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Jung-uk Kim | 3 Dec 2009 21:16
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Re: 64-bit support on VIA C7 - on FreeBSD 8.0

On Thursday 03 December 2009 01:35 pm, Wiktor Niesiobedzki wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm owner of a new VIA SN10000 mini-ITX mainboard which comes
> together with VIA C7 processor. During boot it is detected as:
> CPU: VIA Esther processor 1000MHz (997.51-MHz 686-class CPU)
>   Origin = "CentaurHauls"  Id = 0x6a9  Stepping = 9
>  
> Features=0xa7c9baff<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,APIC,SEP,MTRR,PG
>E,CMOV,PAT,CLFLUSH,ACPI,MMX,FXSR,SSE,SSE2,TM,PBE>
> Features2=0x181<SSE3,EST,TM2>
>   VIA Padlock Features=0x3fcc<RNG,AES,AES-CTR,SHA1,SHA256,RSA>
>
> As far as I understand, this processor should support 64-bit mode
> and I should be able to boot amd64 FreeBSD.

No, C7 does not support long mode.  New Nano family does.

Jung-uk Kim
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Wiktor Niesiobedzki | 3 Dec 2009 23:22
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Re: 64-bit support on VIA C7 - on FreeBSD 8.0

2009/12/3 Jung-uk Kim <jkim@...>:
>> As far as I understand, this processor should support 64-bit mode
>> and I should be able to boot amd64 FreeBSD.
>
> No, C7 does not support long mode.  New Nano family does.
>

Yes, that's where I got mislead. I've read about Nano processor and
that's supporting 64-bit, and I had the impression that it is the same
for C7. My mistake. And i thought about 64bit system, as I'm planning
to use ZFS and as I understand, this 64bit architecture is
recommended.

Any way - thanks for clarification.

Cheers,

Wiktor Niesiobedzki
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Oliver Fromme | 11 Jan 2010 15:27
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Re: 64-bit support on VIA C7 - on FreeBSD 8.0

Wiktor Niesiobedzki <bsd <at> w.evip.pl> wrote:
 > Yes, that's where I got mislead. I've read about Nano processor and
 > that's supporting 64-bit, and I had the impression that it is the same
 > for C7. My mistake. And i thought about 64bit system, as I'm planning
 > to use ZFS and as I understand, this 64bit architecture is
 > recommended.

In that case, you might want to look for an intel Atom-based
mainboard, for example ASRock A330GC or Foxconn 45CSX which
are priced at 100 $US or even less, including an Atom 330
processor (dual-core 1.6 GHz).  It supports 64bit mode and
is noticably faster than the VIA C7 while consuming less
power.  Both of the boards mentioned above are "mini-ITX"
form factor (17 x 17 cm), provide one PCI slot and all of
the standard connectors (SATA, USB, LAN, VGA, PS/2 etc.).

The ASRock one seems to be a little better, as far as the
specs go.  It provides two RAM slots with a maximum of 4 GB
total which might be important for you because ZFS likes to
have as much RAM as possible (the Foxconn board has only one
RAM slot for 2 GB maximum).

Best regards
   Oliver

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