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Atheatos
Приєднався 31 жов 2006
In this channel I combine two things, my passion for Retro PC Hardware and Electronics.
With the first one, I have more that 25 years of experience and a huge collection of hardware.
With the second one, I am just a very experienced Hardware / PCB design engineer.
Retro Hardware looks very fascinating and simple to me, the possibilities are limitless.
So what you are gonna find here is some extreme mods of retro hardware,
as well as my original hardware for retro computers. Let's mod everything! ^^
You can check my stuff in the store: migronelectronics.bigcartel.com
For anything else, feel free to contact on the links / email below.
Thank you very much for watching,
Atheatos
With the first one, I have more that 25 years of experience and a huge collection of hardware.
With the second one, I am just a very experienced Hardware / PCB design engineer.
Retro Hardware looks very fascinating and simple to me, the possibilities are limitless.
So what you are gonna find here is some extreme mods of retro hardware,
as well as my original hardware for retro computers. Let's mod everything! ^^
You can check my stuff in the store: migronelectronics.bigcartel.com
For anything else, feel free to contact on the links / email below.
Thank you very much for watching,
Atheatos
The time when ATI was Clock Locking their GPUs. Ways to Circumvent. Bios Modding Tutorial! #GPUJune2
It is now time for some GPU Modding / Overclocking. #GPUJune2
Back in 2003 ATI decided to Clock Lock all Low-end and Mid-range GPUs.
This includes all Radeon models from the 9000 to the 9600.
This is so SAD... It makes me cry, for real. T-T
So in this video I present all the ways to circumvent this lock. :D
This includes software Tools, Modded Drivers, and BIOS Modding.
A lot of different tools are used here: ATITool, RaBiT, FlashRom.
So this is a nice mini Tutorial on all these methods.
In theory the same tools can be used to unlock pipes on certain models.
This is not covered here, as I do not have any of these cards (9500 and 9800SE).
I might explain this in a future video.
Addition:
The RaBiT Tool can directly open the Bios running on you GPU.
With the option: Open, OnBoard EEPROM
ATI Overclocking and Bios Tools:
drive.google.com/drive/folders/1stjYtg4_w4DPrkc1EJKj14v6diy6YFrI
Link to archived modded drivers site:
web.archive.org/web/20070604050712/www.techpowerup.com/softmod/previous.php
Another one that might help is the Radeon Omega Driver:
www.guru3d.com/files-get/radeon-omega-drivers-4-8-442,4.html
-- TIMESTAMPS --
00:00 - Introduction
03:45 - Circumventing the Lock, Tools and Drivers (Windows XP).
08:43 - Circumventing the Lock, ATI GPU Bios Mod (All OS).
12:56 - Outro
I hope you liked this Video!
Please like, comment, share and subscribe for more!
This is very important for my growing channel.
Support me with PayPal so I can bring you more Videos like that:
paypal.me/galanopu
Back in 2003 ATI decided to Clock Lock all Low-end and Mid-range GPUs.
This includes all Radeon models from the 9000 to the 9600.
This is so SAD... It makes me cry, for real. T-T
So in this video I present all the ways to circumvent this lock. :D
This includes software Tools, Modded Drivers, and BIOS Modding.
A lot of different tools are used here: ATITool, RaBiT, FlashRom.
So this is a nice mini Tutorial on all these methods.
In theory the same tools can be used to unlock pipes on certain models.
This is not covered here, as I do not have any of these cards (9500 and 9800SE).
I might explain this in a future video.
Addition:
The RaBiT Tool can directly open the Bios running on you GPU.
With the option: Open, OnBoard EEPROM
ATI Overclocking and Bios Tools:
drive.google.com/drive/folders/1stjYtg4_w4DPrkc1EJKj14v6diy6YFrI
Link to archived modded drivers site:
web.archive.org/web/20070604050712/www.techpowerup.com/softmod/previous.php
Another one that might help is the Radeon Omega Driver:
www.guru3d.com/files-get/radeon-omega-drivers-4-8-442,4.html
-- TIMESTAMPS --
00:00 - Introduction
03:45 - Circumventing the Lock, Tools and Drivers (Windows XP).
08:43 - Circumventing the Lock, ATI GPU Bios Mod (All OS).
12:56 - Outro
I hope you liked this Video!
Please like, comment, share and subscribe for more!
This is very important for my growing channel.
Support me with PayPal so I can bring you more Videos like that:
paypal.me/galanopu
Переглядів: 1 521
Відео
Binning / Testing 14 Am5x86 CPUs. The 190% Overclock on Am486-DX2-66 and the Unreal 70MHz 486 Bus!
Переглядів 1,7 тис.2 роки тому
This video has two parts: On the fist part I am Overclocking my entire 5x86 collection on Air. That is 14 pieces in total, 6 different markings / models. What is the effect of the exact marking on Overclocking? Then using one of these CPUs I am pushing my Motherboard... in order to find the absolute maximum Bus Speed here. Surprising world record results as always :) Correction on the Video: Th...
Pentium Overdrive (Socket 3). Modding, Over/Underclocking. New Records! IBM-XT Performance Possible?
Переглядів 2,9 тис.2 роки тому
The focus of this video is on the Intel Pentium Overdrive Processor... for 486 M/Bs (Socket 2/3), models PODP5V63 and PODP5V83. I am using again my heavily modified Soyo 4SAW2 M/B (SIS 85C496). Some crazy amount of information in this video. Yeah I cover Everything, absolutely Everything! I had a-lot of fun with this one here... Modified the cooling, the voltage regulator and more. Extreme Over...
Testing even more 387DX Floating Point Units. Overclocked to the MAX and Benched with a 486DLC.
Переглядів 1,4 тис.2 роки тому
It is time again to check some 387DX FPUs / 386 Math Co-Processors. I am using again my M326 v5.2 M/B, this time with a 486DLC CPU. It is a good idea to first check my original video on this topic: ua-cam.com/video/Tv9LVhlo7EM/v-deo.html Since then my FPU collection has increased by a lot! Now we have here 12 Differently looking Floating Point Units, with 6-7 unique performing ones! Tested all ...
Over/Underclocking the Am5x86 (AMD 486). Insane results, IBM-XT(8088) to Pentium Performance Levels!
Переглядів 2,4 тис.2 роки тому
Yeah, it is time for some Overclocking / Underclocking fun with: - My heavily modded Soyo 4SAW2 M/B (SIS 85C496). - A few Am5x86 CPUs (These are the last 486 CPUs from AMD). - Lots of PCI VGA cards. Additionally this video is a mini review optimization guide on this M/B. This machine now covers a crazy amount of performance span. You can basically run everything form the very first IBM-XT (8088...
Beating again all my 386DX and 486DLC Records! My final results on the M326 motherboard.
Переглядів 2,5 тис.2 роки тому
The time has come again to beat all my previous 386DX and 486DLC Records! I am still using the same, heavily modified, PC-Chips M326 V5.2 Motherboard. Well for sure the improvements were not that spectacular this time. But some benchmarks were improved by even 6% (like Doom!). All that was achieved with optimizations and mods alone. This is again an information packed Video! Enjoy! Two of the t...
Hacking a 486SXLC2 (8KB of L1 Cache) into a lucky 386SX Motherboard. Insane performance boost!
Переглядів 4,6 тис.2 роки тому
OK, I promised... I am delivering! I modded my 386SX Lab Rat with a 486SXLC2 CPU. It is advised to first check my Video review of this M/B: ua-cam.com/video/MiOfbpbrDW0/v-deo.html The 486SXLC2 is the top 16bit bus, Cyrix based, 386 replacement CPU! It features 8KB of integrated L1 Cache and a clock doubler. - The mod was a success! The results were mixed. - I do not wand to spoil this too much ...
386SX Motherboard Review (SARC RC2016 chipset): Optimization Guide, Modding, Overclocking.
Переглядів 1,4 тис.2 роки тому
Introducing to you my latest 386 LabRat! This is a 386SX and the M/B model is "SER 386-SS" This is based on the SARC RC2016 chipset. Many M/Bs have a similar design. The following M/Bs have exactly the same Layout: - BEK-tronic "BEK-3703" - Pine Technology "PT-319A" OK, This video basically has it all: - Motherboard Review. - Optimization Guide. - A few mods here and there. - Lots of Benchmarks...
SIS 486 M/B SY-4SAW2. 4 + 1 MODS. Now with a fully configurable CPU Voltage Regulator!
Переглядів 1,4 тис.2 роки тому
Today's Lab-Rat is my Soyo 4SAW2 486 Motherboard. Last time I modded an Any-clk device into this one. This now allows me to set the bus clock at will! In this video I come back with 4 more mods! 1) Added a proper PS/2 port for the Mouse. 2) Replaced the CMOS battery with a lithium one. 3) Recapped this completely (ok I overdid this part a bit). 4) Modded the CPU voltage regulator to gain more f...
HangMan! A Freeware DOS Game written by me 20 years ago in Turbo Pascal.
Переглядів 6702 роки тому
Time for something new in this channel! This is a Retro DOS game that I wrote nearly 20 Year ago! This is the classic kids game Hangman on steroids. It is written using Borlands Turbo Pascal. Should be compatible with most retro systems. This is released today for the first time (20 years anniversary edition). It includes bug-fixes, visual improvements and an English menu. Features: - Play agai...
PC/104 Gaming Sound Card - Part 2: Now With MT-32 Compatibility Mode!
Переглядів 1,3 тис.2 роки тому
It is time for an update on my PC/104 Gaming Sound Card. Updates to the Circuit - Tweaked output power amplifier - Improved PC Speaker filtering and mixing. - Added MT-32 compatibility mode for the onboard Midi Synth. SPECS - ESS ES1869F (SB, SBp, WSS, ESFM) - SAM2695 MIDI Synthesizer - Game Port - CD Audio in - PC Speaker in - Modern High quality Power Amplifier In the last part of the video t...
Running the Cx/Tx 486DLC to the Limits! 386 replacement CPU with 1KB L1 Cache. Insane results!
Переглядів 2,3 тис.3 роки тому
Yea, the time has come for me to also test the Cx/Tx 486DLC chips. These are 386 replacement / upgrade CPUs and have a cut down... 486 core with 1KB integrated L1 Cache. As usual in this Video: 1) Historical details and similar models. 2) Full optimization guide. 3) Overclocking to the limit. 4) Many record breaking benchmark results! Benchmark results: drive.google.com/file/d/14_ykREU96xbaNaw0...
Intel 80386DX, faster that AMD am386DX? Insane overclocking results!
Переглядів 1,6 тис.3 роки тому
Time to check the original Intel 386DX, the 80386DX. Some general info and comparisons with the AMD am386DX. Then pushed / overclocked to the limit. I got again some insane fully optimized results. Probably the fastest results recorded with this chip. Is this chip faster than the AMD am386DX? Can this break my 386 world records? The answers in the Video! Enjoy :) Please like, comment, share and...
Bios Modding Tutorial for 386, 486 and Pentium PCs. Unlock hidden options in Award and AMI BIOS!
Переглядів 11 тис.3 роки тому
This is my full modding tutorial for Award and AMI BIOS. The main goal is to unlock hidden options. Solutions for both Award and AMI Bios are presented. This tutorial is applicable to 386, 486 and Pentium systems. Might be also useful for older and newer system too. Three BIOS modding tools are presented: 1) Modbin v4.50 (for Award BIOS) 2) AmiBCP v7.60 (for newer AMI BIOS) 3) AMIsetup v2.99 (f...
386 Motherboard Review / Optimization Guide: 367C Rev 1.0 (Unichip U4800-VLX) .
Переглядів 1,1 тис.3 роки тому
This is a full review and optimization guide on my 2nd 386 Lab-Rat. This is an 367C Rev 1.0 board than has the Unichip U4800-VLX. This board supports the write back scheme for the Cache memory. Will this be any fastest than my first board? I hope you enjoyed this Video... Please like, comment, share and subscribe for more! Support me with PayPal so I can bring you more Videos like that: paypal....
ISA Clock measuring device is now available! Now at Ver: 1.01 with improvements.
Переглядів 6933 роки тому
ISA Clock measuring device is now available! Now at Ver: 1.01 with improvements.
Am386DX Beyond the moon: A never ending modding story. Bios Mod, unlocking / optimizing all options.
Переглядів 1,3 тис.3 роки тому
Am386DX Beyond the moon: A never ending modding story. Bios Mod, unlocking / optimizing all options.
Custom clock generator for Retro systems "Any_Clk". A new era of Retro Overclocking?
Переглядів 1,6 тис.3 роки тому
Custom clock generator for Retro systems "Any_Clk". A new era of Retro Overclocking?
Landing the 386 to the moon! New VDD Mod! New Am386DX overclock record at 55Mhz.
Переглядів 2,9 тис.3 роки тому
Landing the 386 to the moon! New VDD Mod! New Am386DX overclock record at 55Mhz.
General MIDI Synthesizer on a Motherboard's Game Port! G_Dream_Max is now Available!
Переглядів 6523 роки тому
General MIDI Synthesizer on a Motherboard's Game Port! G_Dream_Max is now Available!
386 Motherboard Mod: 128 KB to 256 KB of cache! New Quake record set.
Переглядів 2,2 тис.3 роки тому
386 Motherboard Mod: 128 KB to 256 KB of cache! New Quake record set.
4 x 386 Floating Point Units / Math Co-Processors overclocked and benchmarked!
Переглядів 1,7 тис.3 роки тому
4 x 386 Floating Point Units / Math Co-Processors overclocked and benchmarked!
Simm-30 FPM Showdown! New 45ns memory modules! New 386 overclocking personal record with 0WS.
Переглядів 1,8 тис.3 роки тому
Simm-30 FPM Showdown! New 45ns memory modules! New 386 overclocking personal record with 0WS.
PCI clock measuring device is now available! Ver: 1.01 Improvements. ISA clock is coming soon!
Переглядів 4823 роки тому
PCI clock measuring device is now available! Ver: 1.01 Improvements. ISA clock is coming soon!
Overclocking, Underclocking the 386 with a custom clock generator. 2Mhz to 50Mhz, ~0.5Mhz step!!
Переглядів 1,9 тис.3 роки тому
Overclocking, Underclocking the 386 with a custom clock generator. 2Mhz to 50Mhz, ~0.5Mhz step!!
Original Hardware: PC/104 Gaming Sound Card, ESS ES1869F + Dream SAM2695 MIDI.
Переглядів 3,4 тис.3 роки тому
Original Hardware: PC/104 Gaming Sound Card, ESS ES1869F Dream SAM2695 MIDI.
Pentium MMX (Tillamook core) overclocked to 420MHz. Faster than K6-2 ?
Переглядів 10 тис.3 роки тому
Pentium MMX (Tillamook core) overclocked to 420MHz. Faster than K6-2 ?
386 System Review / Optimization Guide. MB: M326 v5.2 (PC chips) + VGA: TVGA8900D-R (Trident).
Переглядів 2 тис.3 роки тому
386 System Review / Optimization Guide. MB: M326 v5.2 (PC chips) VGA: TVGA8900D-R (Trident).
Original Hardware: General MIDI synthesizer with Gameport interface!
Переглядів 8133 роки тому
Original Hardware: General MIDI synthesizer with Gameport interface!
Original Hardware: 50ns, FPM, Simm-30 Memory Modules!
Переглядів 9953 роки тому
Original Hardware: 50ns, FPM, Simm-30 Memory Modules!
I have a GCT-8IV motherboard and the retro web has some good info regarding my socket 7 i want to build. The Awards BIOS Chip looks like it can be replaced but im not sure if THIS tool allows me the alternative to upgrade the bios version. Do you have advice on what I should do? 🤷♂🤷♂
I am not really sure on what is your problem there. To update your bios you need a flash program (award flash, to do it while the PC runs), or a programmer (to do it offline by removing and reprogramming the chip). The video and the tools here are about modding the bios files to add modify some options, not related to programming or updating the bios. Latest bios probably available retro web, but first check that version you have.
@@atheatos its the very first family computer so i doubt it was never done. Could this bios modding tool assist in updating to its 1997 release according to rw? Or do you think awardFlash is enough without needing this modding tool?
Moding tools are not for flashing. As said, these are used to edit bios files (add maybe options) before flashing. AwardFalsh is enough for update, but again check first what version you have. The date is stated on boot.
@@atheatos Thank you so much for the clarification. I needed this advice for quite some time as i had to put my socket 7 project on hold because of this. 😅
Side Note! Has anyone ever watch this particular video with [CC] On? I am sorry but I just can't help laughing hard! I have to watch with [CC] because of 'Sudden Loss Of Hearing' back in 2016 in my left ear. Trust me watch this with Closed Caption On, You will not regret it!
Cyrix don't have L1 cache? How about CPU with clock doubler?
The Cyrix 486DLC has 1KB of Cache. It is just that some tools do not detect this small amount of cache. But the cache is there and has a significant difference when you have it enabled. It is the same with 1KB cache clock double CPUs. 8KB ones are detected by the tools.
The underclocking was really quite funny, really interesting video, I know its years later but thanks for the content. I'll binge watch the rest of your videos. 👍
Unreal bandwidth of 3MB/s... >10fps in Doom... Quake runs... damn, I wish I had this 386DX55 instead of 386SX25 back in the day. I wanted 486DX66 though
Can those old chips overclock further if you give them enough voltage and cool them with liquid nitrogen and do full blown extreme overclocking?
I have no ability to do LN2. I had tried with a Peltier and had no real effect there. Also it looks like 55MHz is not only the limit for the CPU but for other parts of the system. I think in general voltage is more important there. The maximum I tried was 5.4v, 5.5v. It could be that even 6v is safe but in general I do not want to risk it as this goes to all the components not only the CPU.
You should try FastDoom and especially fdoom13h and fdoomh exes, your fps will double.
The thing is, If I want to play Doom I for sure do not do this on my 386. And then with normal doom is better / easier for others to compare with my results. However, all this is interesting so I will try it at some point.
Using AMIBCP can you make an AMI bios automatically recognize disks larger than 32GB?
This is not possible with AMIBCP. You need a tool called "Bios Patcher" (rom.by).
@@atheatos I think Bios Patcher works for Award bios, not AMI
You are right. I confused AMIBCP and MODBIN. Either way... I do not think AMIBCP can do it and I do not know something to patch AMI Bios for this.
I bought this board new and still have it.
I´ve got both 512KB, 1MB cache testing with 256MB RAM that's right but everything changes when you use 512MB with windows 7. The 512KB cache one is a little faster with Sisoft Sandra Lite 2007.SP1 Memory-Cache test Combined Index 707MB/s vs 633MB/s in 1MB one. 3DMark2001 2126 for 512KB vs 1992 for 1MB. When you use 768MB RAM the 512KB cache version improves a little with Memory-Cache Test with 711MB/s and 3DMark 2133 but the 1MB cache gets worse from 512MB to 768MB with Memory-Cache test Combined Index with 468MB/s and 3DMark 1900. I did the test with the same BIOS version and configuration also the same hardware. It seems as the cache range in 1MB version is about 256MB instead 4GB. I doubt both internal and external work at the same time, maybe ASUS put the additional external TAG because the internal doesn't work with 1MB cache as same as the versions 1.03, 104. You test that, please also try to find a program which shows both TAG RAM work at the same time. The version 512KB with 10 bits TAG RAM is the cacheable range 512MB. Version 1MB with internal TAG RAM (512MB) x 8 bits of the external = 4GB cacheable range but if only works the external one 256k x 8 bits with 1MB cache, cacheable range would be 256MB. Both 512KB and 1MB cache version work very well with Windows 7 and 512MB or 768MB of RAM even they can handle a Geforce 7600GS 512MB DDR2, that's the graphics card used for the testing. I didn't modify the motherboard for using K6-III+ so the processor is a AMD K6-III/475 working at 450MHz and the original 2.2V but the BUS is 112MHZ (112MHZx4). it works completely stable.
I think I also remember that there was performance hit when with more that 256MB of ram. Now normally with a system like that, 256MB of ram is already more than enough (most people will use it with win win98, max winXP). So I just used 256MB and did my job. Unfortunately I never investigated in depth the cacheability topic. I might check in the future. For the tags... this has nothing to do with Asus. According to the chipset datasheet 1MB cache is only possible with the external tag installed. Now excluding all the mods with 10bit external tag as this means 2 external tag chips that nearly no M/B has, there are two options: 1) Only external tag 8bit that limits cacheability to 128MB to all cache sizes. 2) Both tags enabled that should be 4GB for 1MB cache. Combined tag is 12bit. As 128MB vs 256MB, I did not notice any performance difference, the M/B is probably in the 2) case. Also looking at the WPCRs. register 40 (val 53) and 41 (val 08), both tags are marked as enabled on the 1MB board. So either the 4GB cacheability claim is not actually true or there is some other reason that cuts performance above 256MB of ram. I need to check more, last time I worked on this board was 2 years ago. This is just what I remember.
@@atheatos thank you. I don't believe 4GB cacheability claim is actually true in the 1MB cache type as there's a performance hit when with more that 256MB of ram. In the other hand the 512kb cache one improves performance with 512MB even 768MB ram. I've ever seen some programs which can detect the cacheable range, I don't know if that's true. I'll be happy if you investigate about that.
There is the cache check tool in DOS. It is true, but the more Ram you have the longer it takes to run. It will take a few hours probably with 512MB :/ I will only know more if I do tests again with this M/B. But in the end 256MB is fine for me.
@@atheatos It would be great, if you compared the 1MB cache with 512KB one with 512MB Ram. I´ve already done it, it seems to be about 12% faster the 512KB cache version than the 1MB one doing Sifsoft Sandra 2007 SP1 Memory - Cache test and 7% faster the 512KB cache version doing 3Dmark2001 test. I would be very grateful with you if you do the double check about that. Best wishes.
I will include a section about cacheability on my next video about this board.
Thank you for your tests. I had a MM 166 overclocked to 233 on my SS7 board. Good times :)
IBM BL3 at 2x55 would be very interesting. Hard to find, however. QPF132 from some IBM Model 80 planar I think, unsure? Also, It's possible Paradise VGA XLR WD90C31 from 1993/4 will work fine at 18.33mhz in ISA.
Yeah there is still some room for improvement there. One or the other way I have now the 486SXL (cyrix 2x40, 8KB cache). I also have many VGAs that are probably faster like the WD90C31 (I just had some incompatibility problems there). IBM BL is a different story all together. It is undocumented and to my understanding not 100% compatible with these M/B. However I have a motherboard with it so I can maybe run some benches and compare.
Do bios have to identify the Cyrix cpu for the operation?
No, these are are drop-in replacements for 386DX. However enabling the cache without problems depends on the M/B circuits. And a bios that is aware of CPUs like that could save you from having to use the Cyrix tool.
There must have been a mix up in the factory about part numbers. I guarantee clock doubling works at 5v... they are 5v tolerant...
The CPU is fine. For sure it supports clock doubling. The problem most likely here is an incompatibility of this clock doubling feature with the motherboard (with the M/B chipset or the bios). Others tried on the same M/B failed the same way, while this works on other M/Bs.
Interesting. Never see SIMM with just one chip on.
If we take the back off this package can the clock multiplier be further changed? one clock pin is exposed to fan status and the other might be on the internal wafer package but is NC
Very hard to tell, very hard to reverse to this level. I do not have equipment to try something like this :/ My guess is that this is not possible. The PLL there is probably fixed at 2.5x. Then this is just a safety thing that disables the PLL and so it is clocked directly from the input 1x.
I have the same 386DX-25 with same serials with yours and overclocking to 40Mhz without any issues, giving exact same results with AMD 386DX-40 at NSSI, Landmank and sysinfo.
If fsb is 25 clock doubling should work but if higher cpu might force 1x. Maybe I forget and one version wanted to see 20fsb
I have a 367C board without a Bios chip. I removed the Bios chip from another 367C that I have and I discovered it is an EEProm (no UV window). The only numbers on the chip are 0ABB039/11-5121511/(Triangle icon)345C3BAD0A , I have searched the internet and I can find no info on this Bios Chip. Do you know what this chip could be and what I could use as a replacement?
This is a 64KB Bios. More or less all motherboards like that use a 27C512 Chip. Brand, window or not does not matter.
@@atheatos That's exactly what I tried, I programmed an M27C512, used both of the Roms at Retro Web but neither worked, the post card just shows 4 dashes. Popped the Good chip in and it posted. None of the Chip types I tried with the TL866 can read the good Bios chip ( I was hoping to dump the Bios). I rewatched your video about Bios Modding and I'm wondering if this good bios chip is a 'one time programmable' perhaps that's why it's impossible to find online. The M27C512 I'm using is from a parts board (I've never seen it actually functioning in a running machine) so I'm going to try programming it for another machine and see if it will work in that, if not I'll try another 27C512. Really appreciate your reply Good Sir. I'll be sure to credit your assistance in my next video concerning this. Thank you
If you program and verify your chip with your programmer, it should be fine. So my guess is that the roms you downloaded are just incompatible with your board. Unfortunately many OEM of this era used custom ordered one time programable chips with custom prints for their motherboards. So it is impossible to tell the real model / brand of these chips. However for sure these are one of the many 27c512 listed in Xgpro tool. Just try all of this and try read your chip. If you get an invalid ID massage you can still use the option to ignore the ID and try read it. Or You can see the ID and go online and check it. There is a site "EPROM Device ID List" with a bit list of IDs and eeprom models. Then an other approach is maybe to use some dos utility to dump your bios into a file. Search for "dosdays BIOS Utilities".
@@atheatos Fantastic, I will try all the above until I get that rom dumped and transferred. I read on a forum there is a potential to damage the Bios chip by reading it with the wrong Chip selected, but you see a lot of half-baked opinions regarding these things. So far after trying 6 or more types my chip is still functioning. You think there is any truth to the programmer damaging a Bios chip with a Read?
As you predicted, Yes indeed my M27C512 Chip is fully functional in my Fortiva 5000 machine. On to the next step. Thanks again.
RevTo486.exe might be able to enable clock doubling for the 50?
last week i pulled a dirty dumpster PC - happens every few years - and i had a Asus P5A v1.06 installed, lucky find :D
Nice :)
Thank you, random yet interesting!
@ 1:14 In offset 41 for the 1mb cache motherboard... you say to change that value from 08 to 48 if the cache is disabled for a performance boost. What about for the 512k cache motherboard version? For offset 41, the default value isn't 08, but instead its 05. Do we change it to 45? I also have a Gigabyte GA 5AX Rev 5.2. Will these tweaks from your part 1 video and this one work the same on the GA5AX or is everything different? Thanks!
True, this (offset 41) should be changed from 0... to 4... This sets the 6th bit, and enables "Fast DRAM Read". This increases performance, but is only stable when the M/B cache is disabled. The model or cache size does not matter, as long as it is the same chipset. That is for all these opts. Happy tuning ^^.
@@atheatos Thank you! Those Ali AGP 1.9 drivers made my 3d Mark 99 score go up 1000 points! Almost 4000 total now. 😁 I also did a couple of those tweaks from wpcredit which helped mem bandwidth & latency quite nicely 👌 I haven't done any of the command line stuff in my autoexec yet. Finally got over 2000 in 3d mark 2000 👍 Currently running a gigabyte ga 5ax rev 5.2 with a K6III+ @ 600 (120x5@2.2v) And a voodoo 3500. I have a p5a 512kb 1.06 as well sitting in storage. Going to do the 1k ohm mod on it and tinker to see how it compares to my ga-5ax next week. Question: I have the following agp gpus available... Which would be fastest in the ali chipset with these two boards I have... And which would you run: Riva TNT2 Ultra GeForce 2 MX400 GeForce 3 Ti500 Radeon 9700 Pro Or keep the voodoo3 3500?
Nice results there :) Fastest overall and best option is the "GeForce 3 Ti500" combined with some old driver (7.76??). Especially this is true in benchmarks. Big difference from the Voodoo. Now some games with the Glide API might run faster on the Voodoo, so hard to tell. Personally I do not have stable configurations and PC cases/ full pcs etc. So normally I would had just tested all for fun, make maybe and video then put away.
The limitation you were running into was that of the chipset. The RC2016A4 is limited to 40 MHz operation. It can accept up to 43 MHz apparently, but it will not allow for 50 MHz operation. That explains why you needed to hot plug the original 386 CPU to get past 43 MHz.
Probably true. The clock doubler not working is probably the same thing too. I have a few M/Bs with the RC2016A5 chipset now. I might try there too. I have also some RC2016A5 chips I might try swapping chips.
Any chance you can put up a link to the Cyrix software you used to control the processors you demonstrated? I have a TI 486SXLC and I haven't been able to find the proper software for controlling it's various functions.
I added a link to a Vogons thread with what you are looking for. I might make a packet with everything for these Cyrix CPUs in the future. I just do not have these files not on my windows machine right now.
I don't believe Cyrix/TI/IBM "486"s have real 486 cores. They all licensed 386 from Intel and upgraded them with microprogrammed 486 isa and added cache. IBM I think manufactured them at lower nm which allowed them to boost the clock to 66 ands then 100mhz.
Cyrix / TI ones did not license from Intel, but to my understanding these are their own 486 core just for 386 socket (they never had a 386). IBM is always confused with these but it is actually totally different. They licensed the 486 core directly from Intel. The pin out is mostly compatible with 386sx, but not 100% as there are extra pins regarding the cache (unfortunately undocumented). So unless the datasheet is found... or someone reverses a M/B with an IBM chip... modding one into a 386sx M/B with caches working is impossible.
Just watched your video on modding the 386SX to 486, and I'm seriously blown away by the quality of your content and explanations! Your work is fantastic, and I'm itching to try it on my own 386SX 40 MHz. Thanks a ton for the top-notch content and insights. Truly impressive!
Thank you for the comment :) More videos to come at some point soon.
Anyone knows what came out of the project?
Unfortunately, not much has changed here. I just too busy with my day job and other simpler projects right now. I also want to improve this further. This will take some time so please be patience. Check also my second video on this.
Great! Can you tell how I could get the boards and 486SXLC2 CPU? Are you interested to create PIstorm similar board /* use PIpico with local SRAM or PIzero */ for the 386SX M/B? Such CPU board could become ultimate upgrade - ARM uC could break 16Mb limit and emulate even 586 performance. Actually it could emulate even 686 and PIV, but the performance will be not equal
I have never seen a board with an 486sxlc2 all ready soldered in. You can take any 386sx M/B and try a mod maybe. As for my mod / little adapter boards, I only sell these to very few people that have exactly my Model of M/B and the skills to solder. Regarding making an 486sxlc2 M/B with local SRAM chips for ram, yeah this is on my scope. It will be nice for sure. The main issue is to find a suitable chipset with a datasheet and no intergraded memory controller. Then the problem is the Bios. I can find solutions to all that but it will take time to design this.
I'd like to get your board and 486sxlc2 to challenge my soldering skills /*I have ALI M1217*/ Can I ?@@atheatos
But 486sxlc2 with local SRAM will not give enough boost, as 133MHz ARM or 166Mhz ESP. Amiga users made PIstorm, PC users also could... Is it possible to ignore the m/b bios /*there are few open-source bioses for QEMU/Bosh*/and DRAM controller and use only CPU pins to access ISA bus?@@atheatos
So far I did not had the time to research this in depth but it looks like the main problem is the intergraded DMA + memory controller. If you put local Sram for RAM, then DMA transfers will still go to the memory controller. So I think this needs a barebone chipset like from the 286 era that do not intergrade a memory controller, Using the socket to just access the busses will not work (probably). Regarding performance difference it is very hard to tell, all 16bit bus 386, 486 chips are bottlenecked massively by the low bus thought put. So this could be probably performing up to a normal 486SX at same speed with Dram. I am just looking making my own mini boards in general, and this is one of the options. I need to check more the bios thing also, it is a bit outside my skills.
I also bought about it... so: #0 how 486SLC cache works then with DMA? There must be a solution to make SRAM on PIstorm board too #1 even if we have problems with #0 all RAM above 16Mb /*fast-ram*/ is not accessible by ISA DMA could be made SRAM without a problem, and 16MB DRAM on mother-board /*slow-ram*/ - similar like in AMIGA.@@atheatos
Amazing 😮😊
Thank you! I checked you video on this topic also a few days ago. It is nice you are also checking older platforms now.
@@atheatos I've started doing a bit of research and Oh My there are so many variants and versions to explore. Very interesting but also confusing! Some seem to be Cyrix CPUs in disguise and other interesting nuggets of details.
I have now also the 486SXL2 (8KB L1 version of the 486DLC). Managed to run this also at 55MHz and 80MHz+ (X2 mul). The performance is very 486 like... ok with the limitation of the ISA VGA. I do not know when I will have the time to make this video. Quite busy these days :/
@@atheatos Amazing! The clock doubled ones are really hard to find it seems.
yeah it is nearly impossible to find the 486sxl2 132p (386 socket) version, I do not have this either. But there is also a 168p (486 socket) one. It is way easier to find this one and I have made an adapter to 132p for this. I also have now the rare 486Drx2 (486DLC with x2 mul), not tested this one yet.
Also, 420MHz. Time to blaze those Win95 and DOS benchmarks.
Electropolitic capacitors are a curse, just like politicians :P
XD
Great Video. Thanks for the information how to modify the cpu. My tillamook is now working with 450mhz and 3dfx voodoo 3 3000
wow 450MHz very nice! I have a few of these, most do not go above easily. My best is this on the video.
@atheatos I got the freqency with FSB 110 (interpreted as 112) * 4 on my Asus P5A with 512kb Cache. V-Core is 2,4V. Test with 2.2V currently not tested but comming soon. More Power is not possible. My pci latency timer is working with 128. That is the only the different to your P5A. 128MB PC133 CL2, Voodoo3 3000 @180, A short sumery of my CPU performens. 3DMark 99 CPU: 2927 PCMark2002: 773
Very nice!
Hmm the doubler failing bug showing the BIOS settings - curious if there is a Shadow RAM/ ROM enabled in the BIOS that is blocking the Cyrix app from writing to a memory location the CPU is looking for.
Nice suggestion, I will check.
I've got sp200s programmer - can it be used to flash 386/486 roms ? thanks
Not sure, probably not possible. The 386/486 usually have something like 27c512 ROM chips. Check your programmer support list.
VLB Cards without the driver (or do not have their own bios to extend the onboard one) will perform like crap compared to what they can actually achieve. Trust me, I built many a VLB system back in the day.
Totally true.
re: At 15:30 through 17:00, where 40MHz operation causes a freeze, and at 25MHz causes a jump into the system BIOS. The reason is that the CPU's A20M# line is not always consistent with the motherboard, and so (making a long story short) the CPU's internal cache will become corrupt. Does it work if the CPU's internal cache is disabled for "First 64KB of each 1MB boundary"? Also, when you jumpered OP1, and thought it was the FLUSH# line, are you absolutely sure you weren't off-by-one, and it's really connected to A20M# instead? Since this motherboard has no external cache, it would not make sense for it to signal FLUSH#, but the motherboard absolutely should somehow tell the CPU whether the A20 line is enabled. Perhaps the motherboard is not toggling A20 at the right time(s)? For more background info, do a Google search for "a20 line" (OSDev wiki and Wikipedia have good info).
Thank you for the information. I will have to check a few things again then. For OP1 I am 100% sure it connects to the FLUSH# input of the CPU. It is also marked as an option for Cyrix CPU on the M/B PCB. Without that for sure the internal cache do not work correctly. I do not remember if I checked the A20 line to be connected. In any case, with my setup all was fine except the clock doubling. I have also more M/Bs to check now, we will see.
And Weitek? When?
I do not have one, probably not any time soon. These are too expensive and rare, also in the end while faster these have very limited support, so I do not have a priority to get one now.
Have you yet tested a Weitek FPU together with an i387? There some DX boards that have both 387 and separate Weitek sockets, on these you can use both FPUs at the same time, would love to see that setup running!
Unfortunately I do not have a Weitek, very expensive and rare. CPU Galaxy has done this test with a Rapidcad + Weitek. I do not have a Rapidcad, same reason.
Are you able to run Second Reality here? Or Unreal? With SBPRO compatible card. My SLC system was the most cursed PC I have had the luck of having. Kept crashing randomly on some software, and no it was not an hardware issue unless you count the CPU compatibility...
I would try, not sure as I have never run these, probably ok. My system is stable.
That -cd test jumping into the BIOS is a behavior I had never seen before. How the heck did that cause the CPU to jump to some line on the BIOS ROM and resume from there instead of what the heck was supposed to happen?
yeah, a very strange problem... I do not know probably incompatibility with the chipset, I will have to check on other motherboards too.
Hi, I have the 512k Version of this Boad running a K6-2 @ 620 MHz (FSB124). Thanks there were some useful tips in the video that I didnt know before regarding Chipset registers. For me a comparison how it would perform against the PII, early PIII or early Athlon would be interesting.
I agree all these comparisons could be very interesting and I have more than enough systems to do this! The only problem is that to make it fair I would have to optimize the other systems too and check a-lot of stuff. On top of this I am very busy these days and I have no time to make videos :/ But I will come back to this at some point.
God I love finish people speaking english, it's like a lullaby, it's so calming, I can just feel the stress escaping my body. PS cool mods, I would never have thought of extending cache like that :O I kind of wonder if we could just replace the normal DRAM dims with SRAM and remove the need for refresh. Holy crap Quake 1 running on a 386 in sort of playable speed even
Interesting... I am not Finish, I am Greek ^^. Regarding DRAM / SRAM, I have made something like that actually (simm-30s with SRAM). I just have no time to make videos now :/ Long story short unless you replace the memory controller there is no benefit as refresh can not be completely disabled. Only a custom M/B chipset and benefit from something like that. I might try this also in the future.
Super interesting content! I've been working a lot on " SUPER SX"-builds like these, just like you and K2. I have both the ALi and a variation of your board (an M396F with the SARC chipset) and the ALi is more suitable for upgrades like these SXLC2's, just like K2 experienced. The M396F is really primitive and lacks a few connections. On my M396F clock doubling doesn't work either but I have an earlier version that doesn't even have that little "op1-bridge/jumper". The maximum I could get out of that board is 30MHz without clock doubling. I think the ALi board K2 uses (same one I just bought for a very small amount but with tons of battery damage ;-) ) is a lot nicer to run CPUs like these as they have more connections to the chipset for cache coherency. I still have to figure this for myself as I just got the ALi board but out but I think with the little adapter you made these things can easily run at 50MHz without clock doubling, just like K2 did, which of course makes for a nice build. If I could only get one of those little adapter boards like you made... I will contact you about this separately! The IBM chips though really are the unbeatable SX class CPUs: Clock for clock they are a lot faster and they can also be clocked faster but are near unabtainium, especially on their own as IBM didn't sell them separately. To give you an idea of the speed of those things: My 16-bit IBM 486SLC2-40 upgrade easily outruns an SLX2-40, which is the 32-bit variant of the SXLC2.. Pretty impressive little CPUs those IBM SLCs! Especially my IBM SLC3 is really fast for a 16-bit CPU. Runs DooM like nobody's business! ;-)
I have so many new motherboards myself now too. Just absolutely no time for anything right now :/ On top of this, I have accumulated so much hardware I do not know what I have and where. I am trying to organize now. I have a few of IBM SLCs. These are for sure totally deferent. Based on original 486 core by intel. The biggest problem for me is the lack of documentation / pinout info. I will come back to videos at some point, I have so much to do and show to the people. :/
@@atheatos Very nice work you did here indeed with those little interposer boards 👌 Yeah, there's plenty of documentation on TI/Cyrix chips but IBM has always been very secretive about their designs and didn't share a lot because they didn't need to. You know: Those TI chips were meant for clone PC builds so they had a lot of incentive to share the way to implement them because it was directly linked to their sales. IBM was on the other side of the spectrum though. They were sick of the vast amount of clones eating up their market share and they very much wanted to dominate the PC industry again like they did with the 5150, 5160 and 5170 (their very succesful 1st gen/old school PCs) so they locked down every bit of low level technical detail and wanted to produce their own CPUs.. Even their technical reference manuals were very limited in terms of design decisions.. They really didn't want anyone to steal their designs again and hence they were very protective, which is of course understandible but which is also why I have great respect for other companies like Compaq who blew the clone market wide open with their crusade for open system standards 👍👍 It's the guys from Compaq who initiated IBM's demise in the desktop PC market but that was inevitable in the end as they opened the doors ten years before by designing their first PC by using of the shelf parts.. The irony 😄
i had the 512kb version and back in time it was okay, i overclocked my AMD K6-2 550 to 600 stable, and also up to 700 MHz. Instable. Back in time i have no idea about undervolting or so. "Modern" PCI Graphic Cards 🤣😂 And i never needed to mod my keyboard it runs just fine. Thank you for that video.
I think I got mine up to like 680 (or something weird because of the clock multiplier). Mine ran like total shit though and i wound up underclocking to 500MHz just to keep it stable under win2k. I still have the board, would be fun to see what it could do with a proper modern CPU cooler.
That’s amazing work! I wonder where the limits are could we ever see a 100 MHz, 386?
55MHz is more or less the limit here, both for my M/B and 386 CPUs. It might be possible to go higher on another board + with LN on the CPU. However I do not think 100MHz or anything near this is possible.
Maybe CPU Galaxy could borrow his 200MHz chip 😃
Well, we are actually talking quite often as we are basically live in the same city in Austria... But ok... I do not think this could ever happen. I think he told me he had to bin over 50 CPUs to find this 200MHz one. So based also on my tests.. it is safe to say that these are very rare. Also my M/B might be modded as hell, but in the end his M/B is better as it supports EDO ram that is a bit faster. Borrowing his CPU is improbable, but we might cooperate in the future. Maybe I mod his M/B :p
@@atheatos yes, volt mod and pll mod. His graphics card should also handle it. How would it stack up to against some of the recent records posted on Vogons?
As for right now we are probably a bit behind compared to what is posted on Vogons. We might have a chance to catch up. I also have now more M/Bs and mods to test. However the real problem is what we are now just super busy with our day jobs. So yeah...
Btw , one 3rd party vendor started and a few more followed selling smd versions , lcc (winged leads ) or plcc ( plastic leaded chip carriers , socketed ) and mounted either on a dx pin socketed board to capture wider market slightly cheaper by cobbling together solutions It was perfectly viable
The Ulsi chip marked 9435 is the latest revision. 35th week of 1994 The rest is the plant location and ( litho) mask # Almost all chips follow this pattern as a reference just like lot codes today . An audit trail Than you for the Fun video . thanks for the throwback
I am aware of week/year codes on chips... it is funny how I missed this point on the video. Now 9507 is the latest one the and it is not the fastest. In total we have: 9507AK1 (The one I used on most on my videos) 9419A3D (The new to my collection and a bit faster, small difference) 9345A3D (Same as the one above) 9250PA (The CPU galaxy one, the slowest with significant difference?) So the week/ year it is partially helpful here. The most interesting stuff is the maybe the code after that AK1, A3D, PA. Yeah normally this is the plant location or something, but it is interesting that only the ones with A3D performed the same. If I ever get more of this I will check again.
I couldn’t find your follow up video that shows the performance improvements ☹️. You do some great stuff here tho’. Very interesting channel. -Many thanks.
There is indeed a planed follow up video to this, but this is now a victim of a long hiatus. The video is actually half made and stored on my disk for over a year now :/ Just super busy with my day work and my personal life after the pandemic :/ Very sad.