Theoretically it should work, assuming the BIOS doesn't freak out. The Pentium Pro has a P6 core and uses the same AGTL bus protocol as the Pentium II and III. The lack of MMX/SSE and low clock speed (max 200) would probably bottleneck most AGP graphics cards besides the really slow first generation models. The full speed cache is nice, but any 300Mhz+ PII will likely beat it in most gaming benchmarks.

a Pentium Pro with SD-RAM and AGP videocard

Not possible, they are usually compatible only with 440FX chipset boards.

The full speed cache is nice, but any 300Mhz+ PII will likely beat it in most gaming benchmarks.

Even Mendocino will run circles around it, so it's entirely pointless adapter for extremely laughable price.

Not sure what the original price of these adapters were and how quickly they were available, there might have been a small window were this made financial sense. But nowadays given the cheapness of Pentium2’s and the fact the Pentium Pro had a performance penalty running 16bit software, the only reason anyone would purchase this would be for a silly experiment.

Socket 8 --> Slot 1 Slotket Adapters

the only reason anyone would purchase this would be for a silly experiment.

One russian overclocker/reviewer actually did that for science - https://overclockers.ru/lab/show/77627/retrok … um-pro-socket-8
And yes, you can use this adapters with some 440LX boards, but performance boost is just not worth it. Also there's plenty of powerful PCI video cards to pair up with 440FX motherboard.

The Serpent Rider wrote:

Not possible, they are usually compatible only with 440FX chipset boards. […]
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a Pentium Pro with SD-RAM and AGP videocard

Not possible, they are usually compatible only with 440FX chipset boards.

The full speed cache is nice, but any 300Mhz+ PII will likely beat it in most gaming benchmarks.

Even Mendocino will run circles around it, so it's entirely pointless adapter for extremely laughable price.

I think I read that some 440LX boards also supports Pentium Pro but only with early BIOS releases. I'm not really sure where I picked up that information though and it's not something I have tried my self.

But as you can take a Tualatin PIII and stick it on some Pentium Pro Socket 8 motherboards (with a stack of adapters) and make it work with a BIOS from 1996 (5 years before the Tualatin was released) I would actually find it odd if you couldn't get a Pentium Pro running on a BX board even if it isn't properly recognized. I was a bit surprised when the BIOS on my Gateway branded (Intel) VS440FX Socket 8 motherboard successfully identified and activated the Tualatins L2 cache.

Here is a screen dump showing a Celeron 1400 @933 running on the VS440FX Socket-8 board with a BIOS dated December 5th 1996.

that drop after 256kb :> the edge of the world;
why does it show 3 cache levels?
wouldnt ppro improve in a p2 board due to faster memory?

wouldnt ppro improve in a p2 board due to faster memory?

It is (test above), but that's new memory controller and SDRAM improvements combined.

mrau wrote:

that drop after 256kb :> the edge of the world;
why does it show 3 cache levels?
wouldnt ppro improve in a p2 board due to faster memory?

Speedsys is often mistaken about such things. I guess that small speed drop after 128KB was enough to fool its cache detection algorithm

I have one of the adapters Slot 1 -> Socket 8. Tried it in various i440LX and BX boards, none of them worked... at best POST screen was shown and then PC freezed. The 440LX boards had fairly old BIOS, not sure how old but it was without Mendocino support.

As far as I know, some BIOS hacks are required to make PPro work on newer chipsets.

Skyscraper wrote:

But as you can take a Tualatin PIII and stick it on some Pentium Pro Socket 8 motherboards (with a stack of adapters) and make it work with a BIOS from 1996 (5 years before the Tualatin was released) I would actually find it odd if you couldn't get a Pentium Pro running on a BX board even if it isn't properly recognized. I was a bit surprised when the BIOS on my Gateway branded (Intel) VS440FX Socket 8 motherboard successfully identified and activated the Tualatins L2 cache.

Here is a screen dump showing a Celeron 1400 @933 running on the VS440FX Socket-8 board with a BIOS dated December 5th 1996.

Speedsys VS440FX Socket-8 Tulatin Celeron @933.jpg

I'm totally suprised on that. I had a Pentium 3 motherboard, Abit VH6 and i could not updrade to Tualatine. I should have change the motherboard too, for Abit VH6-t or higher... So i had to stick with a Coppermine 1100MHz CPU.

I was actually looking for this kind of Socket8->Slot1 adapter for my collection. But at this price I'll pass. 😀

stamasd wrote:

I was actually looking for this kind of Socket8->Slot1 adapter for my collection. But at this price I'll pass. 😀

Especially if it is not working! According to havli.

Atom Ant wrote:

stamasd wrote:

I was actually looking for this kind of Socket8->Slot1 adapter for my collection. But at this price I'll pass. 😀

Especially if it is not working! According to havli.

It should work with 440FX motherboards. But that greatly diminishes the interest, since the 440FX is already common on native Socket-8 motherboards anyway.
It would be a lot more interesting if somebody figures out how to hack a 440LX or 440BX BIOS to work with it. Assuming the BIOSes are the issue.

Unfortunately these things are so rare that they're bound to be expensive. I don't speak German but it looks like they have the listing set to accept offers. They might field offers for a while before deciding what they'll let it go for.

This particular example of this adapter does look really bad.
It seems to have some non factory soldering near the golden fingers and a huge cut on the back..
I have serious doubt this adapter still works reliable..

shamino wrote:

I don't speak German but it looks like they have the listing set to accept offers. They might field offers for a while before deciding what they'll let it go for.

The same auction is on the main ebay site. Just replace "www.ebay.de" with "www.ebay.com"

Nvm1 wrote:

This particular example of this adapter does look really bad.
It seems to have some non factory soldering near the golden fingers and a huge cut on the back..
I have serious doubt this adapter still works reliable..

yea, that price is absolutely bonkers. You can MAKE your own for less. The damage really turns me off. I wouldn't even pay $20 for that motherboard-killer.

That said, I'd love for someone to make these adapters again. It would be cool to try in a 440bx board. The p-pro is technically compatible with 440bx, it just relies on bios support. Nobody really cared and I don't believe anyone actually made such a beast. Dual p-pro and AGP? That was once a dream for me.

shamino wrote:

It should work with 440FX motherboards. But that greatly diminishes the interest, since the 440FX is already common on native S […]
Show full quote

Atom Ant wrote:

stamasd wrote:

I was actually looking for this kind of Socket8->Slot1 adapter for my collection. But at this price I'll pass. 😀

Especially if it is not working! According to havli.

It should work with 440FX motherboards. But that greatly diminishes the interest, since the 440FX is already common on native Socket-8 motherboards anyway.
It would be a lot more interesting if somebody figures out how to hack a 440LX or 440BX BIOS to work with it. Assuming the BIOSes are the issue.

Unfortunately these things are so rare that they're bound to be expensive. I don't speak German but it looks like they have the listing set to accept offers. They might field offers for a while before deciding what they'll let it go for.

My Tualatin Celeron shows up as a Pentium Pro in Dell's BIOS for my 440BX board. This is being accomplished through a Lin-Lin and Slotket adapter. I'd think it implies that the Pentium Pro microcode is in there. In my experience with BIOS hacking, many of them have microcodes for a range of processors you wouldn't expect to be there. The manufacturer BIOS for my Abit socket 478 board has microcode for several slot 1 processors, for example.

I have a Slocket 8. I'm trying to get it working in a 440EX board with an OEM branded Award 4.51PG BIOS. The board is known good, working fully with a Deschutes P2. When I put the PPro + slocket in there, it boots up but the system hangs right before it prints the CPU ID string. I'm assuming the problem is indeed lack of BIOS support, since if the chipset itself was incompatible it wouldn't even boot or display anything. I've also verified the VRM on the board supports 3.3v.

Anyone up for helping me hack the BIOS to add microcode support? I can dump it with AWDFLASH and post it here if anyone is interested.