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Date:      Tue, 01 Oct 1996 11:03:32 -0700
From:      "Michael L. VanLoon -- HeadCandy.com" <michaelv@MindBender.serv.net>
To:        "Rodney W. Grimes" <rgrimes@gndrsh.aac.dev.com>
Cc:        narvi@haldjas.folklore.ee, obrien@nuxi.cs.ucdavis.edu, freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: H/W recommendation 
Message-ID:  <199610011803.LAA18291@MindBender.serv.net>
In-Reply-To: Your message of Tue, 01 Oct 96 09:08:50 -0700. <199610011608.JAA19605@GndRsh.aac.dev.com> 

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>>       Even      Memory   PCI bus
>>     Multiple  bus speed   speed
>>        MHz       MHz       MHz
>>     --------  ---------  -------
>>       33.3      66.67      33.3
>>       30.0      60.00      30.0
>>       25.0      50.00      25.0

>If you guys are going to talk about this at least get the FACTS right
>before you make 3 or 4 erronious posts...

I have all the FACTS right -- I know exactly what I am talking about.
I typo'd the original post (when I accidentally typed PCI where I
meant memory bus), which is different from not getting the "facts"
right.

>``Even multiplier misses
>the fact that there are 1.5, and 2.5 multipliers!!!''.

I never once mentioned the word "multiplier".  I did not discuss the
motherboard clock multiplier setting.  I discussed multiples of a
value.  100 is an even multiple of 33 1/3.  It's true that a 100MHz
Pentium generally runs at 1.5 * 66 2/3 MHz, but that's not what I was
discussing.  The original post specifically asked about chip speeds
and bus speeds, not multiplier settings.

>Memory bus
>speed should generally not be specified with 2 digits beyond the
>decimal point as it depends heavely on the clock chip and/or oscillator
>used in a design.

I was specifically trying to make a general observation.  That's why
the first time I wrote the numbers, I wrote "33 1/3" and "66 2/3".
Unfortunately, it's very awkward to write fractions in ascii test,
especially when following them by a unit, such as "MHz".  So, I used
33.33 and 66.67 to approximate 33 1/3 and 66 2/3.  Moreover, if those
aren't fairly close to the real figure, and we're truly talking about
33 and 66MHz, then we're also talking about 132MHz, 165MHz, and
198-199MHz Pentiums.  I doubt there are any decent motherboard
manufacturers out there really doing something stupid like that.
Using "166" and "133" is merely a convenient way for them to say "133
1/3" and "166 2/3".

>Here, express it the way that most motherboard documents do:

That's fine.  Very nice table, but not as summary-oriented as I had
attempted to be.  I figured if they wanted multiplier settings for
their motherboard, it would be just as easy for them to look it up in
their motherboard's manual, as to read it here.

>Rated	External Clock	External to	PCI Bus
> CPU	and Memory Bus	Internal Clock	Clock
> MHZ	MHZ**		Multiplier	MHZ
>
> 75	50		1.5		25
> 90	60		1.5		30
> 100	50*		2		25
> 100	66		1.5		33
> 120	60		2		30
> 133	66		2		33
> 150	60		2.5		30
> 166	66		2.5		33
> 180	60		3		30
> 200	66		3		33
>
>*  The Pentium 100 can be run at either 50MHz external clock with a
>   multiplier of 2 or 66MHz and a multiplier of 1.5.

True, it CAN be, but I'd feel sorry for the fool who bought such a
machine.

>** 66 Mhz may actually be 66.667 MHz, but don't assume so.

See above...

>As can be seen the best parts to be using are the 100, 133, 166 and 200,
>with the exception that at a mulitplier of 3 the CPU starves for memory.

Yes, it's been said that the P5/200 runs barely faster than a P5/166
in many benchmarks, because the bus is saturated.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Michael L. VanLoon                           michaelv@MindBender.serv.net
        --<  Free your mind and your machine -- NetBSD free un*x  >--
    NetBSD working ports: 386+PC, Mac 68k, Amiga, Atari 68k, HP300, Sun3,
        Sun4/4c/4m, DEC MIPS, DEC Alpha, PC532, VAX, MVME68k, arm32...
    NetBSD ports in progress: PICA, others...
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