why BIOS update needed for K6-2+ but not K6-3?

Discussion relating to Socket 7 hardware.
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jeepster
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why BIOS update needed for K6-2+ but not K6-3?

Post by jeepster »

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?
Jim
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RE: why BIOS update needed for K6-2+ but not K6-3?

Post by Jim »

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.
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2x 80G Maxtor (7200) Ducted w/ 2x486 Fans Mount
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swaaye
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Post by swaaye »

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.
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jsc1973
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Post by jsc1973 »

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.
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...)
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