What is a "Turbo/Break Switch" on a P120 motherboard? \ VOGONS

What is a "Turbo/Break Switch" on a P120 motherboard?

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First post, by Naibas

Posted on 2017-12-23, 01:33

Naibas Offline

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I have a AOpen AP53 (with a Pentium 120 CPU), and there are three pins that the manual describes as "Break Switch (Turbo Switch)". There doesn't appear to be any explanation in the manual as to what it actually does, if anything. I'm familiar with Turbo switches, but when I connect a switch to the indicated pins, nothing changes. Meanwhile there is also a "Green Mode LED (Turbo LED)", but that remains lit on no matter what I do to the Break/Turbo Switch pins.

I don't have a benchmark handy, but with Doom running in demo mode, I didn't notice any change in the framerate with the Break/Turbo Switch pins open or jumped.

Anyone know why this does nothing? And why it is alternate called a "Break Switch"?

Reply 1 of 4, by Ampera

Posted on 2017-12-23, 06:23

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Have you tried a real mode benchmark? It's possible it doesn't work in protected/e386 mode games.

Reply 2 of 4, by elianda

Posted on 2017-12-23, 12:01

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Doom limits to 35 fps, if the turbo switch changes FSB from 60 to 50 MHz you won't see a difference in Doom.

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Reply 3 of 4, by BeginnerGuy

Posted on 2017-12-23, 13:13

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I'm fairly certain that header is intended for debugging purposes. I have a baby s7 board with one as well labeled turbo.

I'll see if i can get more info on that one and post back.

Sup. I like computers. Are you a computer?

Reply 4 of 4, by .legaCy

Posted on 2017-12-23, 13:26

.legaCy Offline

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My 486 has a led header labeled green mode and a switch also called green mode.
The switch has this warning

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Trigger Once Green Mod […]
Show full quote
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trigger Once Green Mode
Trigger Again Normal Operation
==================================================
This is a toggle switch so please do not keep this jumper shorted or else the system will have a problem waking up or booting after a reset. For this reason, do not use the Turbo button on the system chassis for this switch, since one may forget to release the button after triggering the system into green mode.

So i guess it is some power saving feature, not a turbo button(which my 486 board also have)

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