Page 7 - Performance Enhancement Mode

PAT - PEM
Intel recently made a .. well booboo. The 'big' performance difference between a 865 and 875 chipset is 5-8% based on optimizations in the chipset called the PAT function. On the 865 chipset this function is disabled, however it can be enabled really easy. And a lot of mainboard manufacturers did. In fact manufacturers like ASUS, ABIT, AOPEN, MSI, EPOX and Albatron did something with their mainboards to enhance performance. All of them found a way not to enable PAT as that would get them legal issues with Intel. Intel is putting a lot of pressure on the mainboard manufacturers not to enable PAT. And Albatron did not enable PAT as they formally state.

No, in Albatrons case they introduced with the 1.02 BIOS a new mode called PEM (Performance Enhancement Mode). I'm not going into detail on what PEM precisely does as Albatron would not like it, but basically it is a series of optimizations, among them an optimized path for memory. I think you get the hint by now don't you ? Enabling PEM for example delivers an additional 300-400 MB/sec memory bandwidth. In total you'll gain a 5-8% performance.

There is a requirement to enable PEM though, you will need a Pentium 4 C class CPU, that's the one with the 800 MHz FSB. Once equipped with is and after flashing your BIOS to at least revision 1.02 your have the following additional advanced option in your BIOS.

Advanced BIOS Features:
1. Hyper-Threading Technology (Enabled/Disabled)
- It will be shown only when the CPU supports HT that you used .

Advanced Chipset Features:
1. Memory Performance (Enhance/Default)
2. Extreme Timing (Enabled/Disabled)
3. O.C DRAM Stability (Standard/Optimized)

Notes:
-You will be able to read above no.1 & no.2 when it meets FSB800 and DDR400
-If there is only FSB800 CPU, you can only read above no. 3.

Right, just for the record. I love the PEM function and applaud Albatron for introducing it to the end-user.