Very Computer

I am thinking of updating my 486 DX 33 (intel) chip and mother board to an AMD
486 DX2 80 chip from Galaxy Computers.  Does anyone know anything about this
chip, or about this company?  If not, can you reccomend a good source for
a similiar chip and mother board?  BTW, the Galaxy price on this arrangement
(486 DX2 80 AMD, mother board includes seven expan. 3 VLB and 4 ISA it comes
with the ZIP socket for P-90 upgrades and has a 72 hour burn-in) for about
365$  Is this great or am i just missing something?  Information would be

eciated very much.  Email at:

Thank You very much in advance.  AND, the reason I posted to THIS group...
Are there any conflicts between the 80 Mhz AMD chip and Linux?  I have heard
that Linux doesn't like chips higher that 66Mhz  is this true?  Thanks again.

Warren Timmer

Quote:>Thank You very much in advance.  AND, the reason I posted to THIS group...
>Are there any conflicts between the 80 Mhz AMD chip and Linux?  I have heard
>that Linux doesn't like chips higher that 66Mhz  is this true?  Thanks again.

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: I am thinking of updating my 486 DX 33 (intel) chip and mother board to an AMD
: 486 DX2 80 chip from Galaxy Computers.  Does anyone know anything about this
: chip, or about this company?  If not, can you reccomend a good source for
: a similiar chip and mother board?  BTW, the Galaxy price on this arrangement
: (486 DX2 80 AMD, mother board includes seven expan. 3 VLB and 4 ISA it comes
: with the ZIP socket for P-90 upgrades and has a 72 hour burn-in) for about
: 365$  Is this great or am i just missing something?  Information would be

: eciated very much.  Email at:

: Thank You very much in advance.  AND, the reason I posted to THIS group...
: Are there any conflicts between the 80 Mhz AMD chip and Linux?  I have heard
: that Linux doesn't like chips higher that 66Mhz  is this true?  Thanks again.

: Warren Timmer

I can't complain about. But I have a 5 V CPU. Beware of the 3.3 V
technologie, since most mainboards still have some problems. But it's
just fast and kernel recompile takes about 7 min :-) from scratch !

cu
--
Solong & Happy Hacking
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Warren,

  I have upgraded my system from an AMD 486DX2-50 to a 486DX2-80 and am having
problems.  I do not blame them on my AMD chip, though.  I have an ATI Graphics
Ultra Pro board.  Its the VLB model.  I also have a VLB multi I/O board which
has a caching IDE controller on it.  In any case, these boards worked fine when
the system was running at 25 Mhz, but now that it is at 40 Mhz, things are
terrible.  I've removed the Multi I/O card and replaced it with a 16bit board
which does not cache.  I think I will be buying a new motherboard soon.  I
think that its VLB is the problem.
  I guess the point is, you won't have problems with the 80 Mhz and Linux.
You may have problems with the 80 Mhz and any VLB cards with the motherboard.
From the readings I see on UseNet, I've noticed that other people have had
problems with VLB combinations.  My problems had occured in both DOS and
Linux environments.  I still have some problems in Linux when I run XV and
try to do some color editing functions.  Sometimes the system crashes when
I start X.  I tried upgrading to X11R6 (XFree86 3.1) and that did not help.
Make sure you will have time to try out the motherboard before you decide
to keep the system.

--Robert Cashman
  MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Quote:>I can't complain about. But I have a 5 V CPU. Beware of the 3.3 V
>technologie, since most mainboards still have some problems. But it's
>just fast and kernel recompile takes about 7 min :-) from scratch !

I personally haven't seen many problem specifically with 3.3V boards yet.
They seem no better or worse than other boards, in fact we use the same
boards (can be jumpered to either). 3.3V CPUs are slightly cheaper, and
since they require less cooling (none for the AM486 DX2/66 3V and just a
heatsink for the AM486 DX2/80 3V) that also brings the price down (and
assembly costs if you're thinking assembled systems...) and reliability up
(those little fans seem to have a quite high failure rate).

    v__  
  <"___\____     Bram 'mouser' Smits.

*  Truly songs and tales fall utterly short of reality,                       *
*  O Smaug the Greatest and Chiefest of Calamities  - JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit *

: Warren,

:   I have upgraded my system from an AMD 486DX2-50 to a 486DX2-80 and am having
: problems.  I do not blame them on my AMD chip, though.  I have an ATI Graphics
: Ultra Pro board.  Its the VLB model.  I also have a VLB multi I/O board which
: has a caching IDE controller on it.  In any case, these boards worked fine when
: the system was running at 25 Mhz, but now that it is at 40 Mhz, things are
: terrible.  I've removed the Multi I/O card and replaced it with a 16bit board
: which does not cache.  I think I will be buying a new motherboard soon.  I
: think that its VLB is the problem.
:   I guess the point is, you won't have problems with the 80 Mhz and Linux.
: You may have problems with the 80 Mhz and any VLB cards with the motherboard.
: From the readings I see on UseNet, I've noticed that other people have had
: problems with VLB combinations.  My problems had occured in both DOS and
: Linux environments.  I still have some problems in Linux when I run XV and
: try to do some color editing functions.  Sometimes the system crashes when
: I start X.  I tried upgrading to X11R6 (XFree86 3.1) and that did not help.
: Make sure you will have time to try out the motherboard before you decide
: to keep the system.

: --Robert Cashman
:   MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Hello Robert,

I think the ATI is your problem. The c't (a german computer magazin) claims that
all ATI chips (including Mach64) are only specified for a maximum frequency of
33 MHz. Hence your 40MHz VL bus overcharges the ATI. Maybe this is the reason
for your problems.

Bye,

Frank

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I'll try to get some more info unless someone else comes up with it but
do'nt count on it soon.

PCI is supposed to be usable up at bus speeds of 80MHz+.

--
jd

Box 51067 Pacific Grove, CA, 93950-6067 USA

                I don't speak for anyone or anything.
                Sometimes not even for myself.

: That's odd.  The PCI Specifications 2.0 and 2.1 limit the PCI bus clock
: rate to 33 MHz.  There is an optional 66 MHz timing extension in PCI 2.1.
: It will be very difficult to make 66 MHz *slots* reliable using low cost
: ASICs and glass-epoxy PC boards.  You might see high-end 66MHz motherboards
: (586DX2-132?) with integrated 66 MHz PCI video after a while, though.
: --

It seems to work ok at 40MHz.
        - Mark

--
"InfoMagic Linux Developer's Resource - we support it!"
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Yes .. and no, the VLB is just a direct connection to the CPU, at speeds
above 33Mhz you have to limit the number of cards ( at 40Mhz only 2 cards )
and be very careful about the cards you stick in it. I seem to recall
that some Diamond cards were capable of 40Mhz operation - albeit with one
wait state.

: PCI is supposed to be usable up at bus speeds of 80MHz+.

No, PCI is fixed at 33Mhz, independant of CPU clock.

Cheers. Nick Daglis.

Moreover it seems none of the current PCI motherboard core logic
chipsets have smart enough CPU-to-PCI buffers to sustain burst mode
for more than a few words; the best are limited at 60 Mb/s or so.

Popular chipset such as the S3-864/Trio64 and S3-964 don't seem to
manage much more than 20 Mb/s throughput anyway.

To all:

  I just want to thank everyone for their input on my AMD DX280Mhz and VLB
problem.  There is a computer show scheduled for this month near my home.
I will be purchasing a new motherboard there, after reading through the
manual for it of course.  I have tried to fiddle with my BIOS settings on
my current motherboard, but it has not helped.  I have even tried running
the AMISETUP program which I found on the net which allowed me to change
functions in my CMOS which my BIOS interface did not let me try.  It
did not help.  After I try the new motherboard, I will post if it worked.

--Robert W. Cashman
  MIT Lincoln Laboratory

I have had only one problem, and that was that the
scsi controller would sometimes lock up.  The solution was to slow down the
address set-up time on the motherboard for that specific card. (This is how
the motherboard referred to it.) It was a simple matter of moving 1 jumper.
 It solved the problem immediately, and I have had no problems since.

I find it to be a wonderful system, very fast, no problems (only ever
crashed in DOS/Win(tm), which is not the fault of the hardware...).  Plus,
the added bonus that I don't have IntelInside.

Feel free to e-mail with questions.

geir

Geir Magnusson Jr.                No, Mr. Gingrich, I don't really want
Dept of Physics and Astronomy     to hunt giraffes, thank you.
Johns Hopkins University