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Tillamook on pre-SuperSocket7 systems

Raven

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I have a Chinese Tillamook (mobile late Pentium, naturally at 266Mhz, I usually clock it at 300Mhz) that I got from eBay. It's a nice chip, but will only run quickly provided the board has the appropriate multiplier/bus. Any idea if there's a way to get or make a small interposer to change the multiplier on these manually, i.e., so I can run at 66Mhz bus x4.5 to get 300Mhz, or x4 to get 266Mhz?

Sidenote: YEAAAAH Pentium section!

Edit: It's worth noting that iirc the chip itself is designed for a 66Mhz bus with a 4x multiplier, so a 4x multiplier is doable, just a matter of if it can be hacked onto a board that doesn't support it.
 
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Tillamook chips are typically used in laptops on removable boards. They're just another late breed of Pentiums, but typically only found on proprietary boards inside of portables. This one is just placed into a desktop "adapter" chip and set up to run that way. It's compatible with anything that any other Pentium is, but a bit quicker.

Interestingly, it's green and gold as opposed to the typical black and silver or ceramic.

Currently this chip is sitting in my 3dfx box named Voodoo (specs in my signature) and runs 98SE and games like Outlaws, MDK, Carmageddon, etc. in Glide mode.
 
That's damn nice, but that doesn't look like a Tillamook chip - looks like a P54CS or P55C.

Either way, how did you manage an 80Mhz FSB and a 4x multiplier on such an old board?
 
That's damn nice, but that doesn't look like a Tillamook chip - looks like a P54CS or P55C.

Either way, how did you manage an 80Mhz FSB and a 4x multiplier on such an old board?


80 MHz is just an undocumented setting for this particular board, I played a bit with the jumpers...
Look closer at the processor. Next to the second cap from the bottom (on the right side) you can see two pins bridged by a thin wire. That's what you need to get the 4x multiplier.
 
I'm afraid I can't spot the wire. :/

So you're saying that this is a trick with this specific board, right? Hrm.

Edit: I do see what could be a wire underneath the adapter below the socket, but I can't see what it attaches or what it does..
 
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This is what I mean
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Ahhhh... that could be done on any CPU then, yeah. What is the board set to? Does it matter?

Anywho that could get my Tillamook up to 400Mhz.. (i run in a 100Mhz bus SS7 board)

Edit: How the heck did you do that, anyway? Nice soldering iron and experience? :p
 
Board setting doesn't matter. I pushed my Tillamook to 460 MHz (4x115 on Gigabyte GA-5AA).
I don't know how to realize a 4.5x multiplier on these CPUs. But there must be a way, because chinese 300 MHz variants do exist...
 
Do you think the below mod will work, or do you think it will unintentionally bridge traces or not make contact well enough?

The pic is very highres closeup (cropped). I stripped a twist-tie and broke a small piece off, used pliars and tweezers to bend it into place around the pins in question.. It's a tad loose, but it will stay on if I'm careful putting the CPU in.

 
Fits in the socket fine.

Problem with the mod you did (for me) is it looks like it requires precision soldering, I have an ancient soldering iron and little skill with it.
 
Use Kynar 30 GA wrapping wire. Strip the insulation off about 1/2" of it. Insert the wire between the two holes on the /socket/. Insert the processor. Used to do this trick for people in college that had IBM R40 ThinkPads to increase processor multiplier. You used to be able to buy Kynar at Rat Shack (just look for "wrapping wire") but I don't know if they sell it anymore. It's cheap, even if you have to order some (PM me in that case, I have a ton).
 
Yep, that's the stuff. You'll probably want to get one of their wire-wrapping tools too, as it comes with a device for stripping the insulation. As one who has tried to strip 30 GA wire by hand, I can tell you it's nearly impossible to not cut the wire, and probably completely impossible to avoid knicking the wire, which will cause it to break off later.
 
I've done similar mods to Socket 370 Celerons using 30 AWG WW wire and an 0.5mm mechanical pencil as a wire-wrappig tool. Another approach that I've seen is to use some conductive copper "ink" (used for PCB repair) to bridge the pins on the chip. The benefit in that is that there's nothing sticking up to interfere with chip insertion into its socket.
 
It'll be an indeterminate amount of time before I have spare money for a trace pen like that, so I'll post back when I have said money with the results.

400Mhz Pentium here I come.. ;D

Someday I'll find a faster board (buswise) and get it up even higher...
 
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