3dfx Archive - Cachable Area (M)VP3 & Alladin V

nudgegoonies

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Cachable Area (M)VP3 & Alladin V
14.03.05 at 18:06:25

Hi,
i know this is very technical and only informative for those yesterdayers like me who still have socket 7 cpu's with onboard level 2 cache but for those this info is importand. I found out that the Alladin V chipset only caches 128MB independend how much cache is installed so plugging more than 128MB in such a board is useless (games run much(!) slower). The VP3 chipset cachable area depends on how much cache is onboard. With 512KB max cacheable are is 128MB, with 1MB max is 256, and with 2MB max is 512. Now comes the strange thing. The MVP3 chipset cacheable area is 512KB-128MB, 1MB-255MB (!), 2MB-510MB (!). Strange. For more details look here http://www.shuttlecomputer.de/chipset2.htm and here http://www.stud.fernuni-hagen.de/q3998142-bin/cgi-bin/ibrd/topic.cgi?forum=3&top...

Regards,
Andreas

P.S.
The last revision (G) of the Alladin V doesn't has this bug but was never produced in masses.

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Board: Asus CUSL-2-C (Chipset: Intel i815), CPU: Intel PIII 933, RAM: 2 Infineon 128MB (1 PC133-333, 1 PC133-222) and 1 Infineon 256MB (PC 333-333) SD-RAM, Video: 3dfx Voodoo 3 3000 AGP, TV: LifeView FlyKit (Chipset: BT848, Tuner: No), Sound: Creative Labs Soundblaster PCI 512, NET: 3COM Etherlink XL Combo OS: Windows 98SE with SESP21D, Video Driver: 1.07.00 with GLIDE and OGL from 1.07.00b

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nudgegoonies

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Re: Cachable Area (M)VP3 & Alladin V
Reply #1 - 26.03.05 at 12:05:02

Solution:
in the W98SE Systemconfigurationprogram you can limit the memory usage. I activated the limit and set it to 255MB.

Regards,
Andreas

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Board: Asus CUSL-2-C (Chipset: Intel i815), CPU: Intel PIII 933, RAM: 2 Infineon 128MB (1 PC133-333, 1 PC133-222) and 1 Infineon 256MB (PC 333-333) SD-RAM, Video: 3dfx Voodoo 3 3000 AGP, TV: LifeView FlyKit (Chipset: BT848, Tuner: No), Sound: Creative Labs Soundblaster PCI 512, NET: 3COM Etherlink XL Combo OS: Windows 98SE with SESP21D, Video Driver: 1.07.00 with GLIDE and OGL from 1.07.00b

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Obi-Wan_Kenobi

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Re: Cachable Area (M)VP3 & Alladin V
Reply #2 - 26.03.05 at 12:28:28

you could install the Unofficial Service Pack 1.62 for Win98SE it breaks the limmitation of memory above the 512MB. you can use like a max of 4GB in 98SE

which is quite nice, I tested my AXP 2700+ system with 1024MB PC-2700 in 98SE it worked wonderfully

here some handy links:

English Version:
http://exuberant.ms11.net/98sesp.html

German Version:
http://www.creopard.de/win98sp

Czech Version:
http://www.winpack.org/

Polish Version:
http://sp.up.pl/

Russian Version:
http://egorz.nm.ru/

Dutch Version:
http://wepsite.net/hp38guser

Traditional Chinese Version:
http://myweb.hinet.net/home4/atb/W98SEAUP.htm

And May The Force Be With You.

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nudgegoonies

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Re: Cachable Area (M)VP3 & Alladin V
Reply #3 - 26.03.05 at 14:12:53

Hi Obi-Wan,
thanks for the link. There are much more updates installed with this service pack than with the regular windowsupdate wich i use regulary. Most of them are from MS so why are they hiding them away? But what i'm speaking about is a specific socket7 mainboards 2nd level cache chipsetproblem. And believe me, it doesn't make sense to install more memory than the cacheable area allows. The only exception is the VIA MVP3 chipset with it's strange cacheable area of 255 instead of 256 (with 1MB 2nd level cache) and 510 instead of 512 (with 2MB 2nd level cache). Instead of reducing SDRAM (from 256 to 192 for example) it's better to block out the (very slow) memory outside the cacheable area by the trick i mentionend.

Regards,
Andreas

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Board: Asus CUSL-2-C (Chipset: Intel i815), CPU: Intel PIII 933, RAM: 2 Infineon 128MB (1 PC133-333, 1 PC133-222) and 1 Infineon 256MB (PC 333-333) SD-RAM, Video: 3dfx Voodoo 3 3000 AGP, TV: LifeView FlyKit (Chipset: BT848, Tuner: No), Sound: Creative Labs Soundblaster PCI 512, NET: 3COM Etherlink XL Combo OS: Windows 98SE with SESP21D, Video Driver: 1.07.00 with GLIDE and OGL from 1.07.00b

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nasenbaer

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Re: Cachable Area (M)VP3 & Alladin V
Reply #4 - 14.04.05 at 14:00:58

..or teh other solution is to use processor with a own 2nd level cache on die ...like k6-2+ or 3+ ... so twh whole memory up to 1gb is cached!

Quote:

Hi Obi-Wan,
thanks for the link. There are much more updates installed with this service pack than with the regular windowsupdate wich i use regulary. Most of them are from MS so why are they hiding them away? But what i'm speaking about is a specific socket7 mainboards 2nd level cache chipsetproblem. And believe me, it doesn't make sense to install more memory than the cacheable area allows. The only exception is the VIA MVP3 chipset with it's strange cacheable area of 255 instead of 256 (with 1MB 2nd level cache) and 510 instead of 512 (with 2MB 2nd level cache). Instead of reducing SDRAM (from 256 to 192 for example) it's better to block out the (very slow) memory outside the cacheable area by the trick i mentionend.

Regards,
Andreas

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nudgegoonies

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Re: Cachable Area (M)VP3 & Alladin V
Reply #5 - 14.04.05 at 14:47:16

Hi nasenbaer,
i don't have any experience with the K6-3 ot the notebook + cpu's because they are very rare and expensive. I agree with you that using these cpu's should compensates this chipset limitation. But on the other hand the boardcache, wich is in fact a third level cache with these cpu's, is typically bigger (512kb, 1024kb (very common) or 2048kb) than the internal second level cache (128kb for the K6-2+ and 256kb for the K6-3, id don't know the specs of the K6-3+) and i think that using this third level cache within the cacheable area should still bring a performance boost.

By the way, at wich speed runs the internal second level cache?

Regards,
Andreas

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Board: Asus CUSL-2-C (Chipset: Intel i815), CPU: Intel PIII 933, RAM: 2 Infineon 128MB (1 PC133-333, 1 PC133-222) and 1 Infineon 256MB (PC 333-333) SD-RAM, Video: 3dfx Voodoo 3 3000 AGP, TV: LifeView FlyKit (Chipset: BT848, Tuner: No), Sound: Creative Labs Soundblaster PCI 512, NET: 3COM Etherlink XL Combo OS: Windows 98SE with SESP21D, Video Driver: 1.07.00 with GLIDE and OGL from 1.07.00b

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