[Leaplist] how much memory can my 1G motherboard hold?

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Fri, 2006-11-03 at 00:53 -0500, Kyle Gonzales wrote:
> Hey Roland,
> From what I see online, the VIA VT8731 was known as the KX133, not the
> KT133.  Searching on the KX133, I see the capability to use DIMMs up to
> 512Mb in size.

Unfortunately, ViA isn't as forthcoming with its engineering
specification sheets as AMD, Intel and others.  This makes it very
difficult.

Another issue is the fact that many 168-pin DIMM chipsets often quote
the large capacity of not SDR (Single Data Rate) SDRAM, but buffered EDO
DRAM.  ViA also had its own special SDR SDRAM known as Virtual Channel
DRAM (VCDRAM) for 512MB support.  But there are some 512MB SDRAMs
supported by the KT133.  I believe it's picky, but not quite as picky as
the Intel i440GX or i845 (i440BX and i815 don't support 512MB, and the
i810 doesn't support 256MB).

I want to say an eight (8) ICs using 64Mbit x 8-bit wide IC
configuration (stock 512Mbit SDRAM technology) is valid for the KT133,
as well as nForce2 and i845.  It may nor may not support previous
technology 4-bit IC configurations or similar (i.e., 32 ICs using
256Mbit x 4-bit wide IC is older 256Mbit technology, which is what the
i440GX needs for 512MB).

Also note that with more ICs on the DIMM, a fewer number of DIMMs may be
supported.  I.e., it might be very difficult to get more than two (2)
512MB SDR DIMMs to work.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith          Professional, technical annoyance
mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org    http://thebs413.blogspot.com
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