From owner-freebsd-hackers  Thu Jan  7 16:46:42 1999
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG>
Received: (from majordom@localhost)
          by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id QAA04087
          for freebsd-hackers-outgoing; Thu, 7 Jan 1999 16:46:42 -0800 (PST)
          (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG)
Received: from Sisyphos.MI.Uni-Koeln.DE (Sisyphos.MI.Uni-Koeln.DE [134.95.212.10])
          by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id QAA04053;
          Thu, 7 Jan 1999 16:46:16 -0800 (PST)
          (envelope-from se@dialup124.zpr.uni-koeln.de)
Received: from dialup124.zpr.Uni-Koeln.DE (dialup124.zpr.Uni-Koeln.DE [134.95.219.124])
	by Sisyphos.MI.Uni-Koeln.DE (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id BAA14895;
	Fri, 8 Jan 1999 01:45:42 +0100 (MET)
Received: (from se@localhost) by dialup124.zpr.Uni-Koeln.DE (8.9.1/8.6.9) id AAA00460; Fri, 8 Jan 1999 00:40:50 +0100 (CET)
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 00:40:50 +0100
From: Stefan Esser <se@mi.uni-koeln.de>
To: Narvi <narvi@haldjas.folklore.ee>
Cc: fn@hungry.com, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG, Stefan Esser <se@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject: Re: Winchip.
Message-ID: <19990108004050.A347@dialup124.mi.uni-koeln.de>
Reply-To: se@FreeBSD.ORG
Mail-Followup-To: Narvi <narvi@haldjas.folklore.ee>, fn@hungry.com,
	hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
References: <19990107051341.27476.qmail@terror.hungry.com> <Pine.BSF.3.96.990107125335.5112d-100000@haldjas.folklore.ee>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
X-Mailer: Mutt 0.95i
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.96.990107125335.5112d-100000@haldjas.folklore.ee>; from Narvi on Thu, Jan 07, 1999 at 12:55:39PM +0200
Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Precedence: bulk
X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG

On 1999-01-07 12:55 +0200, Narvi <narvi@haldjas.folklore.ee> wrote:
> On 6 Jan 1999 fn@hungry.com wrote:
> > Does FreeBSD work on Winchip systems?
> > 
> > A cursory examination of the mailing list archives (and /sys/i386/i386/*)
> > didn't reveal anything related to it.
> 
> Haven't tested it - it is just not possible here to get any alternative
> x86 chips but AMD, and then probably only because of a big bunch of crazy
> overclockers.
> 
> But I guess it should work OK, provided you have options CPU_486 &
> CPU_386 in the kernel.

I recently received 10 old original IBM Pentium machines (for free ;-)
with P75 CPUs, and replaced those with WinChip W2/240 CPUs (at 4*60MHz, 
since those systems had 64MB of 70ns DRAM, and I was afraid they might 
not run with an 66MHz external clock ;-)

The speed-up is impressive, a factor of 3 in some benchmark I tried.
Just this evening I started the first "make world" on one of those PCs,
but don't have timing results, yet.

The WinChip needs a fan (those IBM machines have just a LARGE heat-sink
and a fan in the front of the desktop case, this has worked so far) and 
a switched power regulator most probably is a plus, too.

At $55 a piece, the WinChip is a good choice for 3.3V only mainboards,
but I'd rather get me an AMD K6, if your mainboard supports dual-voltage
CPUs.

The kernel is built with CPU_686, BTW. The primary cache of the WinChip 
supports write-allocation, and I plan to add the necessare detection 
and configuration code when I have some spare time.

Regards, STefan

To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message