VOGONS


Reply 22 of 30, by Sphere478

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We have a request from the discord discussion: try to get xp or windows 7 on it :p

Max out the ram.

With maxed ram which would be 128mb? Maybe 256mb with simm stackers? Or whatever the chipset maxed out at it might be possible?

There is a working way to get 7 setup to run on a system with 96-384mb of ram which usually won’t even run. It’s a hex edit of the iso file.

But I think you will not be able to load 7 setup because of lack of acpi support so that will be big issue. XP will likely work though.

Sphere's PCB projects.
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Sphere’s socket 5/7 cpu collection.
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SUCCESSFUL K6-2+ to K6-3+ Full Cache Enable Mod
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Tyan S1564S to S1564D single to dual processor conversion (also s1563 and s1562)

Reply 24 of 30, by Sphere478

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pshipkov wrote on 2021-02-22, 02:27:

This is a hybrid 386/486 chipset, so anything that ever ran on 486 will work.
XP will be too much trouble. NT4 may be a better fit.

eh, but no one will be impressed with NT

I mean sure, for actually using the thing prob go for a 9x/NT OS. But for SCIENCE!!!, see if XP will cram onto it! Mad computer scientists everywhere are watching with great interest!

Sphere's PCB projects.
-
Sphere’s socket 5/7 cpu collection.
-
SUCCESSFUL K6-2+ to K6-3+ Full Cache Enable Mod
-
Tyan S1564S to S1564D single to dual processor conversion (also s1563 and s1562)

Reply 26 of 30, by mpe

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pshipkov wrote on 2021-02-21, 16:50:

_

Thanks. Your AMI BIOS works fine. Haven't noticed any stability/performance difference compared to Mr. BIOS but it is good to have the version that is original for the motherboard.

Blog|NexGen 586|S4

Reply 27 of 30, by Eep386

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Just for fun, what happens if you pull the one 32Kx8 TAG chip, and replace it with two 8Kx8 chips, one in the empty socket next to it? Or maybe try putting a second 32Kx8 in that empty socket?
I am wondering if that will enable write-back caching mode on that board. If it works test it with Cachechk.

I also found the TH'99 page for that board: https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/U/U … 86WB-CACHE.html

Life isn't long enough to re-enable every hidden option in every BIOS on every board... 🙁

Reply 29 of 30, by mpe

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The manual says either single 32x8k or two 8x8k when using 256k. But will try to use two chips.

Write-back cache L2 is enabled (confirmed).

The fastest timing I could use is 3-2-2-2.

Surprisingly, disabling L2 cache delivers almost double memory throughput which is likely better for application performance (unless running 386 where any cache helps a lot).

Will try to see if it can be tweaked.

Blog|NexGen 586|S4

Reply 30 of 30, by Eep386

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Try using write-through cache in BIOS.

Life isn't long enough to re-enable every hidden option in every BIOS on every board... 🙁