feipoa wrote:Interesting thread. None of my Tualatin, i815/i845/i875/i915, VIA MVP3, 440BX, 430TX/VX, ServerWorks, ALi Aladdin V, or VIA 266T boards have anything listed in the manual under SB-LINK, SBLINK, SB LINK, SB/LINK, PC-PCI, PCPCI, PC PCI, or PC/PCI. At least those are the terms I searched for in the pdfs. Does anyone know how to add an SB-LINK to supporting chipsets via some mod for boards which do not have the header.
Not doable unless the board manufacturer has already made connections to the relevant contacts under the southbridge chip and brought them somewhere out on the moptherboard. Some motherboards do have the signals brought out by traces, and just don't have the header soldered to them. I found a few such motherboards and added the header myself, and in most cases it worked (see the previous posts in the thread about that). I have become pretty good at spotting unpopulated PC/PCI solder pads on pictures from ebay auctions. I must have looked at hundreds of them by now. There's also information about it in my other thread on the subject YMF744, DOS, no DMA? (PC/PCI, SB-link tests) (edit YES DMA, read further down)
If the manufacturer didn't bring the signals out, then adding them yourself would involve unsoldering the southbridge chip (in most cases it's in BGA package), finding the relevant pads on the motherboard, soldering wires to then, somehow bringing the wires out in a manner that wouldn't interfere with the next step, soldering back the southbridge chip after you've reballed it (added solder balls to make it a BGA package again), then adding a header to the signals you brought out and attaching it somewhere on the motherboard. IMHO this can't be done at a home enthusiast level, as it requires access to specialized equipment - and even then it would be iffy.
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