Supports all Cyrix 6x86 CPUs: P120+, P133+, P150+, P166+, P200+.
New revisions support 75MHz and 83MHz bus speed in addition to 66MHz.
CPU type, voltage, and bus speed / clock multiplier are set through the Soft Menu BIOS Setup.
Chipset
Intel Triton 430VX
Supports PCI 2.1
L2 Cache Memory
Supports 256K or 512K Pipeline Burst SRAM (NOTE: If the motherboard has 256k on-board, the board will contain a COAST socket to allow you to upgrade to 512k. If the motherboard has 512k on-board, then the SM5 will not have a COAST socket.)
System DRAM
Four 72-pin SIMM sockets that support Fast Page and EDO DRAM.
Two 168-pin DIMM sockets that support Fast Page, EDO, and Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM).
Supports 128MB Maximum Memory
BIOS
Award BIOS
Supports Plug-and-Play (PNP)
Supports Advanced Power Management (APM)
Supports Desktop Management Interface (DMI)
Multi I/O
Two Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports
Infrared remote Connector
PS/2 Style Mouse Port
Standard AT Keyboard Connector
Four fast IDE channels (PIO mode 0-4 and Bus Mastering)
One EPP/ECP parallel port and one 16550 serial port
Two floppy disk drive connectors (FDD) (360K, 720K, 1.2M, 1.44M, and 2.88M)
Other features
Dimensions: 11in. x 8.7in.
Four (4) ISA bus slots and three (3) PCI bus slots,
Supports 3-MODE for Japanese floppy disk drive,
Supports two bootable hard disks - enables the use of two different operating systems.
The CPU Soft Menu is a menu within the BIOS Setup that allows you to setup the speed and voltage of the CPU, as well as the bus speed and multiplier factor. Because the CPU is setup completely through the Soft Menu, there is no need for jumpers or DIP switches.
Soft Menu's outstanding features:
The ability to specify the the CPU speed and have the external clock and multiplier settings automatically set,
The ability to manually specify the external clock settings. The supported speeds are: 50MHz, 55MHz, 60MHz, 66MHz, 75MHz and 83MHz.
The ability to manually specify the clock multiplier settings: 1.5x, 2.0x, 2.5x, 3.0x, and 3.5x,
The ability to manually specify the voltage from single or dual. Single processors such as the Pentium P54C, the Cyrix 6x86, and the AMD-K5, use only one voltage. However, future processors such as the P55C MMX Pentium, the Cyrix 6x86L, and the M2, require dual voltages - one for the internal processing of the CPU and one for external processing.
The single voltage options are: 3.38v, 3.52v, and 3.6v. The Dual, Core Plane Voltage options are: 2.50v, 2.70v, 2.80v, 2.93v, and the I/O Plane voltage options are: 3.30v, 3.38v, 3.52v.
One additional feature of the CPU Soft Menu is the Turbo Frequency Setting. This setting allows you to speed up the external clock by 2.5%, thereby increasing the CPU speed as well. Take note however, the turbo frequency feature is only an option at a bus speed of 66MHz. The feature is designed to be used as an important tool for test units to verify CPU stability, and it is reccomended that it not be used for normal operation. However, the SM5 performed flawlessly with the feature enabled - even in Windows 95.
The table below is a reproduction of the Soft Menu in the BIOS Setup:
ROM PCI/ISA BIOS !! CPU SOFT MENU !! AWARD SOFTWARE, INC.
CPU Name Is
:Intel Pentium MMX
CPU Type (Speed)
: 133 (66x2)
-Turbo Frequency
: Disable
-External Clock
: 66MHz
-Multiplier Factor
: 2
CPU Power Plane
: Dual Voltage
-Core Plane Voltage
: 2.80v
- I/O Plane Voltage
: 3.30v
BIOS Options Besides the Soft Menu Setup, the BIOS Setup contains a Chipset Features Setup Menu, a Power Management Setup menu, and a PCI & Onboard I/O Setup Menu. The BIOS Setup menus and options are detailed in the tables below.
ROM PCI/ISA BIOS CMOS SETUP UTILITY AWARD SOFTWARE, INC.
! ! CPU SOFT MENU ! !
LOAD SETUP DEFAULTS
STANDARD CMOS SETUP
LOAD BIOS DEFAULTS
BIOS FEATURES SETUP
PASSWORD SETTING
CHIPSET FEATURES SETUP
IDE HDD AUTODETECTION
POWER MANAGEMENT SETUP
SAVE & EXIT SETUP
PCI & ONBOARD I/O SETUP
EXIT WITHOUT SAVING
ROM PCI/ISA BIOS CHIPSET FEATURES SETUP AWARD SOFTWARE, INC.
Auto Configuration
:Enabled
DRAM Timing
:60ns
DRAM RAS# Precharge Time
:4
DRAM R/W Leadoff Timing
:6
Fast RAS# to CAS# Delay
:3
DRAM Read Timing (EDO/FP)
:x222/x333
DRAM Write Timing
:x222
Fast EDO Path Select
:Disabled
ISA Bus Clock
:PCICLK/3
Refresh RAS# Assertion
:5 Clks
ISA Bus Clock
:PCICLK/3
SDRAM (CAS Lat/RAS-to-CAS)
:3/3
System BIOS Cacheable
:Disabled
Video BIOS Cacheable
:Enabled
8 Bit I/O Recovery Time
:1
16 Bit I/O Recovery Time
:1
Memory Hole At 15M-16M
:Disable
Peer Concurrency
:Enabled
Passive Release
:Enabled
ROM PCI/ISA BIOS PCI & ONBOARD I/O SETUP AWARD SOFTWARE, INC.
Reset Pnp Config Data
: Disabled
Onboard PS/2 Mouse
: Enabled
PCI PnP BIOS Auto-Config
: Disabled
Onboard FDD Controller
: Enabled
PCI IRQ Activated By
: Level
Onboard Serial Port 1
: 3F8/IRQ4
1st Available IRQ
: 10
Onboard Serial Port 2
: 2F8/IRQ3
2nd Available IRQ
: 11
-Onboard IR Function
: IrDA
3rd Available IRQ
: 9
-IR Duplex Mode
: Half
4th Available IRQ
: 5
Onboard Parallel Port
: 378/IRQ7
-
-
-Parallel Port Mode
: ECP+EPP1.9
PCI IDE Card 2nd Channel
: Enabled
-ECP Mode Use DMA
: 3
PCI IDE Card IRQ Map to
: PCI-AUTO
-
-
Primary IDE INT#
: A
-
-
Secondary IDE INT#
: B
-
-
Onboard USB Controller
: Disabled
-
-
Onboard IDE-1 Controller
: Enabled
-
-
-Master Drive PIO Mode
: 4
-
-
-Slave Drive PIO Mode
: Auto
-
-
Onboard IDE-2 Controller
: Enabled
-
-
-Master Drive PIO Mode
: 4
-
-
-Slave Drive PIO Mode
: Auto
-
-
Documentation The manual for the SM5 is detailed, accurate, and very complete. There are explanations for all of the external connectors, all of the CPU Soft Menu settings, and almost all of the BIOS settings. It is by far one of the most complete manuals I have seen. By comparison, most manuals give pictures of what settings are present in the BIOS Setup, and some even say what the options are for each setting, but few offer explanations on what the settings do.
The only shortcoming of the manual's explanations is on the DRAM memory settings. Instead of detailing what each of the settings does, the manual simply states:
"... If you do not understand this very well, don't make any changes. Our BIOS is able to autodetect the characteristics of your DRAM and to choose the best settings."
There are a ton of diagrams in the manuals that include information such as:
For Pentiums: What multiplier factor and external clock settings should be used with a certain speed CPU. The diagrams even go so far as to list the CPU model number to be certain that the voltages/clock settings are set correctly for each model.
For Cyrix and AMD:
Tables that describe the different parts of the CPU model number to help you decifer the codes into different things such as Internal Clock speed, processor name, P-Ratings, Package Type, Case Temperature and Operating Voltage.
All of the tables are extremely detailed and contain very useful information.
The performance of the ABIT SM5 motherboard was measured at a variety of speeds using three different benchmark programs: CacheChk v4.0, CPUmark16 from PC-Bench v9.0, and Norton SI for Win95. The links will take you to each respective benchmark survey so you can compare these results to others. Also be sure to look at the P5-200 vs. P200+ survey for even more results to compare. The tables below contain the results.
The tests were performed using an Intel Pentium 200MHz rated P54C CPU (tests were conducted at different speeds, including 200MHz), 32MB of SDRAM memory, and 512k of Pipeline Burst cache.
No jumpers on the motherboard to have to bother with, yet no loss of user control over system parameters.
Ability to change CPU speed, bus speed, CPU voltage, clock multiplier, through the BIOS Setup.
The Turbo Frequency feature,
Ability to run two operating systems via two boot devices,
75MHz and 83MHz bus speeds support,
P55C MMX support, Cyrix 6x86L support, and M2 support,
Synchronous DRAM support and control of CAS Lat/RAS-to-CAS timing,
Excellent documentation over all areas including the BIOS Setup (except Advanced Chipset/DRAM memory timings).
Disadvantages
Same old poor documentation of Advanced Chipset/DRAM memory timings.
Overall Report Overall, the ABIT AB-SM5 motherboard is full featured, highly configurable, and very powerful. It has all of the features that anyone could want in a Pentium class motherboard.
The fact that it supports SDRAM DIMM's, 75MHz bus speed, and the P55C MMX CPU, makes this board one of the most advanced on the market. Its useful life will be far extended with the many extras that it posesses.
And if those things weren't enough, the superior documentation will see to it that you are not left in the dark when you need a question answered about a function of the board, how to upgrade a component of the board, and of course, how to get the most out of the BIOS Setup (except the DRAM settings :)..
I would highly reccomend the AB-SM5 to anyone who wants a motherboard that is on the cutting-edge of technology, and one that will be sure to be so for many months to come.
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