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Date:      Fri, 28 Jun 1996 18:37:05 -0700 (PDT)
From:      Howard Lew <hlew@sequence.Stanford.EDU>
To:        "M. L. Dodson" <bdodson@beowulf.utmb.edu>
Cc:        jeff@tad.cetlink.net, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: Cyrix Processors
Message-ID:  <Pine.OSF.3.91.960628183458.18140D-100000@aeffle.Stanford.EDU>
In-Reply-To: <199606281724.MAA26064@beowulf.utmb.EDU>

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On Fri, 28 Jun 1996, M. L. Dodson wrote:

> 
> [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.


There's a CMOS setting that must be set right for Adaptec 2940 and PA-2002 
users.  Please see the manual.  If it is not there, I'll repost it again.  
I posted the fix about a week ago (you may want to check some of the 
messages that have gone by this mailing list).


----

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| ------------------------------> WWW - http://www2.shoppersnet.com
 -------------------------------> WWW - http://www.shoppersnet.com/shopping





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