I recommend to visit Kalle's site for full information.
Kalle's site seems to be frequently unreachable - so I have cut out the
proper information upon CPUs:
CPU
general:
You need a socket 7 or a super socket 7 CPU. (Of course old socket 5 CPU's
still work, too.
Check the core voltage that is required. (AMD prints it on the top of the
CPU)
Check that you can reach the desired speed with a FSB of 66MHz (or 75 or 83
if you like to overclock) with a multiplier suported by the CPU!
If it's a new kind of CPU (and NOT just more MHz) it may not be
initialisized optimal by the BIOS. Find out if there a new BIOS or a setup
program or how many performance you loose without proper setup?
Example : You replace your old P133 with a K6-2-400 and you still use BIOS
205.
best : Use BIOS 207 beta 2
second best : Use set K6V2
last but not least : You gained a performace boost of more than 300% with
the upgrade, so you realy don't care about the 5% you loose without proper
initialisation!
AMD:
All AMD K5 CPU's are fully supported.
K6-166 , K6-200, K6-233 are fully supported.
Most K6-233 run fine at 2.9V without a problem. If yours doesn't look here
how to get 3.2 volt
You can use the K6-266 & K6-300 &K6-2-266 & K6-2-300 without modification if
you use higher Bus speeds.
All the K6-266 & K6-300 & K6-II-266 & K6-II-300 & K6-II-333 are fully
supported when you add the BF2 jumper.
All K6-II faster than 350 have the CXT core. (and some 350er and slower,
too!)
The CXT (Chomper eXtended Technologie) has little changes in the cache
architecture so it needs a different initialisation to work at full speed.
BIOS 207 BETA 2 will set it up correctly. If you use an older BIOS you will
lose few % performance.
But instead of the proper BIOS you also can use setK6V2.exe or setK6V3.exe
(freeware) from ftp://ftp.heise.de/pub/ct/ctsi/setk6v3.zip to correctly
initialisize your K6-II with CXT core. (V3 has been reported to cause
problems :-(
Also CPU Idle (now shareware, I have still the freeware version
(and
another program from the same author) are mentioned to be able to do this,
too.
http://cpuidle.home.pages.de/
K6-II-366 need the BF2 jumper!
I expect the K6-II-380 to be the same as a 400er.
K6-II-400 also 'likes' proper setup by BIOS or SET K6, but don't need the
BF2 trick!
K6-II-450 and 500 also 'like' proper setup by BIOS or SET K6, don't need the
BF2 trick but NEED overcloking of the FSB!
Since the CXT core was invented to make the onchip L2 cache of K6-III
possible I realy recomand to use BIOS #207 BETA 2 (or setK6), or a lot of
it's speed benefit may fade away!
K6-III-400 'needs' proper setup by BIOS or SET K6, but don't need the BF2
trick!
K6-III-450 and 500 'need' proper setup by BIOS or SET K6, don't need the BF2
trick but need overcloking of the FSB!
The K6-III now comes in two versions : 2.4V and 2.2V. The 2.2V type consumes
round about 30% less power, or to say it in a just more dramatic way: The
2.4V type consumes 50% more power than the 2.2V type.
So if you are able to get the cool 2.2V type, get it!
BTW: Just because I don't mention the K6 2+ it don't mean it wouldn'd run on
T2P4. It's just, that they aren't out now, and I haven't searched for
information about them. (So read my page and read AMD's info about K6 2+
requirements and see if T2P4 can fullfill them
I seriously recomand to use extra cooling of the voltage regulators when
using something faster than 400 and for 2.4V CPU's !
Remember: Do yourself and your AMD a favor and spend $10 more and buy a big
quality heat sink!
BTW: The K6-2-400 and the K6-III-400 were intended by AMD to run at 4 x
100MHz or at 6 x 66MHz!
Since 100MHz is faster they perform better at 100MHz of course, but the
difference is not thaaaat big!
Especialy with the K6-III the difference is very smal!
So anybody telling you K6-2-400 or K6-III-400 'need' 100MHz, or SDRAM or
super socket 7 etc dosen't know what he's talking about!
If you you use any K6 faster than 333MHz with WIN95 you will get one of the
following errors on most startups:
- Device IOS failed to initialize. Windows Protection Error. You must reboot
your computer.
- Windows Protection Error. You must reboot your computer.
There is a patch avaible for WIN95 OSR2 also called WIN95b (4.00.950b)
There is no hope for old WIN95 (4.00.950) even not with service pack
(4.00.950a).
One of the few good things about WIN98 is, that it don't need a patch for
fast K6!
Look at the control pannel which version you have. (4.00.950?)
Follow
http://www.amd.com/products/cpg/k623d/win95_update_k6.html to the
Mickysoft page with the update.
BTW: This is not a compatiblity problem of AMD, but a problem of careless
programing by Mickysoft. It is caused by a timer overflow in a timing loop
and can also happen in faster P III or whatever faster CPU!
