Pentium 90's

[CTho9305]

Are they the only ones with the raised gold-colored top thing? all the others I've seen are flat ceramic on top, with the core on the bottom. and P90s still appear to have the core on the bottom.

 

[bizmark]

I think that it depends on how old it is. The first Pentiums were Socket 4 and bigger than the later Socket 5s. I've got a P60 sitting here with the same gold-colored top. If I'm remembering correctly, the first Pentiums ran only at 60 and 90MHz. Then later they added the 66 and 100, then 120, then 133. I'm not sure when they got rid of the math bug.

The P100 that I killed the other day based on this article was smaller (Socket 5)and had the ceramic casing. I'd recommend trying it out BTW -- the inside of a processor is just plain amazing to look at!

 

[CTho9305]

well, all these CPUs (75, 90, 120, 133, 166) fit in socket5 mobos... even though only the p90s have the gold top.

edit: nice link, thanks

 

[Dan]

As I recall, the first Pentiums were the 60MHz and 66MHz. They used more juice than the P-75 and up.

 

[CTho9305]

well, i still dont know whats in the gold cap, if anything, but i did dremel the bottom off to see the core. pretty cool. if anyone is going to try it, I recommend remeling around the very very outside of the cap so you dont cut up the stuff inside. I nicked the core twice and severed every pin for half the processor

I have another 90 here, and maybe some others that have the metal cap I could try later

 

[Colt45]

I did this with one of the socket 5 all ceramic P90's. I ended up cracking the core in half:Q

I've got a Pentium Pro im tempted to crack open. but im also tempted to make a PPro computer. choices, choices.

 

[Colt45]

Just cracked the PPro open. looks cool
there is two dies. one is the cpu, and one is cache

sorry ive got no camera

 

[Wiz]

I've got both the gold cap and the no_cap P90's here. They just sit around gathering dust.
I'm pretty sure the gold cap one had the fpu bug and the other one didn't.

 

[CTho9305]

<< I've got both the gold cap and the no_cap P90's here. They just sit around gathering dust.
I'm pretty sure the gold cap one had the fpu bug and the other one didn't. >>



hmm, maybe I should test that before cutting up the 2nd one then, just for kicks.

 

[bizmark]

Too bad I don't have a dremel, otherwise I'd cut open this Socket 4 P60. It's funny how much bigger it is than the Socket 5 P100. It's only like .5cm difference per side, but it makes it look a lot bigger. Also the pins are spaced out a lot more and all lined up in rows whereas the P100 has staggered rows. The 286 I'm looking at now, on the other hand, is tiny. It's 1.25" on a side. It's only got 64 pins!

Found a site that says that the P60 and P66 were first and in the Socket 4 platform. Later came the 75, 90, 100, 120, and 133 in Socket 5. I think Pentium Pro's are Socket 6. Then with the 150MHz came Socket 7. Amazing how quickly platforms changed in those early days.

edit:PPro's are Socket 8.

BTW that first site is owned by someone here in the forums (I forgot who). I clicked off of his sig or something a while ago. Just wanted to give credit where it's due

Oh and a question: What does the rest of the processor do? The core is obviously only less than 1/9 of the area of the processor. Is the rest just packaging, or does it do something?

 

[eplebnista]

Here is a link to Sandpile.org. They have a lot of information about past and present processors. They even have pics of the top, bottom, and dies of the Intel Pentium to P4 processors as well as AMD's Chips. Click the processor links under the impl heading and scroll down to the miscellaneous/picture section for the image links. It is rather interesting.

Pentium Pic

Pentium Die Pic

hth,
eplebnista

 

[wurmyhi]

Ditto to the above, comes w/both and w/o...

The ones I have immediately on hand (I literally just dug one out of the rubbish that'll get picked up on tuesday)...

P90 w/FP bug (a keeper):
Gold on top and bottom, heatsink glued to the top of the processor
ES412

P90 wo/FP bug:
Ceramic top, ceramic on the bottom
SY01b/VSS

 

[SonicTron]

My friend has a P90 with a gold top........

Also, my P60 back in the day had a gold top. I threw the chip out years ago, and the bright green heatsink now cools my northbridge.

P60 / P66 = 3.3v = time to fry some bacon!

I touched the heatsink once after it booted from a cold boot. Needless to say, I never touched the heatsink again. I wonder how hot it got after playing C&C for a few hours?