Chaintech
Chaintech 5TDM2
This is Chaintech's actual AT board based on Intel's 82430TX chipset. The overall performance is good, nothing to complain so far. It's the first board with only one cache memory chip of 512 kB. Chaintech has also inplemented switching regulators and an ATX power supply connector in case you want to use this AT board in a common ATX case (PC97). Chaintech now uses a BIOS extension called SeePU where you can adjust CPU speed and voltage in your system BIOS. Chaintech has also added a utility disk (besides the Busmaster IDE drivers) to update the system's INF files allowing Windows 95 to name the PIIX4 PCI-to-ISA bridge as well as the 430TX/440LX correctly. Very fine!
AT format; AT & ATXpower supply; Intel 430TX chipset; 4x ISA, 4x PCI; 4x SIMM, 2x DIMM; Award flash BIOS; 512 kB PB-Cache (6 ns); external frequencies: 55, 60, 66, 75, 83 MHz; BF2 jumper integrated, I/O chip: ITE; busmaster Ultra DMA 2 or PIO 4 onboard; FDC onboard; 2x serial 16550; 1x EPP/ECP parallel; 1x PS/2 mouse (without connector); 1x USB; IrDA support; core voltages: 3.2V, 2.9V, 2.8V and more depending from BIOS revision.
FIC
FIC PA-2007
It seems as it everybody wants to know something about this board. The facts: VIA Apollo VP2 chipset, 1 MB L2 Cache (2 banks), 2 DIMM/ 4 SIMM slots, 3 ISA / 4 PCI slots, good jumper descriptions, up to 75 MHz bus speed (no 83!), Award BIOS. Performance is excellent, especially under Windows NT although system sometimes doesn't boot if cache timing is set at 2 clock leadoff cycle (2-1-1-1); strangely using the 6x86MX at 75 MHz bus speed, it worked pefectly and amazingly fast thanks to the linear burst feature. You may have to select 3 clocks (3-1-1-1) to undergo the booting sequence with the K6 and the Pentium MMX with some BIOS revisions. I regret I was not able to get the 512 kB version in time for some comparison. Its performance should be around the same in this case (3-1-1-1). If you are a speed freak and need a cacheable area over 64 MB, take into consideration the PA-2007, it's one of the fastest boards at the moment for all configurations.
AT format; AT power supply; VIA Apollo VP2 chipset; 3x ISA, 4x PCI; 4x SIMM, 2x DIMM; Award flash BIOS; 1024 kB PB-Cache (6 ns); external frequencies: 55, 60, 66, 75 MHz; BF2 jumper integrated, I/O chip: Winbond; busmaster Ultra DMA 2 or PIO 4 onboard; FDC onboard; 2x serial 16550; 1x EPP/ECP parallel; 1x PS/2 mouse (without connector); 2x USB; IrDA support; core voltages: 3.2V, 2.9V, 2.8V.
