Socket 5 / 7 / Super-7 Motherboards
Contents
Socket 5
Socket 5 was developed for the Pentium "P54C" CPU that operated at 3.3v instead of the original P5's 5.0v. This was a die shrink revision of the Pentium and operated at 75-120MHz with a bus speed of 50MHz, 60MHz or 66MHz.
There are several CPUs from companies other than Intel available for Socket 5. The Centaur/IDT Winchip and the AMD K5 are perhaps most well known. There are also several Intel Pentium Overdrive CPUs that were produced to match Socket 5 options to later Socket 7 CPU clock speeds.
Socket 5 motherboards are built to the AT specification, and typically use PCI and ISA slots. Some with OPTi chipsets have VLB slots as well, and some have onboard audio or video.
Chipsets
- 430NX "Neptune" - SMP, PCI 2.0, FPM DRAM, Asynchronous cache. 512 MB cacheable RAM limit. 512 MB max RAM. Some boards use IDE controller chips with known bugs, like CMD640.
- 430FX "Triton" - 16 MB/s DMA IDE, PCI 2.0, FPM/EDO DRAM, and pipeline burst synchronous cache options. 64 MB cacheable RAM limit. 128 MB max RAM.
- SiS 501/502/503 PCI, ISA
- SiS 5511/5512/5513 ISA, PCI
- OPTi Viper
Socket 7
Socket 7 brings "split-rail" voltage support, which is required for CPUs that use a core voltage different than 3.3v IO. Initially the socket was used with "P54C" Pentium CPUs that went to 200 MHz, and later the Pentium MMX "P55C" that went to 233 MHz. Socket 7 boards typically support 60 and 66 MHz bus speeds, but many motherboards allow a wider range to support some non-Intel CPUs. Alternative CPUs include products from Cyrix, AMD, Rise and Centaur.
Socket 7 motherboards are available in AT and ATX form factor. They have PCI and ISA slots. Some have extra onboard components like audio and video.
Chipsets
Intel
- 430HX "Triton II" - 16 MB/s BM-DMA IDE, SMP, PCI 2.1, USB 1.0, FPM/EDO DRAM and pipeline burst synchronous cache options. Supports either 64 MB or 512 MB cacheable RAM. 512 MB RAM max.
- 430VX "Triton II" - 16 MB/s BM-DMA IDE, PCI 2.1, USB 1.0, FPM/EDO DRAM, 2clk SDRAM and pipeline burst synchronous cache options. 64 MB cacheable limit. 128 MB max RAM. Slightly slower than 430HX.
- 430TX - 33 MB/s UDMA IDE, PCI 2.1, USB 1.0, ACPI, FPM/EDO DRAM, 2clk SDRAM, and pipeline burst synchronous cache options. 64 MB cacheable limit. 256 MB max RAM.
VIA
- Apollo Master - FPM/EDO DRAM
- Apollo VP - FPM/BEDO/EDO DRAM, SDRAM, max. 512 MB, 50/60/66 MHz FSB, USB 1.0, 16 MB/s DMA IDE
- Apollo VPX - FPM/EDO DRAM, SDRAM, max. 512 Mb
- Apollo VP2 - FPM/EDO DRAM, SDRAM, max. 512 Mb
- Apollo VP3 - FPM/EDO DRAM, SDRAM, max. 1 Gb, AGP 1.0
SIS
- SiS 5598
- SiS 530 + SiS 5595 -
ALI
- M1451/M1449
- M1521/M1523 / ALADDiN III -
- M1531/M1543 / ALADDiN IV -
- M1531B/M1543 / ALADDiN IV+ - FSB max. 83 MHz
- M1541/M1542 / ALADDiN V -
- M1561/M1535D / ALADDiN 7 - 66,100 MHz FSB, USB 1.0, UDMA2, SDRAM max. 1GB
Super Socket 7
Super Socket 7 is an AMD creation. They modernized the Socket 7 platform with AGP and 100 MHz bus support for their K6-2 processor. Intel was not involved with this nor did they produce CPUs specifically for it.
Chipsets were produced by ALI, VIA and SiS. The boards come in AT and ATX form factors and usually have AGP, PCI and ISA. Some boards use integrated graphics and forgo the AGP slot.
These solutions competed against Intel Celeron and Pentium II.
