dave@pmafire.UUCP (Dave Remien) (02/13/90)
We just got a Micronics '486 motherboard, and are seeing some weird
stuff. The BIOS is a '386 version, and is slower than molasses.
(Norton 4.5 SI=39, a tad slower than the 97 they claimed on the
phone). The board comes with 4 Mb of RAM, but no configuration of the
memory jumpers allow any other value.
Has anyone else seen this board, and had problems with it?
Thanks in advance,
Dave
--
Dave Remien +*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ WINCO Computer Engineering Group
{uunet|bigtex}!pmafire!dave or rzd@inel.gov "Dave Barry for President" jrh@mustang.dell.com (James R. Howard) (02/13/90)
In article <1196@pmafire.UUCP>, dave@pmafire.UUCP (Dave Remien) writes: > > We just got a Micronics '486 motherboard, and are seeing some weird > stuff. The BIOS is a '386 version, and is slower than molasses. > (Norton 4.5 SI=39, a tad slower than the 97 they claimed on the > phone). The board comes with 4 Mb of RAM, but no configuration of the > memory jumpers allow any other value. > No, I don't know anything about the board, but perhaps I can offer a clue on the SI rating. First off, there are at least 5 or 6 different versions of SI, which all seem to report different results. Most reputable computer ads show not only the SI rating, but the amount of RAM installed during the benchmark, AND the version number of SI used for the quasi-benchmark. If I remember correctly, SI 3.1 is the "fast SI", which tends to generate incredible results for machines with pipeline architecture, caching, etc. SI 4.5 tends to generate more realistic results across the board. So, if the vendor used SI 3.1 to generate it's "SI Rating" then 97 might be true. For an example, several years ago I had an 4.77MHZ XT Compatible (oh my gosh....) that would run 1.0 on SI 3.1. (As you would expect) So I upgraded the CPU to a Nec V20. The V20 is basically an enhanced 8088/8086 replacement with an dual internal bus, dedicated hardware for mult/div instructions to speed up math and effective address calculations. In addition, it has most of the 80188/86 instruction set built-in. This meant that I could run most 80286 software that did not require use of protected mode. Anyway, the V20 at the same clock speed scored a 1.9 on SI 3.1. It was obviously NOT almost twice as fast as the 8088. Later versions of SI gave it a 1.2 I believe, much more in line with reality. Try and get Micronics to tell you which version of SI they used, then locate that for yourself and try it out and see.... -------------------------------------------------------------- James Howard ..cs.utexas.edu!dell!mustang!jrh or jrh@mustang.dell.com "I've got a firm policy on gun control, if there's a gun around, I want to be the one controlling it." -- Clint Eastwood --------------------------------------------------------------