Activate some extra L2 cache!

[NarcoticHobo]

I was reading an article about AMD's production process and it stated that:

"In the new 90nm model of the Athlon 64 with Winchester core, half of the L2 cache is deactivated; the production process for the chips is identical to that of the larger variants. "

So here is my question, if one has a winchester chip could it be possible to reactivate that extra L2 cache? I know for instance in gpu's extra deactivated pipes can sometimes be activated and just wanted to know if the same is possible in a cpu. If so im sure the modding community would go insane with these chips, imagine buying a 90nm 3500+ and activating it to 1mb cache, thats like instant FX-51.

 

[Matthias99]

There's no way to do it in software/BIOS, like you can with video cards. The chips are modified at the hardware level to disable the cache.

You might, theoretically, be able to do it by removing the heatspreader and modding bridges (if there *are* any exposed bridges), or doing a pin-mod of some sort. From all available information, neither of these seem possible.

Also keep in mind that many of these chips probably have the cache disabled because it won't work (or won't work reliably at high speeds) anyway.

 

[NarcoticHobo]

Originally posted by: Matthias99
There's no way to do it in software/BIOS, like you can with video cards. The chips are modified at the hardware level to disable the cache.

You might, theoretically, be able to do it by removing the heatspreader and modding bridges (if there *are* any exposed bridges), or doing a pin-mod of some sort. From all available information, neither of these seem possible.

Also keep in mind that many of these chips probably have the cache disabled because it won't work (or won't work reliably at high speeds) anyway.

Right, I've heard of the actually bridge modding one would have to do, but it sounds to me like there would be a decent chance of having a fully operational L2 cache if the mod was done correctly. Of course who wants to try that on their $300 chip... maybe 2 years down the line...

 

[imported_whatever]

Originally posted by: NarcoticHobo
"In the new 90nm model of the Athlon 64 with Winchester core, half of the L2 cache is deactivated; the production process for the chips is identical to that of the larger variants. "

I would guess that this applies to the Venice core as opposed to the Winchester, as there is no 90nm that has the same features as Winchester but 1MB of cache.
It may also be applicable to some disabled Clawhammers.

 

[cirthix]

you could do this wtih socket A chips, and it worked most of the time just fine. however, on socket A chips, there was no heatspreader and the bridges were clearly visible. the thing is with a64s is that we dont know where any of these bridges are , either for cashe, or voltage, or multiplier, or anything else . i'm sure it will be discovered by us eventually, but so far we cant change it. when we do figure it out, you can be srue that it will be a hardware change (multis MIGHT be somewhere in the bios, but i'm sure dfi and the like would have figured out how to unlockthem upwards).

 

[cirthix]

o, and by "new winchester" he means san deigo and venice, which are the same core with venice having half ofthe l2 cashe disabled

 

[NarcoticHobo]

Well sh1te the E3 stepping. Why say Winchester though, he shoulda said Venice...

 

[jagec]

Is it just me, or have people gotten less hardcore as time went on?

At the beginning, people had to solder components on their motherboards to change the frequency of their processors.

Then, we had jumpers, but people were still doing pin mods and messing with their bridges.

Then, BIOS overclocking.

Then, overclocking while in Windows, via a fancy app with a simple GUI.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: jagec
Is it just me, or have people gotten less hardcore as time went on?

At the beginning, people had to solder components on their motherboards to change the frequency of their processors.

Then, we had jumpers, but people were still doing pin mods and messing with their bridges.

Then, BIOS overclocking.

Then, overclocking while in Windows, via a fancy app with a simple GUI.

Some people would call that "progress".

Motherboards and CPUs have become much more OC-friendly out of the box, so a lot of the extra effort from years gone by just isn't needed anymore for basic overclocking. There are still plenty of nutjobs out there; they just spend their time now installing crazy cooling and doing things like modding power regulation components, not screwing around with CPU pins to change a multiplier.

 

[nECr067]

Also keep in mind that many of these chips probably have the cache disabled because it won't work (or won't work reliably at high speeds) anyway.

This is the important thing. why gamble your high dollar CPU just to find they made it a Venice core because the whole L2 would not funtion? Of course if $$ is no object and you just want to know, then experiment away! I like my $$$$!