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Modding The Barton XP To A Barton MP
Dr. Jackie Lee writes "Don't have the budget for an AMD Opteron? There's always a cheaper alternative with AMD's current Barton processors. In this article, we'll show you how to run these new Barton XP processors in SMP mode."
Yeah, great - mod your XPs to act like MPs.
Guess what? You can't guarantee they'll work - people on LKML have refused to help users who have done this, as it simply makes it impossible to determine whether problems are the fault of the kernel or of the CPU itself.
This is one for the overclockers who couldn't care less about stability, methinks...
Seriously, though, what gives? Is the only real difference between dual and single processing jumper controlled or is the decision made on the basis of testing - in which case, what might go wrong if you mod these things to run as dual processors?
Even given prevailing levels of cynicism about marketing departments, I would have thought that the potential for chip sales if dual processor boards became more common, would outweigh the loss of margins on the small existing DP business.
Given the main use for multiprocessor boards, I'd be nervous about a mod that might screw data integrity.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
But another thing that troubles me somewhat is the idea that, perhaps, people are cheating AMD somewhat by doing this. Maybe the sales of Barton XPs are at a loss, but built with the same die as the MP because AMD doesn't want to blow the cash on retooling. If cheap CPUs are being subsidized by the sales of Barton MPs, aren't people who modify their CPUs performing the equivalent of, say, buying Windows XP Home and stealing Windows XP Server? It seems like a bit of a fuzzy issue, although with the popularity of P2P hardly one that's going to trouble most computer users.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
Personally, I'm holding out for a mod that lets me turn my Barton XP into a Barton GP, because I really want to buy that next armor class.
Erik
YOU ARE SAYING IMPUDENCE TO ME! THAT IS IMPUDENCE!
not trolling, but a serious question, coming from a ex-SMP-user:
why SMP nowadays?
Most OS, including XP, is now reasonably stable to the point where multitasking, including buring a CD, while doing something else is OK. (not to mention that CD burners have buffer under-run protection *anyhow* nowadays) I know this because my laptop, which is a measly P3, can handle all of the multitasking I do, given that I have pumped up the amount of RAM.
If I was doing stuff for school / research, Mathematica, Matlab, Maple, Spice (ok not 100% sure on spice) are all single processor only. And to be honest, if you are running a 3-day simulation, you really don't want to be playing UT at the same time on the same machine ANYWAY, so that's kind of a moot point. (you should probably not be playing UT period during such times, but that's a time management story that i won't get into)
If I was doing real work like rendering stuff, I think real work deserves a real SMP system, i.e. with a warrenty.
I mean, SMP has a pretty hefty price overhead (motherboard, memory if you want ECC, and the extra CPU, heavy duty power supply, another set of heatsinks etc), not to mention that the motherboard / chipset technology is usually a few monthes to two years behind the cutting edge stuff...
so, what convincing reason do a person have for using SMP right now (especially a ghetto-rigged one)?
My life in the land of the rising sun.
This is NOT a good idea. The MP cores are subject to much more stringent timing variance restrictions. Stick a couple of XP cores in their place, and you'll be getting random RAM errors (actually RAM->CPU bus errors), as well as slowdown due to cache coherency problems.
What We Know Thus Far
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More than a year ago, we reported a hack which you can apply to current Athlon XP processors to enable them to operate as Athlon MP processors. The hack was fairly simple and it involved connecting a certain trace on the Athlon XP processor to allow motherboards to recognize them as an Athlon MP. The trace has been cut in the factory so it's just a matter of connecting them via soldering (if you're brave enough), or just putting conductive paint on them.
The response we received from fellow users were phenomenal and from what we know, many have tried the hack. Although most were successful, some were not that lucky. Here are a few reasons which we can offer at this point in time
# You'll need to ensure both processors are properly modded so that the motherboard can successfully detect and operate the processors in SMP mode. Clean the contacts with acetone or isopropyl alcohol before applying the conductive paint.
# Certain motherboards would only work with the hack since certain users reported that they were unable to get their SMP setup running even though the processors have been properly modded.
# Only certain BIOS versions would allow the board to run in SMP mode. For example, we tested the hack on MSI's K7D Master which had no problems working with BIOS version 1.3 and 1.4B3. Newer BIOS versions somehow did not allow us to run the processors in dual mode even though the processors have already been physically modified.
After our first article, a lot of emails came pouring in and most users were asking if the hack could be achieved with a Thoroughbred core since our initial article was based on the Palomino core. Well, of course it would and we'll be showing some results with a dual Thoroughbred-B core in the later pages. What we've done here is taking another step further with the Barton core. What's interesting with the Barton is that it's now featuring a huge 512KB L2 cache running at full speed. Get a pair of that running in SMP mode, and you'll get a pretty decent workstation-class system going at a really affordable price.
Now, I'm sure most of you are interested to get your hands on a dual processor system based on two Athlon XP 2800+ (Barton). Find out how you can do that in the next few pages.
Modding the Barton Core
The process in modding the Barton core is just about the same as what we've done with the Palomino in previous articles. All you need to do is just to connect the rightmost bridge in the L5 row. That should probably get the processor detected and running in dual mode. However, that's not the end of the story yet as you'll still need to modify a couple of things on the processor to get it running up to speed.
We know that all the Barton cores are made for 333MHz FSB systems and their multipliers were set to run at its predefined frequency. If you put a Barton processor in older motherboards supporting up to 266MHz FSB, you'll probably get a severely underclocked processor and that's probably what will happen if you have the Barton XP running in an AMD 760MPX motherboard.
Naturally, the next logical step is to modify the Barton XP's multiplier. Since most server boards based on the AMD 760MPX chipset has no multiplier adjustments for anything more than 12.5x (at least for the MSI K7D Master), we'll have no choice but to hardwire the multipliers ourselves. OK, here are a few rules which we should observe
# The default frequency of the Barton XP 2800+ is only 2.083GHz (12.5 x 166MHz), so we should try to target a multiplier with a lower resulting frequency at 133MHz (266MHz DDR) FSB. It should at least ensure that your processor will boot-up after the modification. Since there aren't any 15.5x multiplier allocated for the Athlon XP/MP core, we have chosen to hardwire the multiplier to 15x on both the chips.
# Since the Barton cores come with more transistors allocated for the larger 512KB L2 cache, we should see an increase in power consum
Karma: Bad. (As in Good?)
Boy, some guys sure have a death wish... I mean what else can explain a person posting a story, hosted on his own website, on slashdot?
What's under yellowstone?
However, as the only P4 CPUs with HT enabled are the most expensive grades, nobody is choosing HT based on value. Maybe a year from now it'll be a compelling option, but right now it's really a non-starter.
here are few mirrors:
Mirror1 - its got a popup.
Mirror 2 - Mirror 2
Mirror 3 -Might get slashdotted.
BTW, the blooddy site is slashdotted, at 7 am! Wow.
"Then suddenly, with a blinding flash of the obvious he realises the world isn't running on just one timezone."
-1 Sarcastic for me!
"What do you mean you have no ice? Do you expect me to drink this coffee hot?" - Random Customer, Clerks
If it's a matter of just bridging a circut trace in order to reconise an xp chip vs an mp chip, isn't there perhaps external to the chip layer solution?
Either via a motherboard mod.... or CPU socket adapter.
I ask because the value of the XP chips starts at about $123 per unit (OEM) , where the motherboard starts at roughly $160 per unit. I'd rather modify a motherboard then a pair of chips. Motherboards are bigger, though surface mount, more able to accept wires rather then silver paint.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.