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Dual Pentium Pro Build Thread

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Reply 140 of 185, by Mentat-vvo

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wiretap wrote on 2020-08-09, 19:22:

But then he'll realize only a few dozen people will buy them if the price is fair. 🤣 .. it's better just to make gerbers for retro computer stuff public, as there's really not a whole lot of revenue in niche products. Someone will just buy one to clone/fork anyway.

A couple of Dozens of years have passed - no one made a clone )) And the only person who decided to get into making PPros work in slot1 mobos was max1024. But, he shared the detailed instruction how to prepare the BIOS in his article on overclockers.ru and other resources, in Russian. If you think he would kindly share the BIOSEs - nope. So, I was pushed to do all the stuff myself.

I am not ready to make the project open. Just not yet. The rare dual-socketed motherboards, the time spent , the parts, the production, the assembly - all the stuff costs money. Also, $$$ is a good motivator 🥴

Ps. A Dual Tyan 694X needs a special BIOS tweaking approach , since it somehow protects the main module. I have correct detection of single PPro, but it locks on a second CPU detection, even if it’s not there. A rom.by BIOS patcher, however, do not throw error 41. I need to patch the patcher now))

Got this broken OR840. Gonna try to fix it and run dual PPros.

4154AC6F-4A2D-41F7-8E98-CD4714A17CC7.jpeg
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PPro250/Freeway694x/512M/Gf3Ti500/AdvGUS
2x P3Xeon900-2M/1Gb/QuadroDCC/AWE32
K6III+400@624/P5A/256Mb/GF3ti200@500
Iskra 1031 Issue 2 - i8086 PC/XT Clone from USSR

Reply 142 of 185, by luckybob

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that OR840 is probably okay. I've seen quite a few not post if they dont have their cmos battery installed.

Re: Outrigger: an ongoing adventure with the OR840

It is a 2450 cell.

It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.

Reply 143 of 185, by Mentat-vvo

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luckybob wrote on 2020-08-12, 09:19:

that OR840 is probably okay. I've seen quite a few not post if they dont have their cmos battery installed.

Re: Outrigger: an ongoing adventure with the OR840

It is a 2450 cell.

Thanks for a hint, I’ll try.

PPro250/Freeway694x/512M/Gf3Ti500/AdvGUS
2x P3Xeon900-2M/1Gb/QuadroDCC/AWE32
K6III+400@624/P5A/256Mb/GF3ti200@500
Iskra 1031 Issue 2 - i8086 PC/XT Clone from USSR

Reply 144 of 185, by Mentat-vvo

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Sad news, guys. The 3.3v support in OR840 has beed wiped out. I was expecting this trick from Intel. The PPro CPU just do not allow the mobo to start. Though battery trick helped to turn back normal power sequence , the board locks with 88 code with P3-450 & P3-667.

PPro250/Freeway694x/512M/Gf3Ti500/AdvGUS
2x P3Xeon900-2M/1Gb/QuadroDCC/AWE32
K6III+400@624/P5A/256Mb/GF3ti200@500
Iskra 1031 Issue 2 - i8086 PC/XT Clone from USSR

Reply 146 of 185, by Mentat-vvo

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Got newly-made ones.

E262C494-ED58-4209-AFAC-50A501CDBB30.jpeg
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6BC6C695-E7B5-4608-B713-84E186C26ED1.jpeg
Filename
6BC6C695-E7B5-4608-B713-84E186C26ED1.jpeg
File size
1.42 MiB
Views
1311 views
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Public domain

PPro250/Freeway694x/512M/Gf3Ti500/AdvGUS
2x P3Xeon900-2M/1Gb/QuadroDCC/AWE32
K6III+400@624/P5A/256Mb/GF3ti200@500
Iskra 1031 Issue 2 - i8086 PC/XT Clone from USSR

Reply 147 of 185, by H3nrik V!

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Mentat-vvo wrote on 2020-08-20, 10:00:

Got newly-made ones.
E262C494-ED58-4209-AFAC-50A501CDBB30.jpeg
6BC6C695-E7B5-4608-B713-84E186C26ED1.jpeg

Looks good!

You may want to consider not having the silk screen text copied also; might give copyright issues?

Please use the "quote" option if asking questions to what I write - it will really up the chances of me noticing 😀

Reply 151 of 185, by Mentat-vvo

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Hello again. I was finally able to launch a couple of 200/512 PPros and then black tops in Tyan Tiger 133D S1834. It was extremely hard to beat Award 6.0PG BIOS and find all problematic places. The mobo supports multipliers 2x and 2.5x and also B21 trick to launch the CPU at 100 MHz. I had also to tie VID1 to ground in order to get stable 250 MHz, but that causes excess heating of VRMs. Now system is stable at 2x100 without overheat.

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Last edited by Mentat-vvo on 2020-12-10, 08:23. Edited 3 times in total.

PPro250/Freeway694x/512M/Gf3Ti500/AdvGUS
2x P3Xeon900-2M/1Gb/QuadroDCC/AWE32
K6III+400@624/P5A/256Mb/GF3ti200@500
Iskra 1031 Issue 2 - i8086 PC/XT Clone from USSR

Reply 152 of 185, by maxtherabbit

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Mentat-vvo wrote on 2020-12-09, 12:21:

It was extremely hard to beat Award 6.0PG BIOS and find all problematic places.

Can you elaborate on this?

Reply 153 of 185, by Mentat-vvo

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maxtherabbit wrote on 2020-12-09, 15:03:
Mentat-vvo wrote on 2020-12-09, 12:21:

It was extremely hard to beat Award 6.0PG BIOS and find all problematic places.

Can you elaborate on this?

Nope.

Pentium 3 450 / i820 was beaten by 2x Black Top at 220(2x110Mhz) in Memory Read competition.

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PPro250/Freeway694x/512M/Gf3Ti500/AdvGUS
2x P3Xeon900-2M/1Gb/QuadroDCC/AWE32
K6III+400@624/P5A/256Mb/GF3ti200@500
Iskra 1031 Issue 2 - i8086 PC/XT Clone from USSR

Reply 155 of 185, by Mentat-vvo

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feipoa wrote on 2020-12-10, 11:24:

Do they work in dual CPU mode?

I think test runs in single CPU mode, but WinXP is definitely SMP-capable. The memory bandwidth Gain is the result of SDRAM overclocking to 146 MHz 2-2-2-6 and 2-way interleaving ON.

There are the results of the same test with single CPU(512k) @ 95 MHz with Asus P3V4X.

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Last edited by Mentat-vvo on 2020-12-11, 12:07. Edited 1 time in total.

PPro250/Freeway694x/512M/Gf3Ti500/AdvGUS
2x P3Xeon900-2M/1Gb/QuadroDCC/AWE32
K6III+400@624/P5A/256Mb/GF3ti200@500
Iskra 1031 Issue 2 - i8086 PC/XT Clone from USSR

Reply 157 of 185, by Arctic

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Mentat-vvo wrote on 2020-08-20, 10:00:

Got newly-made ones.
E262C494-ED58-4209-AFAC-50A501CDBB30.jpeg
6BC6C695-E7B5-4608-B713-84E186C26ED1.jpeg

@Mentat-vvo
Ist it still possible to get one or two of these adapters?

Reply 158 of 185, by BootROMError8046

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Mentat-vvo wrote on 2020-12-10, 11:53:
feipoa wrote on 2020-12-10, 11:24:

Do they work in dual CPU mode?

I think test runs in single CPU mode, but WinXP is definitely SMP-capable. The memory bandwidth Gain is the result of SDRAM overclocking to 146 MHz 2-2-2-6 and 2-way interleaving ON.

There are the results of the same test with single CPU(512k) @ 95 MHz with Asus P3V4X.

Hi there! I got a slotket8 clone from you and I gotta ask, where do you find the microcode and how do you add it to the bios binary? I have some knowledge in bios customization but I didn't mess with old award bioses before.

I have an asus P3B-F and an MSI MS6119 BX2. Thanks in advance!!

Reply 159 of 185, by Mentat-vvo

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There’s not a microcode problem . If you have bought the slotket on eBay from me, post your question there and I will provide a link for bios download.

PPro250/Freeway694x/512M/Gf3Ti500/AdvGUS
2x P3Xeon900-2M/1Gb/QuadroDCC/AWE32
K6III+400@624/P5A/256Mb/GF3ti200@500
Iskra 1031 Issue 2 - i8086 PC/XT Clone from USSR