Love me two times, baby
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Beyond simply testing the motherboard's features and stability, we're also going to take a look at what exactly SMP can do for you. Intel or AMD, Via chipset or not, there are things about the real-world uses of SMP that you need to know. Things that go beyond "r_smp 1" and Photoshop. Anyone will tell you that two is better than one, but knowing where and why is what's really important.
The board
Before we dive into the deep end, here are the board's particulars.
| CPU support | Intel Socket 370-based Celerons and Pentium IIIs (only PIIIs will run SMP) |
| Form factor | ATX |
| Chipset | Via Apollo Pro 133A (VT82C694X/VT82C686B) |
| ISA slots | 0 (finally) |
| PCI slots | 5 |
| AGP slots | 1, 2X/4X AGP w/sidebanding and fast writes |
| Memory | 4 168-pin DIMM sockets for PC100/133 SDRAM (2 GB max) |
| Storage I/O | Floppy disk 4 channels ATA-100 Highpoint HPT370 RAID controller |
| Ports | 1 PS/2 keyboard, 1 PS/2 mouse, 2 serial, 1 parallel, 2 USB, 2 additional USB ports via expansion header |
| BIOS | Award PnP with Abit Soft Menu III |
| Bus speeds | 66MHz-150MHz (official support for 66, 100 & 133MHz) |
| Monitoring | Voltage, fan status, and temperature monitoring |
Unlike its predecessor, the BP6, the VP6 doesn't support dual Celerons. You'll remember that Intel crippled SMP permanently with the Celeron "II"—you can't dual them up, regardless of which motherboard you use. Should the VP6 support older Celerons? It would be nice, but the original Celerons are old. If you want to dual them up, the BP6 exists to serve your purposes.
Also notice that this board has no ISA slots. It's about time! While some of you grumpy old men might insist on legacy support, I'm all for giving it the boot. Good riddance.
