Retro question 4

[626F62]

Was driving to work this mornig and thinking about the turbo on my car draining my fule and that got me to thinking...

My first PC used to have a 'Turbo' button on the front of it... i assume this makes a PC run faster but i have never understood how it would do so...

(i vaugly remember someone saying it was a DOS thing)

I know some laptops have a speed/Stamina and that makes sence on a lappy but on a PC that is in the mains (remember this was YEARS ago so no thinking about the enviroment!)

anyone... (its ok to answer we wont judge your age!! :^P)

 

[kmcferrin]

I believe that back in the day the "Turbo" button would basically do a sligh overclock on the CPU, say from 16MHz to 20MHz or something similar.

Interestingly enough, Intel has brought a variation of this back in their Core i5 and i7 CPUs. Basically they have a quad core CPU that runs at a stated speed (say 2.66 GHz for example). But if the system is running tasks that don't require all four cores, it can power down up to two of the cores and then overclock the remaining cores to a speed grade or two (3.0 GHz or faster, in this example). The Intel reps that I talked to referred to it as "Turbo mode is coming back."

It's actually a pretty smart idea, considering that the only thing that generally kept a CPU from running at the higher clock speed was the overall thermal limitations. They just get around that by generating less heat/drawing less power for two of the cores.

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[626F62]

so how did it overclock the CPU?? just more power?

and i read about the Intels version it seems good and made sense to me, but the old ones i wasnt sure about, couldnt understand why you would ever choose to run the PC slower than its capable of??

 

[webrabbit]

If the CPU is overclocked, it could produce errors, also it will "wear out" faster.

 

[jknichols]

Actually, the Turbo button was not really an Overclock function, but a slowdown in the non-turbo position.

The first PC's had about a 5 MHz processor, and a lot of the early software (particularly games) used timing loops based upon the clock frequency. As the CPU's got faster, the software would not run properly at full speed. So basically the TURBO position set the CPU clock at the full rated speed for that CPU chip, and the other position set the clock generator for the IBM XT compatible 5 MHz.

 

[kmcferrin]

Ah. Well, there you go.

________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
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MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator

 

[Nelviticus]

You can achieve the same effect in modern PCs - just install a Norton anti-virus suite and it's like turning off Turbo.

Nelviticus

 

[JimInKS]

bazinga

 

[kmcferrin]

Sweet! And here I was running "MOSLO" all these years.

________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
MCTS:Windows 7
MCTS:Hyper-V
MCTS:System Center Virtual Machine Manager
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator

 

[gbaughma]

You can achieve the same effect in modern PCs - just install a Norton anti-virus suite and it's like turning off Turbo.

... which was part of my reason for my new web site,

http://www.symantecstinks.com

Just my 2¢

"What the captain doesn't realize is that we've secretly replaced his Dilithium Crystals with new Folger's Crystals."

--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[cmeagan656]

ROFLMAO

Hope this helps.

Please help us help you. Read Tek-Tips posting polices before posting.

 

[edfair]

I would have expected Greg to have posted that Norton comment first.

Some of the turbos had two clocks with control circuitry to switch between them. Suspect that there were other methods but I don't recall them.

MOSLO was a better method IMHO. You got to choose the slower speed rather than taking what was offered.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[gbaughma]

Suspect that there were other methods but I don't recall them.

CTRL-ALT-Minus and CTRL-ALT-Plus, as I recall.



Just my 2¢

"What the captain doesn't realize is that we've secretly replaced his Dilithium Crystals with new Folger's Crystals."

--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[kjv1611]

I'd give Nelviticus another star for that post today if I could. I put a pinky on there yesterday. I think I could read just about any day and get a laugh out of it!

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me