally similar and differ only in the motherboards they can use.)

Last edited by Errius on 2018-03-22, 12:36. Edited 1 time in total.

Is this too much voodoo?

Reply 7 of 31, by tizzdizz

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I would share it with you, but I kinda need the one I've got!

I ordered a couple pairs of processors just to see what happens. for $25 total (including shipping) I have coming:

- A pair of P1-166 MHz 66MHz BUS FV80502166 SY037/VSU CPU Socket 5/7
- A pair of Pentium 120Mhz SY033 SY062 Socket 5

Plan is to do some varying combinations of single/dual CPU setups and benchmark just to see what happens. Always good to have spares!

One order is coming from Russia, so we'll see how long that one takes...

Reply 8 of 31, by lazibayer

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tizzdizz wrote:
Ah, yes thank you for that info! I'm currently reading other threads about using an overdrive processor, but apparently because […]
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Ah, yes thank you for that info! I'm currently reading other threads about using an overdrive processor, but apparently because of the higher voltage of the p5 you need really solid cooling, which isn't a big deal.

It really feels silly to have 8 expansion slots and only have 1 of them populated. I need to get me some accessories and add-ons!

There are some pretty inexpensive CPUs on EBAY, I may grab a couple pairs of different ones and see what I can do with them.

Is there a way to get an MMX processor to work properly with this board? I know they're meant for Socket 7s, but it seemed like other thread discussions indicated it might be possible.

The board should take MMX overdrives up to 200MHz, and I think that's the best CPU you can get in a dualie setup.
Please report your experience with P166... Although Intel asserts that anything above 133 should be inserted into a socket 7 but I couldn't find any hard barrier that prevents socket 5 from high end pentiums. In the past I booted a socket 5 430FX mobo with P200 and nothing exploded.

Reply 9 of 31, by gdjacobs

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The primary difference between S5 and S7 was split plane voltages. POD MMX chips include a VRM to bring 3.3 V down to 2.8 V for a P55C core.

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 10 of 31, by happycube

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It could be that some socket 5 boards didn't have the VRM to handle 166/200 non-MMX's.

And for this build I'd say a pair of MMX overdrives all the way, assuming it works with the mobo's BIOS of course. (edit: they don't support SMP? wtf man.)

Last edited by happycube on 2017-08-25, 21:50. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 11 of 31, by JidaiGeki

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Nice system there tizzdizz.

Though not on your shopping list, I'm not sure that Overdrive MMX processors are capable of dual processing/SMP - http://datasheets.chipdb.org/Intel/x86/Pentiu … MX/29060701.PDF on page 15. Anyone have any experience with these in a dual config?

Would be great to hear more about how you go with the processors and NT4 (I've got an Asus NX-based dual P133 machine here, waiting for a replacement crystal and RTC battery).

Reply 12 of 31, by Unknown_K

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I have a Pentium 200 marked i200 on top.

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Pentium/Intel-P … FV80502200.html
Its a single voltage 3.3v chip for socket 5/7. No idea if you can do dual processors with it.

That system screams NT 4 with dual processors, but if you don't want to run NT then stick to one processor.

Collector of old computers, hardware, and software

Reply 13 of 31, by chinny22

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NT4 isn't that great at gaming, bout you can duel boot between Win9x for that, and the 2nd CPU will just sit dormant.
Recently decided I want a earlier SMP system then my Slot 1, Reason is would like to play around with NT 3.1 which wont install on P2's or later without hacking.

Reply 14 of 31, by tizzdizz

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Bringing this back up because I have managed to gather a few different CPU's I'd like to try now. It came with a Pentium 100 Mhz, is an Intel MB, and AMIbios etc.

The 4 processors I have:

P-100
P-120
P-166
P-200 MMX

So far, when I start up, they all just register as 100 Mhz in the bios setup, and there are no real options in there for tweaking anything. It does boot into DOS just fine, but I can't tell if it's really limiting them to only 100 Mhz, or if that's all the bios is able to show. I realize that it's a socket5 board and these are socket 7 CPUs (other than the original P100). Anyway,

I'd like to install Win98 SE on this system, but not sure if it can handle it. On the plus side, I was able to install a Maxtor IDE card so I can run more drives, and I also added 32 MB of ram, for a total of 144.

I haven't gotten a second one of any of these CPUs yet, because I wanted to see which one would work best before I tried to utilize the dual processor option.

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Reply 15 of 31, by BitWrangler

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Hmmm, nice big pic tells me it's a 1st gen pentium chipset, the venerable Neptune, with EISA slots nonetheless, I don't know if they'd even dreamed of anything beyond a 1.5x Multiplier at this point. You're looking on the board for multiplier jumpers, no soft setup on these.

Edit: I am fairly sure your 120 will recognise the 1.5 multi and run as a P100 so that and the P100 together should work..... however, there was some problems in older dual proc systems when you used CPUs that were not the exact same core revision and stepping. Hence the former popularity of the "matched pair" of CPUs for dual systems.

Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.

Reply 17 of 31, by stamasd

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I realize this thread is almost a year old, but this is the only place on the www where I found someone who has a working Altserver/CS.

I have recently acquired a motherboard that came from this system. I haven't powered it yet as I'm not in physical possession of it right now, but to build a system with it I would need the EISA configuration utility. I have been unable to find a place to download it.

If the OP would be so kind to share the EISA configuration utility, I would be grateful.

here is a picture:

intel1_911.jpg

Last edited by stamasd on 2018-07-03, 23:49. Edited 1 time in total.

I/O, I/O,
It's off to disk I go,
With a bit and a byte
And a read and a write,
I/O, I/O

Reply 19 of 31, by stamasd

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oeuvre wrote:

sweet, looks like you got gobs of RAM!

"Gobs" is a relative term. That's only 4x4MB sticks and 4x8MB sticks for a total of 48MB. I have gobs of 72-pin SIMMs in a box though and I think I'll be able to max it out at 256MB which is what this system supports.
Also according to docs I've seen this motherboard officially supports at least dual P166s. Would be nice to try a pair of 200MMX overdrives, but I don't have a pair of those. I do have a pair of K5-PR166 but I have no idea if those support SMP, probably not. And probably same for 6x86s (1st generation) of which I have a few also. May not even be supported by the motherboard at all.

Complicating things: I don't know what BIOS revision the motherboard is, apparently there were quite a few from 1.00.01.BI0 to 1.00.15.BI0 And there are several revisions of the configuration utility/overlay that only work with a specific range of the BIOS versions. What I found is that the EISA system config utility (SCU) version 3.21 with overlay 1.01 works for BIOS 1.00.12.BI0 to 1.00.15.BI0, SCU 3.11 with overlay 00.39 works for BIOS versions 1.00.04.BI0 to 1.00.11.BI0, and SCU 3.07 with overlay 00.26 is for BIOS versions earlier than 1.00.04.BI0. I haven't found any of the above in downloadable form.

There is mention of some flash utilities for updating the BIOS to newer revisions; filenames mentioned are 10011bi0.exe for BIOS 1.00.11.BI0 and 10015bi0.exe for 1.00.15.BI0. I haven't been able to find those either - they were on some old Intel FTPs that don't exist anymore and apparently haven't been mirrored anywhere (including on the Internet Archive).

I/O, I/O,
It's off to disk I go,
With a bit and a byte
And a read and a write,
I/O, I/O