Re: Undersized L2 cache: any tricks?
Anthony Barbachan (barbacha@Hinako.AMBusiness.com)
Wed, 17 Mar 1999 01:22:43 -0500
>> Some co-workers of mine have put together an x86-based system on which to
>> run Linux, which has 256MB physical memory and 512k L2 cache. The
>> processor is something like an AMDK6 3XXMhz or Pentium equivalent. To no
>> surprise, the system runs slower with the full 256MB than it does with
>> 64MB, I'm guessing due to the undersized cache. The problem is that the
>> mainboard is apparently only capable of 512K of L2 cache. I am not an
>> expert in memory/cache-related stuff, but my guess is that there is no
>> performance solution other than to decrease the physical memory (or get a
>> new mainboard). The kernel is 2.0. Are there any other options?
>>
>
>The slram patch at http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~keryan/slram/ will let you
>use it as swap/ramdisk but will probably not be very useful because
>demand-paged executables will be continually reread off of disk.
>
>A VIA MVP3-based motherboard is one option; I believe that most of the
>boards that have 1MB cache will cache 256MB (and no more) but YMMV so
>check with the manufacturer first.
>
>
The new ATX motherboard from FIC based on this chipset is even better, 2MB
L2 (L3 if AMD K6-3) cache.
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