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Pentium M for Xeon boards?

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El_Presidente

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Feb 26, 2002
I have heared that Intel is planing to validating Pentium M for Xeon boards, do you know something about it????
Will they support SMP and when will they come???
Any idea???
 
I saw a picture and its 1 P4-M in a 1U server board for rackmount and perhaps blade servers. The only other thing I remember is it uses the 7505 chipset. I highly doubt SMP will ever be made with the P4-Ms, it could cut into Xeon sales.
 
Disk11, you saw a pic with a P4-M or a P-M this is a huge difference from being interesting to totally useless. Who cares about P4-M its the same cpu like the Xeon without HT technology, but the P-M is much faster and consumes less heat so it would be great for my i7505 mb.
 
I have heared that Intel is planing to validating Pentium M for Xeon boards, do you know something about it????

Partially right at the most...Wait...Its totally wrong.

Intel developed a Reference platform for powerful networking appliances and demo'ed it in early 2003.

It featured a SINGLE Pentium-M with E7501 chipset. (NO SMP)

As you know E7501 is used by Xeon CPUs...But it does not mean the Pentium-M is for SMP. This is a simple fact many enthusiasts fail to understand (time and again).

If you don't believe me, this company http://www.win-ent.com is the one that makes the reference design for Intel. There's various options you can have. Its not targeted for the home user or Enthusiasts.

I knew of this product ages ago and contacted the company late last year about prices...

The designer himself was surprised a home user would contact him about it. But he knew the price would put me off and warned me about it. (He later showed me the prices anyway, via email...OUCH!)

Not surprisingly, this setup (when its complete) will cost more than a pair of 2.8Ghz Xeons...So you still want to get it?

The advantage of this mobo is that it has one PCI-X slot and does support all current and future Pentium-Ms (400Mhz and 533Mhz, 2nd generation Pentium-M is called "Dothan")

Will they support SMP and when will they come???

NO, Pentium-M will NEVER support SMP. This CPU is primarily aimed for the low-power and mobile market. It is not intended for the server/workstation role.

Don't bother trying...Because SMP capability is disabled inside the chip. There's no way of unlocking it. Plus, there is no and never will be a dual CPU motherboard for Pentium-M. :(

Any idea???

See my previous answer...

If you do want a Pentium-M based system for a desktop that is single CPU, you MUST be able to pay a large sum of cash for it...ie : It will be expensive.

If you still want to see...here are some links...

www.lippert.com
This German company makes an Industrial Mini-ITX sized Pentium-M motherboard called the Thunderbird. It is quite expensive, BUT the company is willing to sell to PC enthusiasts if they can cough up the cash. They can sell you a setup that involves a complete passively cooled Pentium-M operating at 1.3Ghz (it just uses a large heatsink to cool CPU and chipset)...

www.commell.com.tw
This is a Taiwan company that also makes Industrial Mini-ITX Pentium-M mobo called LV-671. Its mostly identical to Lippert's Thunderbird, but packs more features. Its also rumoured to be half the price. But this isn't confirmed as the product has just started to come out...Production quality is not so good at the moment, as early samples arrive to some distributors DOA or a component fails...I suggest you wait about a year to let things improve.

And finally...
www.radisys.com
This is a US-based company that (as you guessed by now), makes industrial motherboards...They have a Pentium-M motherboard that is Micro-ATX in size. This is the only mobo that I know of that actually has an AGP slot. I don't know the price of this mobo as they never answered my email. So I doubt they will sell to any end users (or home users)...They seem to provide OEM products.

But this is the most flexible of Pentium-M mobos I've come across...AGP slot with 3xPCI slots.

The above is based on my research in 2003. This was because I wanted to find if it was possible to setup a desktop based Pentium-M for a Linux/BSD server role. Cool, quiet, and powerful. As well, I wanted to see if its possible to setup a DVR with it. Feel free to see the products yourself.

Obviously, there is NO overclocking options for the above Pentium-M mobos as they are designed for OEM and industrial apps, except the fact that you can set the low-power mode to another lower speed (in essence, its just adjusting the multiplier. This is what notebooks do anyway.)

BTW, you're not the first one hoping for a Dual Pentium-M...Many have prayed for one...But its not gonna happen. Intel would be very angry at any company who would build a motherboard with dual Pentium-Ms...Intel will never accept the words "Budget" and "SMP" in the same sentence. They want you to pay for it, and they'll do anything...(lock the CPU, overcharge prices, "influence" mobo manufacturers not to make any mobos of this kind.)

Off-Topic : If you want to survive as a mobo maker...Don't upset Intel, or your company won't live long and prosper. Their influence is quite strong...Far more than anyone really sees.

So...Basic summary...

Is there a dual Pentium-M mobo?
NO...Just because a CPU uses the chipset of an SMP platform, does not mean the CPU will be SMP capable.

Does the Pentium-M support SMP?
NO. Disabled on chip. You can't modify it.

Are you angry about this?
Yes. I love SMP, and a low heat, quiet one would kickass! Sadly, it ain't gonna happen.

Wasn't VIA gonna make a dual CPU on their Mini-ITX mobos?
NO, they made a working prototype which was shown to the world. They publically admit that they will never put such a product into production and sell it to the end-user.

How come you know so much about this?
Because I use the internet as a library and learning new things at home in my spare time...And not wasting time on pRon. :D
 
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