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Help with Tualatin on fcpga socket

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Reply 40 of 44, by Old Thrashbarg

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What I need to do now is bridge AK4 with AK26.

Do AK4 to AN11, as the green bridge shows. That has nothing to do with the voltage. (The blue bridge is for voltage, and you also should do that one if you don't want to risk feeding 2V+ to the chip. I'm not sure if the CUSL2 will do that, but quite a few boards do, so it would be wise to play it safe.)

AK4 to AK26 was the original method for bridging the PWRGOOD signal, but that method was found to have some problems with the voltage levels and electrical noise and, thus, stability. Doing AK4 to a VTT pin like bypasses the actual PWRGOOD signal, but it still works and with fewer problems than using the old method.

Reply 41 of 44, by sliderider

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Tetrium wrote:
Exactly, these boards are going for cheap right now (but expect them to become harder to get within a couple of years). I've act […]
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sliderider wrote:

This was why I said these old hardware mods aren't worth the trouble anymore. The parts to build a proper fast computer without cheating are cheap enough now. What's a Tualatin board go for? $15 to $20? And it will have a later chiipset that might be faster or support more features.

Exactly, these boards are going for cheap right now (but expect them to become harder to get within a couple of years). I've actually bought 2 GA-60XT's untested for just 1 pound + shipping and both even worked!
With a bit of luck, you can get the boards cheaper then the costs of killing a chip and the wire+solder it cost you to try to mod it. Let alone the time lost.

I'd say, just use a Coppermine, Coppermines are perfectly capable chips in their own right ;D

As far as I'm concerned, if it takes 30 minutes to do the mod then it's worth the cost of buying a new motherboard that supports the parts you want to use.

Reply 42 of 44, by F2bnp

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Old Thrashbarg wrote:

What I need to do now is bridge AK4 with AK26.

Do AK4 to AN11, as the green bridge shows. That has nothing to do with the voltage. (The blue bridge is for voltage, and you also should do that one if you don't want to risk feeding 2V+ to the chip. I'm not sure if the CUSL2 will do that, but quite a few boards do, so it would be wise to play it safe.)

AK4 to AK26 was the original method for bridging the PWRGOOD signal, but that method was found to have some problems with the voltage levels and electrical noise and, thus, stability. Doing AK4 to a VTT pin like bypasses the actual PWRGOOD signal, but it still works and with fewer problems than using the old method.

Nice one! I'll try it out (this is like the 4th time I type this 🤣 )

Sliderider you're probably right, but since I'm only 17 and don't have too much pocket money to spare, I'm trying to build the ultimate retro PC with the least of cost 😜.
I might get a TUSL2 sometime though!

Reply 43 of 44, by RogueTrip2012

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I gotta say stay away from the TUSL2-C. I had one since it was new. It died (power no post). I recently bought one off ebay that said it was working and tried it today but is dead (power no post).

I've tried everything on these boards. hold down the insert key. pulled battery and clrRTC. even replaced the bios chip! No go on either board. Everything in the system has been working great and all I did was a mobo swap out from a working system.

Seems that finding a working I815EP B-Step is a PITA!! Out of 5 I only have 1 working, grrrr.... 😠