I have 3 super socket 7 mainboards. I looked in the manuals and all
apparently support the K6-3 straight out of the box, but need a
BIOS update to take the K6-2+
So I presume the internal L2 cache is not a problem.
What is different about the K6-2+ ?
I know they introduced the PowerNow feature. I don't think my old
mainboards supported this (changing CPU voltage and speed when it
was idle). So what happens to the K6-2+ when the old BIOS does
not handle it? Does it go into hibernation perhaps?
why BIOS update needed for K6-2+ but not K6-3?
RE: why BIOS update needed for K6-2+ but not K6-3?
Most Super 7 boards need a bios flash to identify and support the K6-2+ or 3+ processors. It6 has been so long now since I tried to run one without the propper bios, that I forget what problems you'll encounter. Not booting is one suspect.
Superpuppy 3
K6-3+ 450 ACZ (6x100)
DFI K6BV3+/66 Rev B2 (2 Meg) w/ 2x28mm Chipset Fans
2x256 Meg PC 133 Hynix SDRAM
1x 20G Maxtor (7200)
2x 80G Maxtor (7200) Ducted w/ 2x486 Fans Mount
52/24/52/16 LG CDR/RW/DVD
8/4/3/12/24/16/32 LG Super Multi
ATI 9000 aiw Radeon AGP
SB Audigy 1 MP3 Sound
CMD 649 IDE Controller
NEC USB 2 Card
K6-3+ 450 ACZ (6x100)
DFI K6BV3+/66 Rev B2 (2 Meg) w/ 2x28mm Chipset Fans
2x256 Meg PC 133 Hynix SDRAM
1x 20G Maxtor (7200)
2x 80G Maxtor (7200) Ducted w/ 2x486 Fans Mount
52/24/52/16 LG CDR/RW/DVD
8/4/3/12/24/16/32 LG Super Multi
ATI 9000 aiw Radeon AGP
SB Audigy 1 MP3 Sound
CMD 649 IDE Controller
NEC USB 2 Card
Yeah it's because K6-III is pretty much just a K6-2 with some cache memory stuck on. The + chips are actually a new die with changed/added features.
I think the biggest problem you'll have if the BIOS doesn't recognize the CPU is special performance features not being automatically enabled. Write Allocate, primarily.
I think the biggest problem you'll have if the BIOS doesn't recognize the CPU is special performance features not being automatically enabled. Write Allocate, primarily.
The chips are misrecognized by the BIOS, typically being identified as a 486 or occasionally as a K5. Because the BIOS doesn't recognize the chip, it won't enable K6-specific features, and this has to be done in software after you boot up.
This website: http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/k6plus.htm offers several suggestions and solutions to dealing with this problem. He also custom re-wrote several BIOSes of popular K6-based motherboards to properly recognize the K6-plus series of CPUs. Most of the time, it was just a matter of programming the BIOS to treat CPUs with those signatures as if they were ordinary K6-III processors.
This website: http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/k6plus.htm offers several suggestions and solutions to dealing with this problem. He also custom re-wrote several BIOSes of popular K6-based motherboards to properly recognize the K6-plus series of CPUs. Most of the time, it was just a matter of programming the BIOS to treat CPUs with those signatures as if they were ordinary K6-III processors.
FIC VA-503+, Rev. 1.2, AMD K6-III+ 450@550MHz, 80GB Seagate ATA-100, 3dfx Voodoo3 3500 TV, TB Montego II Quadzilla, Win98se, 384MB PC100
Compaq Presario 1273, AMD K6-III+ 450@400MHz 1.8v, 40GB Samsung 5400RPM, extremely hacked Win98SE, 288 (yes, 288!) MB RAM
(Also an AMD FX-8350, which does the heavy lifting these days...)
Compaq Presario 1273, AMD K6-III+ 450@400MHz 1.8v, 40GB Samsung 5400RPM, extremely hacked Win98SE, 288 (yes, 288!) MB RAM
(Also an AMD FX-8350, which does the heavy lifting these days...)