Monday, September 20, 1999

Introduction

The new Abit BP6 is the first Dual socket 370 motherboard available at this moment and chances are that it'll be the only one for a long time if not forever. Taking advantage of the SMP capability of the Celeron PPGA processors, Abit took the chance to built this motherboard even if Intel said that the SMP capability of the Celeron PPGA would be disabled. We all know that Intel didn't disabled the SMP capability of the Celeron PPGA even if they printed on the box that these processors were designed for single processor use only. As a fact, it would have costed way too much money to Intel to modify the Celeron in order to make them not ompatible for multi-multiprocessor use. Of course, you can use only a single processor with the BP6 and use this motherboard as any other single processor motherboard but why buy a dual processor motherboard if it is not to use two processor, isn't it?. Besides supporting dual processors, the Abit BP6 is also supporting the ATA/66 hard disk drives by means of its onboard HPT366 Ultra ATA/66 hard disk drive controller. Let's see what else has to offer the Abit BP6 in the suite of this article.

The features

The expansion slots configuration of the BP6 is 5/2/1 with 5 PCI slots, 1 ISA slot and of course 1 AGP port. Additionally, you can find 3 memory slots for a maximum of 768Mb of memory to be installed. The BP6 onboard HPT366 Ultra DMA/66 hard disk drive controller supports up to 4 Ultra DMA66 devices while the Ultra DMA33 support is accomplished by the Intel 440BX chipset. Therefore, it is possible to use up to 8 hard disk drives as it is on the Abit BE6 which is using a similar configuration. Totally jumperless, all settings are done in the BIOS "CPU (Soft Menu II)". Using the "User Define" option, you can select the multiplier, clock frequency as well as the processor core voltage. Speaking about the processor core voltage, an interesting feature found on the BP6 is that the voltage can be adjusted individually for each processor. Thus, you can set CPU1 at 2.0 and CPU2 at 2.2, for example. Other features including adjustement of the AGP ratio, PCI ratio, SEL#66/100 can all be acomplished.


The clock multiplier can be chosen within a range going from 2.0X up to 8.0X in 0.5 steps. The clock frequency available are including: 66, 72, 75, 78, 80, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91(at PCI 1/2) and 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 103(Turbo Mode), 104, 106, 108, 110 (PCI @ 1/3) 124 and 133Mhz (at PCI 1/4).


By the way, the Abit BP6 is PC99 compliant. PC99 is a specification for system design that was set forth by PC makers, including Microsoft and Intel. It is an attempt to define a specification that can be referred to across all different types of PCs and one of these specifications is : colors! This specific requirement calls for icons and connectors, and others, with color coding. Thus we get colored USB and PS2 connectors. For more information about PC99 specifications, visit : PC99 web site.

The other features supported by the Abit BP6 are: Creative SB-LINK ™ (PC-PCI) connector for AudioPCI soundcards, Temperature Warning, Thermal Fans Speed and Voltage Monitoring, Advanced Power Management (ACPI), Wake-On LAN, Suspend to memory, Power On by Modem Ring and/or Alarm, Mouse and Keyboard Power-On, Built-in IrDA TX/RX header, Built-in SMBus connector, PS2 keyboard and mouse connectors, Write-Protect Antivirus function by AWARD BIOS and Y2K compliance.

Below, a picture of the Abit BP6:

Installation

The installation of this motherboard is quite simple. The fact that there is no jumper to set facilitates the installation procedure. Once the CPU is installed, just go into the BIOS menu and select the "Soft Menu II" from where you will be able to set the whole configuration of the processor's operating condition. Note that in order to be able to use two processors, you must install them before to install Win NT otherwise the second processor wont be detected if you install it once Win NT is installed.

The software bundle

The software bundle included with this motherboard is including: User's manual (CD and book versions), Needed drivers, Screen saver, Abit's web site, Acrobat reader, DynaDoc Reader, Freewares, HighPoint XStore Pro, Hardware Doctor and a Read Me file.

Next page: The test results

[ Specifications ]

CPU
1. Supports Socket 370 processor (Based on 66/100MHz clock)

Chipset
1. Intel^®440BX (66/100MHz)AGPset
2. Ultra DMA66 IDE controller supports Four Ultra DMA66 devices
3. Supports Ultra DMA/33 IDE protocol
4. Supports Advanced Configuration and Power Management Interface (ACPI)
5. Supports AGP 1X/2X (Sideband)3.3V device

Memory
1. Three 168-pin DIMM sockets support SDRAM module
2.Supports up to 768MB MAX. (8, 16, 32, 64, 128,256MB SDRAM)
3.ECC support

System BIOS
1.CPU SOFT MENU^TM II eliminates the need for jumpers or DIP switches needed to set CPU parameters
2.Award Plug and Play BIOS supports APM, DMI and ACPI
3.Write-Protect Anti-Virus function by AWARD BIOS
4. Year 2000 Compliant

Functions
1. Two channels of bus Master IDE Ports supporting up to four Ultra DMA 33/66 devices
2. Two channels of bus Master IDE Ports supporting up to four Ultra DMA 33 devices
3. PS/2 Keyboard and PS/2 Mouse connectors
4. One Floppy Port (up to 2.88MB)
5. One Parallel Port (EPP/ECP)
6. Two Serial Ports
7. Two USB Connectors
8. Built-in IrDA TX/RX header

Miscellaneous
1. ATX form factor
2. One AGP slot, Five PCI slots and Two ISA slots
3. Hardware monitoring - Includes fan speed, voltages, system environment temperature
4. Keyboard and Mouse PowerUp
5. Built-in Wake on LAN header
6. Built-in Wake on Ring header
7. Dimensions : 305*240mm