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Via MVP3 cache expansion?

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First post, by oh2ftu

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Hello there.
Due to happendance (it's a long story) I'm looking for a S7 motherboard that'll cache 256MB ram with a Pentium 233 MMX - and be ATX form factor.
That's why 430HX (practically) and 430TX are out of this race (very few 430HX ATX motherboards were made).
I did my diligence regarding both Ali aladdin V and Via MVP3 and the latter seems to be more readily available. At least if one wishes to find a Ali V rev G or later.

But about the MVP3 then. There are a host of boards that have veen available in multiple cache variations:

  • AOpen AX59 Pro -> 512K and 1M available
  • EPoX/ProNiX EP-51MVP3E-M // ENMIC/NMC NMC 5VMMX 512K/1M
  • EPoX/ProNiX EP-MVP3G-M (1MB cache) // ENMIC/NMC NMC-5VMX
  • EPoX/ProNiX EP-MVP3G5 (2MB cache)
  • EPoX/ProNiX EP-MVP3G2 (1MB cache)
  • ENMIC/NMC NMC-5VMX2
  • FIC PA-2013 512K and 1M available
  • Shuttle HOT-597 512K and 1M
  • Tyan S1598 1M / 2M

Looking at retroweb, the Tyan is listed as modification possible.
How about the others? many have an empty L2 cache footprint on the pcb.
The chips would have to match, naturally. And sometimes the TAG would need updating.
Has anyone done this?

Reply 1 of 8, by Skyscraper

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You can add the PC Chips M577 to your MVP3 list. The M577 (as far as I know) always comes with 1MB of cache.

New PC: i9 12900K @5GHz all cores @1.2v. MSI PRO Z690-A. 32GB DDR4 3600 CL14. 3070Ti.
Old PC: Dual Xeon X5690@4.6GHz, EVGA SR-2, 48GB DDR3R@2000MHz, Intel X25-M. GTX 980ti.
Older PC: K6-3+ 400@600MHz, PC-Chips M577, 256MB SDRAM, AWE64, Voodoo Banshee.

Reply 2 of 8, by The Serpent Rider

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FIC PA-2013 512K and 1M available

Actually 2M.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 3 of 8, by majestyk

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I did this with some DFI mainboards recently:
Re: DFI K6XV3+/66 L2 and K6BV3+/66 L2 cache upgrade

It easiest when the mainboards footprint for the TAG chip allows 32-pin chips.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2023-06-22, 08:49:

FIC PA-2013 512K and 1M available

Actually 2M.

I´m not so sure here, since the PA-2013 has a 28-pin TAG chip. All 4 chips populated on a PA-2013 probably means 4 x 256K chips.

Last edited by majestyk on 2023-06-22, 13:14. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 5 of 8, by majestyk

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The Serpent Rider wrote on 2023-06-22, 12:01:

https://www.anandtech.com/show/1
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/socket-7 … 1998,79-10.html

I cannot find a picture with a 32-pin TAG. Of course it´s possible there was a (later) revision with full TAG support.

Edit / correction: I did find a picture of a full featured PA-2013

tag_32_1.PNG

So Serpent Rider is right - there´s a 2MB version of the PA-2013 and the necessary TAG-chip is provided.

Last edited by majestyk on 2023-06-22, 13:14. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 6 of 8, by oh2ftu

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Actually, looking at a few (not so good) pictures of the Shuttle HOT-597, there seems to be a 28pin TAG-chip, but there are four pins unused on the board.
Officially, there was only a 512K and 1MB version of it. Also, there is one "affordable" on ebay (512K).
A picture on TRW shows T35L6464A-Q5 for cache but I can't make out the TAG ram: https://theretroweb.com/motherboard/image/hot … 84599209677.jpg

Reply 7 of 8, by majestyk

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The TAG chip is a 256K one, for 2MB cache you could replace it by a 512K (32-pin) chip. There are also empty jumper / resistor positions nearby so I would _assume_ a 2MB upgrade can be done, but be prepared to do some research to find the jumper (zero ohm resistors) settings you need. And there´s a risk of failure if there´s a faulty layout or if you cannot find the correct settings.

Reply 8 of 8, by rasz_pl

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majestyk wrote on 2023-06-22, 12:14:

So Serpent Rider is right - there´s a 2MB version of the PA-2013 and the necessary TAG-chip is provided.

https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/ … 26/newitem.html https://akiba--pc-watch-impress-co-jp.transla … &_x_tr_pto=wapp

FIC PA2013
(MVP3,ATX,2MB,AGP1
　,PCI3,PCI/ISA1,ISA1,DIMM3)
13,800 Tsukumo PC Main Store II
14,800 i2 DOS/V Senka Tokyo 3rd store
15,800 BLESS
　New version with secondary cache increased to 2MB. This is the first Socket 7 motherboard with 2MB secondary cache. The previous maximum was 1MB.
　The PMSRAM, which is used as the secondary cache, has a sticker with the letters "MT63V3212Q-5 9842A", which seems to be the model number, attached.

Open Source AT&T Globalyst/NCR/FIC 486-GAC-2 proprietary Cache Module reproduction

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