From owner-freebsd-hardware Sat Sep 27 22:16:48 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id WAA07580 for hardware-outgoing; Sat, 27 Sep 1997 22:16:48 -0700 (PDT) Received: from MindBender.serv.net (mindbender.serv.net [205.153.153.98]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id WAA07575 for ; Sat, 27 Sep 1997 22:16:43 -0700 (PDT) Received: from localhost.HeadCandy.com (localhost.HeadCandy.com [127.0.0.1]) by MindBender.serv.net (8.8.6/8.7.3) with SMTP id WAA04321; Sat, 27 Sep 1997 22:16:32 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199709280516.WAA04321@MindBender.serv.net> X-Authentication-Warning: MindBender.serv.net: localhost.HeadCandy.com [127.0.0.1] didn't use HELO protocol To: Tom Jackson cc: freebsd-hardware@freefall.freebsd.org Subject: Re: supermicro p6sns/p6sas In-reply-to: Your message of Sat, 27 Sep 97 22:41:10 -0500. <19970927224110.13321@my.domain> Date: Sat, 27 Sep 1997 22:16:31 -0700 From: "Michael L. VanLoon -- HeadCandy.com" Sender: owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk >On Fri, Sep 26, 1997 at 03:08:05PM -0500, Tony Kimball wrote: >> Quoth Tom Jackson on Fri, 26 September: >> : Considering a new atx mb myself. Trying to decide between pent pro and >> : pent II. Wondering if socket 8 is a deadend and if intel will upgrade >> : this architexture ( think its much better than pent II) >> Socket 8 is a dead end. Slot 1 is also a dead end. Socket 7, on the >> otherhand, shows no sign of slowing down, with AMD's 300 MHz K6 being >> the fastest chip announced for it so far. >Ugh, well maybe the announced, not released version, but definitely >not the current releases of K6. Heard about the make world problem and >the Linux problems. Socket 8 indeed appears to have been a limited detour. Slot 1 may in time be superceeded by something better. But it has much more potential than Socket 8 at this point in time. Socket 7, however, has some serious bandwidth problems. I'm not an electrical engineer, but from some of the stuff I've read, there are some radical electrical specifications involved in just making Slot 1 work. Making Socket 7 go any higher would likely involve some pretty radical electrical changes as well, to allow it to run reliably at the much higher clock speeds required to make it useful at all beyond 300MHz. This would make Socket 7 compatible in only the physical socket itself, and not electrically. Socket 7 has a very limited future. It simply doesn't have any way of coping with some of the new technology that will be necessary to make any sort of performance boosts possible beyond 300MHz. AMD and Cyrix may indeed be able to perpetuate several years more of Socket 7 chipsets, in the secondary market. But it will be a typical AMD/Cyrix market, where performance is secondary, and low-cost is king. My personal opinions, obviously... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael L. VanLoon michaelv@MindBender.serv.net Contract software development for Windows NT, Windows 95 and Unix. Windows NT and Unix server development in C++ and C. --< Free your mind and your machine -- NetBSD free un*x >-- NetBSD working ports: 386+PC, Mac 68k, Amiga, Atari 68k, HP300, Sun3, Sun4/4c/4m, DEC MIPS, DEC Alpha, PC532, VAX, MVME68k, arm32... NetBSD ports in progress: PICA, others... -----------------------------------------------------------------------------