😀
First, I didn't know you've got one.
Second, I don't know where you live.
Third, an uncompressed high resolution picture to my email would be much faster, cheaper, and easier.
Fourth, time time time...

Can you measure whether there is a direct connection from any soldering point of R170, R171, or R155 to L2 cache pin 41 or 40?

You've got a PN.

Did any of you guys ever come up with detailed schematics of how the cache is attached to the cpu and north bridge in your travels? I'm investigating the possibility of attaching cache to a CPU interposer and disabling the mainboard's cache all together. I know it sounds crazy but I have it on good authority that it might be able to be done.

Ohhh...
a very difficult approach that requires deep knowledge. 👍

How do you think is it possible to disconnect the northbridge from motherboard's L2 cache and connect it to L2 on your interposer instead?

For parts of my investigation, I removed the northbridge from a defective AT motherboard to make some measurements.

The easiest way would be looking into datasheets of chipsets and any L2 cache chip preferable 512 kiB or 1024 kiB. I think manufacturer (EliteMT, UMC or tm) doesn't matter. They all should be pin compatible.

Then you should consider that different chipsets need different tag RAM sizes depending on L2 cache size, e. g. Aladdin V needs 32k8 tag RAM for 1 MiB L2 cache, MVP3 needs 128k8 tag RAM for 2 MiB L2 cache. 32k8 is a 28-pin chip, 128k8 uses 32 pins.

________________________________________________________________________

On my own account:

Well, actually I didn't want to buy another Super Socket 7 board. However, one hour before I started my search on ebay some days ago this board was offered there:

An Asus P5A REV. 1.06 with 1 MiB L2 cache for only 35 € + 24 € for shipment!

One should grasp the happiness with hands... 😀

Lotosdrache wrote on 2022-04-04, 13:38:

Ohhh... a very difficult approach that requires deep knowledge. :thumbsup: […]
Show full quote

Ohhh...
a very difficult approach that requires deep knowledge. 👍

How do you think is it possible to disconnect the northbridge from motherboard's L2 cache and connect it to L2 on your interposer instead?

For parts of my investigation, I removed the northbridge from a defective AT motherboard to make some measurements.

The easiest way would be looking into datasheets of chipsets and any L2 cache chip preferable 512 kiB or 1024 kiB. I think manufacturer (EliteMT, UMC or tm) doesn't matter. They all should be pin compatible.

Then you should consider that different chipsets need different tag RAM sizes depending on L2 cache size, e. g. Aladdin V needs 32k8 tag RAM for 1 MiB L2 cache, MVP3 needs 128k8 tag RAM for 2 MiB L2 cache. 32k8 is a 28-pin chip, 128k8 uses 32 pins.

________________________________________________________________________

On my own account:

Well, actually I didn't want to buy another Super Socket 7 board. However, one hour before I started my search on ebay some days ago this board was offered there:
Asus P5A Rev. 1.06 1 MiBk.JPG
An Asus P5A REV. 1.06 with 1 MiB L2 cache for only 35 € + 25 € for shipment!

One should grasp the happiness with hands... 😀

I haven't stumbled across an abundance of diagrams. many of these chips are listed on websites with no datasheets, or datasheets with no diagrams

I was looking at the ali aladdin v chipset datasheet and noticed connections between the NB and the cache directly. that of course would be a huge issue. but as it wasn't a detailed diagram, but rather a simplified one I wasn't sure what to make of it.

I really need a trace level diagram, not a bus level. someone was saying it's possible to do this though, and this person would probably know a lot better than I about this in particular.

Lotosdrache wrote on 2022-04-04, 13:38:

________________________________________________________________________ […]
Show full quote

________________________________________________________________________

On my own account:

Well, actually I didn't want to buy another Super Socket 7 board. However, one hour before I started my search on ebay some days ago this board was offered there:
Asus P5A Rev. 1.06 1 MiBk.JPG
An Asus P5A REV. 1.06 with 1 MiB L2 cache for only 35 € + 25 € for shipment!

One should grasp the happiness with hands... 😀

Wow, now that is a rare find!!
I love the fact that yours has a year 2000 chipset 😁
And it looks like the BIOS was updated?

Skalabala wrote on 2022-04-05, 09:12:

I love the fact that yours has a year 2000 chipset 😁
And it looks like the BIOS was updated?

Yes, that's pretty nice but sadly southbridge is still revision A1 and not B1 -> No UDMA66 on this board for daddy. 🙁
BIOS revision should be 1011 BETA 05 according to seller's picture. Haven't checked it up to now. Board went to storage immediately after arrival.

For now, I will stay with my Gigabyte GA-5AX as I prefer the latest revision mostly, i.e. in this case chipset revision H.
The Asus is in reserve.

I have only less time on Eastern to play around with this. My nephew likes watching me playing Tomb Raider Chronicles on my Micron Powerdigm XSU with
- Micron Samurai chipset 😁 😁 😁
- Dual Intel Pentium II - 333 MHz (SL2S5, Deschutes, dA1-Stepping)
- 2x 256 MiB Micron PC100U-222-620 ECC SD-RAM
(Original 2x 128 MiB PC100U-3 ECC SD-RAM were manufactured by Samsung Electronics Corporation 👎. That's a no-go in my Micron workstation 😉)
- 3Dlabs Oxygen GVX1 (GLINT R3 and Gamma G1) 😁 😁 😁
(Original Diamond FireGL 1000 Pro was to slow for games 😉)
- miroHISCORE 3D (3Dfx Voodoo)
- Creative Labs Sound Blaster AWE64 (CT4520) -> will be replaced by Creative Sound Blaster AWE32 CT3980 (soon 🙄)
- 3Com 3C905-TX
- Adaptec AHA-2940-UW
- Seagate Cheetah 15K.5 ST3146855LW Wide-SCSI Server HDD
- Plextor PX-32TSi ODD

Arrival:

Original state:

Preston motherboard only: 😁 😁 😁

New graphics card: 😁 😁 😁

And for lunch after a hard day's work: 😁 😁 😁

😉

Awesome stuff 😁 That graphics card can play Quake 3 :p
AFAIK P5A never came in B1 south bridge 🙁

Thanks.
With this system, 3Dlabs Oxygen GVX1 gives me about 9 fps in Quake 3 demo four.dm_68 if I remember correctly. 😉

Regarding P5A southbridge: I've got a defective Jetway 542C with Rev B1 southbridge. Maybe sometime in the future I will try a transplantation.