Reserved Overclocking Ratios

[soho34]

Hi,
I haven't delved into hardware in some time. I'm reviewing the principles of Overclocking and I have a question.

I understand that Overclocking can also be accomplished by jumpering various pens on the motherboard, however, where does the use of the "Reserved" word come and what does it mean?

For example, I have a chart of a Bus/Core ratio. In the first column of this chart it lists the speeds of the Bus ratio. For example, if you wante dot increase the clock speed by 3 times, this chart has 3 as a bus ratio options, and it tells you which jumpers to set.

My confusion comes in seeing the word "Reserved" under the Bus/Ratio section. What does this stand for? I defintely have some pin/jumpering assignments for it and have looked around on the web, but so far I've found nothing of substance.

Please help me understand if you can.

Thanks,
soho34

 

[kmcferrin]

Reserved just means that that particular configuration isn't used for anything yet, but is available for use later. The jumpers are used to generate an electrical signal of a certain type that the system board reads so that it knows how to set the CPU voltage/speed/multiplier settings. If a setting is reserved that means that the manufacturer can use that setting at a later date (with a later revision to the board or BIOS) for an additional setting (bus speeds or clock multipliers that would be available on future CPUs, for example).

 

[soho34]

Hi kmcferrin,

Thanks. I come from the software development side of the land and now I'm trying to learn more about the hardware side of things - especially PCBs.

I think I get what you're trying to say. The manufacturer has basically called dibs on these particular jumper settings and therefore they are listed in my chart as Reserved so I'll know not to try to do anything with them.
That makes sense.

Thanks for your help.
soho34

 

[kmcferrin]

Pretty much. If they design the board with extra jumpers from the beginning, then it's cheaper than re-engineering the board layout in the next revision.