From owner-freebsd-questions Fri Jun 28 10:28:04 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id KAA15171 for questions-outgoing; Fri, 28 Jun 1996 10:28:04 -0700 (PDT) Received: from siegfried.utmb.edu (siegfried.utmb.edu [129.109.59.86]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id KAA15126 for ; Fri, 28 Jun 1996 10:28:00 -0700 (PDT) Received: from beowulf.utmb.EDU (beowulf.utmb.edu [129.109.59.83]) by siegfried.utmb.edu (8.5/8.5) with ESMTP id MAA04496; Fri, 28 Jun 1996 12:25:01 -0500 Received: by beowulf.utmb.EDU (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) id MAA26064; Fri, 28 Jun 1996 12:24:37 -0500 Date: Fri, 28 Jun 1996 12:24:37 -0500 From: bdodson@beowulf.utmb.edu (M. L. Dodson) Message-Id: <199606281724.MAA26064@beowulf.utmb.EDU> To: jeff@tad.cetlink.net Subject: Re: Cyrix Processors Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG X-Sun-Charset: US-ASCII Sender: owner-questions@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk [deleted] > > I have upgraded 2 of my servers to the P166+ (Cyrix) and FIC PA-2002 mainboards. I have the same motherboard (I'm pretty sure) running with a genuine Intel P75. The stress test I use is to run bonnie in a loop with a 32MB file. Adaptec 2940 (not UW) with an IBM 512MB scsi disk. Only other card is the video. This with 2.1R. > I have had some problems with this. For starters, a kernel compiled with only > the I586_CPU will not boot. When compiled with both the I486_CPU and I586_CPU > options, the kernel will boot, but the cpu is identified as a 486 cpu. Next, > X will not start using xinit. I have to start X with xdm to get things to go. > WHen I was using an AMD DX4-100 CPU, X would start and the system would then > perform well. I have tried to compare the performance of the AMD and the Cyrix > chips, as well as with a P100 machine (all identical OS and periphials) and the > P100 outperforms both. I am also interested in other peoples results as I can > not justify upgrading anymore machines at this time. Lastly, the Cyrix machine > will randomly crash without any logs or warnings. This is unpredictable. > Mine does the same if the external cache is enabled (two different sets of chips -- 15ns -- tried.) With ext. cache disabled, two tests went more than 12 hrs without crashing. 8MB of 70ns memory. Sometimes a SCSI bus reset error message is logged to the console, but mostly it just silently dies. With cache enabled I never got longer than 7 hr into a run. I suspect this motherboard is very marginal. 75mhz is not fast nowadays. Bud Dodson > Regards, > Jeff > > > > -- M. L. Dodson bdodson@scms.utmb.edu 409-772-2178 FAX: 409-772-1790