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To: Tony Viola who wrote (81844)	5/27/1999 9:52:00 PM
From: Elmer	Respond to of 186894

Re: "I have two WAGs for this whole power scenario for the K7 test setup: 1. Either Thresh's Firing Squad got a real early K7 test setup, before a production power supply/mother board was ready, or 2. AMD doesn't have a motherboard/power supply ready to go. Otherwise, why wasn't it part of the Firing Squad setup instead of that kludge?" Very good observations, and it certainly begs the questions you raise. EP

To: Tony Viola who wrote (81844)	5/27/1999 10:05:00 PM
From: Robert Salasidis	Respond to of 186894

>The answer was that the production power supply they'll end up using will probably be a "switcher." Switchers are inherently noisy, and wouldn't allow the K7 to run at its fastest possible speed. The "2 point something" dropped down from the +5 volt supply would be much cleaner, and allow the K7 to run as fast as possible without crashing. As well, when dealing with low voltage, high wattage chips, any impedance in the wiring, will result in large drops in voltage (most 5V chips can work fine at 4.75-5.25V ranges). The tolerances for low voltage chips would be much tighter. Low dropout regulators in series with switching regulators provide the best compromise in terms of efficiency, precision and noise.

To: Tony Viola who wrote (81844)	5/27/1999 10:45:00 PM
From: kash johal	Respond to of 186894

Tony, Re: "Those ten things (not the chip heat sink) are most likely heat sinks for voltage regulators that are dropping voltage for the K7 chip down to "2 point something" volts, from probably +5 volts. I asked 'why didn't they just use a power supply which puts out the exact "2 point something" volts, and, hence eliminate the ugly voltage regulators.' The answer was that the production power supply they'll end up using will probably be a "switcher." Switchers are inherently noisy, and wouldn't allow the K7 to run at its fastest possible speed. The "2 point something" dropped down from the +5 volt supply would be much cleaner, and allow the K7 to run as fast as possible without crashing. Obviously, however, they can't ship with it, so they'll have to find, or have designed, the "2 point something" volt switcher. I have two WAGs for this whole power scenario for the K7 test setup: 1. Either Thresh's Firing Squad got a real early K7 test setup, before a production power supply/mother board was ready, or 2. AMD doesn't have a motherboard/power supply ready to go." Your observations are probably spot on. The voltage regulator heatsinks was worrying me as well. Folks have been using switching voltage regulators for quite a while and Intel has detailed designs and specs on the regulators. If they are having to use a static approach for the regulator that will be very wastefull on power but would give "cleaner" power. My guess is they will go with this in initial production. But it will add a few bucks to the cost and also lead to a very "hot" board. The fan and cooling specs on this monster are probably a real headache. Regards, Kash