Anyone know if it's possible run a 64bit guest OS on vmware with any
AMD 754 pin CPU? When I try to create a virtual machine to do this
I get a message saying 64-bit guest is not supported on this host.
Vmware FAQ says CPU must be rev D or later or all CPUs build using
90nm will support it. I don't think AMD released any 754 pin CPUs using
the 90nm proccess but I don't know about Rev D.
And I am running XP x64 and vmware workstation 5.5

You're outta luck. There are no revision D Socket 754 Athlon 64 processors. There are no 90nm Socket 754 processors. The last 754 core was the Clawhammer. You would need at minimum a Socket 939 90nm Winchester core, which is the first revision D. Venice cores and higher are revision E. Even a Socket 939 Clawhammer won't work because it is still a revision C 130nm part.

You're in good company, though, as I can't get a 64-bit OS to install on my Pentium 4 630 EM64T processor. I need a Pentium core that supports VT and that ain't arriving until 2006 with the first Pressler parts.

Actually, I believe that the only socket desktop 754 AMD chip to be 90nm is a Sempron chip, with the Palermo core (only 256KB L2 cache) - the desktop 754 socket Athlon processors are still the older Newcastle and Clawhammer cores, which are 130nm. I don't know of any desktop 754's other than the Sempron Palermo core chip being made on 90nm, and the only Athlon 64's in the 754 socket to be made on the 90nm core are the Athlon 64m processors, which are the mobile processors for laptop systems (these are still fairly hard to come by, in my experience).

Note that the newer socket 939's with the Winchester core or newer (Winchester, Venice, San Diego, Manchester, Toledo) all are fabricated on 90nm. I'm pretty sure this is due to the fact that the 754 core has become the "budget" and mobile processor socket (which is what the Sempron is being fab'ed on), and the 939 and 940 are the "mainstream" and "workstation/server" sockets. If you don't have a 90nm chip, VMWare will not run a 64-bit guest OS. It's the only way (short of opening the box and looking at the die itself) to be sure you've got a rev.D Athlon 64.

cluberti is correct,

there are revision E6 Socket 754 90nm Semprons with the x86-64 extensions known as the Palermo core. There are also E3 Palermos that don't have x86-64 but are 90nm.

Thanks everyone for your help. Found some AMD 754 Palmero core CPU's at Newegg, but I think I'll wait for when I upgrade my graphics card and have to buy a new MB with PCI-express. Plus I don't know what the difference would
be going from a 1MB cache to a 256KB one.

It depends - for just office work, probably nothing (hey, people use the castrated Celeron too without too many issues for office work). However, if you're a gamer, or a "power user", or basically anyone who would be building their own PC ( ), you'll want at least 1MB of L2 cache.

Well, here's the results of my test:
Ran VMware 5.5 on WinXP Pro x64 (host OS).
Hardware - nForce 4 MoBo, Sempron 2500+ (socket 754, palermo core), 512 MB RAM.

Guest OSes installed:
WinXP Home (32-bit)
WinXP Pro (32-bit)
WinXP Pro (64-bit)
Windows Server 2003 (x64 edition)

So yes, the AMD 754 does run 64-bit OSes fine, in VMware 5.5

Yeah, the Sempron 2500+ is a Palermo core part, so it should work .

Try it with any other 754 ATHLON part, and it won't work. Only the Mobile Athlon and Sempron parts (on the Palermo core) will actually run without the error.

Looking at http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_ty..._docs/25759.pdf there are three Rev. D socket 754 listed:

SH-D0 00010F40h
DH-D0 00010FC0h
CH-D0 00010F80h

Were these never produced?

Does anyone have any idea if this processor should be fine for 64-bit guest OS?

No, it will give an error - note that it's the C-G core, and it needs to be C-H or higher (which no Athlon's have, only Sempron Palmino and Mobile Athlon 64's).

Thanks cluberti

Just wishing things could have been simpler though...

I wonder if XP 64-bit could run on my Sempron 3000+ system with XP Home 32 bit installed?

Please clarify!
Do you mean, you want to dual-boot both?
Then of course its possible (if your Sempron3000+ is a 64-bit piece).

But then, I dont see how that post is relevant in a VMware thread. Do you mean to ask, whether you can run a 64-bit guest OS, in your 32-bit host OS?

Yes, you can run 64bit guests on a 32bit host, as long as the processor checks out.

Also, to clear things up with supported processors, you can use this tool to check your processor to see if it will work properly with VMWare: http://www.vmware.com/download/ws/
You can find the link down the page a bit.

I meant running a 64-bit guest in a 32-bit host OS inside VMWare.

@cluberti: cool, I'll check it out
Edit: just ran that tool, I'm outta luck

I don't believe it would, but I have one of those exact chips on the way from tigerdirect as I type this, I'll let you know becuase I am definately going to try that.

I tried running windows 64-bit as a guest OS with VMware 5.5 on my current Athlon XP 2400+

then i had a rude awakening when I found out that VMware will not emulate the 64-bit chipset to run it on a 32-bit CPU i felt pretty dumb.

can you imagine how freakin slow that would be anyway? lol