Still Crazy

021005-2 - Cyrix and Lacuna Part 2

Episode 2: The Empire, not intel but "AMD", Strikes Back

I forgot to mention that I found et9603.exe contained cache driver for OS/2 after I wrote comment to George Albus. George wrote me it didn't improve DISK I/O marks. I had a good result with Cyrix with DOS and Win9x. So I wanted to know if Cyrix is really not good for Warp...

Pulled out CD-ROM-II and disassembled it. Connected DC power and tested it. Caddy went down inward to the drive. Next, connected SCSI cable and powered it up. No go. Looked into SCSI pins and found one pin bent down. I don't know if it was the reason of the trouble but after I straighten the pin the CD ROM-II became alive.

Time to install Warp... but I completely forgot install procedure for coexistence of DOS and OS/2. Well it was not the point. May be setting for boot manager was wrong but installation completed somehow. All I wanted is running SYSBENCH on OS/2 for Cyrix and DX4.

Installation completed and WARP 3 came up. Set resolution to 800x600 65536C.
Installed SysBench 0.9.4g.

System Specs

9577-BTG 33MHz planar
Hard Drive: EIDE Quantum Fireball ST, 2160AT
CD-ROM: Toshiba XM3401BMA 2.1x speed off from IBM SCSI II (OEM'ed FD MCS-700)
RAM: 8MB x4
Resolution: 800x600, 65K color depth
OS: OS/2 Warp 3 Connect, NO FIX Pack applied yet.
File system: FAT

Results

Test result of SysBench 0.9.4g.

CPU CPU
Integer
CPU
Float
DIVE PM Disk I/O CD I/O
Intel 486DX4-100 44.159 4.809 10.225 21.411 15.999 17.304
Cyrix 5x86 3x *1 45.262 6.088 10.136 14.230 9.056 17.284
Cyrix 5x86 3x ET *2 45.159 6.066 10.116 14.232 8.778 17.285
IBM 5x86 3x *1 45.138 6.060 10.127 14.231 9.440 17.285
IBM 5x86 3x ET *3 49.007 5.816 10.094 13.093 6.341 17.268
Cyrix 5x86 4x ET *3 51.821 7.756 10.140 14.270 9.355 17.291
Cyrix 5c86 4x ET *4 62.924 7.377 10.120 13.168 6.478 17.269
Cyrix 5x86 4x ET *5 62.986 7.471 10.111 13.154 6.456 17.270
AMD 5x86 4x QFP *6 50.331 6.085 10.212 21.648 15.300 17.308
AMD 5x86 4x PL586 *7 65.945 5.492 10.249 21.834 17.263 17.312

Sorry, I can't locate appropriate 3x interposers for Lacuna socket except Evergreen 586 at this moment.

ET means cache driver et586OS2.sys from et9603.exe is used.

EverGreen 586 Interposer is used for *1, *2, *3, *4, *5. CB/on.
PowerLeap PL586 Interposer is used for *7. WB/on.

  *1  Cache driver not used
  *2  Cache driver settings: default (/CCR4=1D)
  *3  Cache driver settings: default (/CCR4=1D)
  *4  Cache driver settings: /CCR4=1D  /WBE
  *5  Cache driver settings: /CCR2=56  /CCR4=1D  /WBE  (worked fine on 5551-R and Win98)

  *6  EverGreen amd5x86/QFP Upgrade, WB/ON
  *7  AMD 5x86/PGA on PowerLeap PL586 on an 486 socket interposer (like the one for PODP)

  Cyrix 5x86 used for *3 through *4 is 133MHz unit. Can't find my favorite x4 100MHz beast.
  Cyrix 5x86 *2 is x3 100GP.

HAS-33T in the Interposer page does not fit to the socket. Interposer's PCB hits the Power connector from the PSU.

PowerLeap PL586 also does not fit to the socket. SW block under the PCB hits capacitors inside the socket. It needs another socket.

PGA DX4 ZIF lever will hit overhang of the interposer for voltage regulator!

Impression

No, It shouldn't be... But Fact is fact. I have not yet tested other SW settings, but so far it seems that Cyrix 5x86 is not good at DISK I/O and Video test on OS/2 (and on Lacuna). CPU integer and Floating point hit really a good score but PM and Disk I/O are really slower than DX4-100. AMD is better than Cyrix on Video and Disk I/O.

I shall seek and find other register setting... not now. but in SOMEDAY (as a matter of fact, I should have to write "tomorrow" in stead of "someday").

Monologue

I still can't believe the result! Wondering if Sysbench was programed to use special instructions (or function?) of Intel CPU. Actual performance of Cyrix does not seem so bad... Next time I'll try with x4 capable 100MHz unit.

Content created and/or collected by:
Louis F. Ohland, Peter H. Wendt, David L. Beem, William R. Walsh, Tatsuo Sunagawa, Tomáš Slavotínek, Jim Shorney, Tim N. Clarke, Kevin Bowling, and many others.

Ardent Tool of Capitalism is maintained by Tomáš Slavotínek.
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