Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Wed, 6 Sep 1995 09:59:53 -0700 (PDT)
From:      Jake Hamby <jehamby@lightside.com>
To:        Marty Leisner <leisner@sdsp.mc.xerox.com>
Cc:        Mats Lofkvist <mal@algonet.se>, hackers@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: AMD dx4-100 - Any good? 
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.3.91.950906095523.170A-100000@localhost>
In-Reply-To: <9509061458.AA21913@gnu.mc.xerox.com>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Wed, 6 Sep 1995, Marty Leisner wrote:

> while we're on the topic of cache,
> 
> Are there are good performance studies of the effect of 
> L2 cache on 486/DX4100 /DX2-66/DX2-50
> 
> I've never been exposed to a good discussion of cache...one 
> system I have has what looks like a socket for cache (i.e. something
> like simms shaped differently), another system uses actual chips...
> 
> I have some sram chips, and had a bear of a time plugging them in...
> (I didn't)...
> 
> Should I insert the chips into carriers?  About a decade ago, when
> I was doing hardware, it made life much, much easier...
> 

Most 486/Pentium systems these days seem to come with 256k of L2 cache.  
If not, you can add it for under $50 if you know what chips to buy (the 
motherboard vendor or retailer should be able to help you here).  When 
you boot up, most BIOS's will tell you how much cache is installed on the 
power-on screen.

As for performance improvement, it should be quite dramatic, but 
individual motherboards vary as to effectiveness.  I do remember a 
Windows 3.1 program called Wintune (you can download from 
http://www.winmag.com/) which repeatedly accesses memory in larger and 
larger arrays and displays a graph of speed which should drop off when 
the array gets too big to fit in the L2 cache.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Jake Hamby                         |   E-Mail:  jehamby@lightside.com
  Student, Cal Poly University, Pomona  |   System Administrator, JPL
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?Pine.BSF.3.91.950906095523.170A-100000>