AMD to make special unlocked Durons !!! and Award and AMI Bios's going to read AMD's CPUID code to end remarking !!!

[Czar]

http://www.tweaktown.com/amd_scoopage/index.shtml#2




<< Just recently ASUS released its statement about its new A7V motherboard we here at Tweaktown have recently received some information from ASUS and AMD. As many of us know ASUS plan to make a 2 versions of the ASUS A7V. One with no multiplier jumper block and one with the jumper block. Now this seems ok in theory but 99% of the AMD Athlon 2 (Thunderbird) will be unable to be changed, but word received from a source (who wishes to remain unknown) has stated that AMD will in the future produce a breed of Athlon 2 that will be multiplier adjustable. It will be set to a specific frequency on time of sale but with special jumper arrangements you will be able to change the multiplier.

Dear Tweaktown.

We have some information that may interest you.

AMD have announced to us that they will be introducing a special Fab of Athlon with performance enhancing cache that will be multiplier unlocked. Award and AMI have also told us that they will be helping with a new BIOS code that will prevent remarking of the unlocked Athlon with performance enhancing cache.

Also we have heard that Award and Ami will be introducing a scheme to prevent resellers relabelling the CPU. According to the information received, Award will introduce a feature that will read the AMD Athlon CPUID code and will display the actual CPU's designated Speed and the overclocked speed. Eg. If you have a Athlon 2 700Mhz and have it clocked at 900Mhz on boot up the motherboard will bios will show up as: AMD Athlon 700 at 900MHz. This will prevent resellers from relabelling the 700Mhz CPU as a 900MHz for example.
>>



DURON IS BACK
And finally the bios people figured out that it might be a good idea to impliment CPU ident system in the bios.

 

[0div0]

:Q
Sounds a little too good to be true. Why would amd try to satisfy such a small percentage of its customers? Very cool if it happens though.

 

[Zephyr]

Unfortuantely this will NOT include Durons ... but still pretty cool

 

[Windogg]

I guess the power of us geeks has made an impression on AMD. They can either fight us and tick us off. We of course then turn around and tell 20 of out non-tech friend to not buy AMD. Then the news get splashed over dozens of tech sites creating very bad press for AMD.

OR.. then can can take the road mentioned in the article and make everyone happy. Standard consumers can now be confident that they are getting what they paid for and tweakers are free to experiment. Smart move by AMD to satisfy the hard core segment. I for one will be pushing AMD alot more if this is true.

Windogg

 

[Scorpion]

Sweet news. But they should do this for the Duron also. Why not just include it on all their processors?

 

[Fenix793]

Very smart move by AMD. By winning over the hardcore market they take a bit more market share away from intel. Now when the hell are they gonna make an SMP chipset?

 

[Goi]

That's a much better way of preventing remarkers from cheating consumers, simply program it into the core/EPROM to show the original clock speed and the current clock speed. Now everyone's happy(except remarkers)

 

[SPAnDAU]

In theory programming the BIOS to display the programmed speed and the overclocked speed is a great idea. But wouldn't it be easy for someone to program their own BIOS file to remove the speed display?

 

[Czar]

Probably yes, but isnt there some part of the Bios that cant be rewritten?

 

[arthurb1]

No way...you would end up with too many bad chips, and htey could write it into a ROM, that would not let you rewrite it...

 

[BoberFett]

If it were easy to rewrite the BIOS, those criminals would be doing remarking that way instead. Why bother physically remarking and overclocking a chip when they could easily stick in any CPU and have any speed they want show up at boot. If you could rewrite the BIOS, put in a Celeron 533 and have it POST as a P3 933.

 

[Scorpion]

The People that remark CPUs don't sell you BIOSes. Typically it's just the CPU. Now if they are Remarking entire computer systems and selling the whole system, then yes. They could rewrite the BIOS to display anything they want. But that's pretty ridiculous. It would take far too much time to figure out how to write your own BIOS and make it work. You can't just download the AWARD BIOS source code for any motherboard and change it as you please. So your idea is basically impossible.

And someone selling an entire system with remarked stuff is much more likely to get caught.

Noone would even bother doing that.

 

[Mark R]

Well, maybe remarkers might not go as far as modifying BIOSs.

But several mobo manufacturers, in the days of Pentium/K6, used to modify their BIOS to say 256 k of L2 cache, when in fact the motherboard had no L2 cache. They even went to the effort of soldering dummy chips into the places where the L2 cache was supposed to go.

 

[MadRat]

They even went to the effort of soldering dummy chips into the places where the L2 cache was supposed to go.

This was a necessity in some m/b's, not a remark scheme if I remember right.

 

[Soccerman]

LOL, we all thought this would be one of the best methods of keeping people from getting a system that they didn't know was overclocked (buying from remarkers).

This also means that companies that deal in CPU's that CAN be overclocked don't actually have to do anything except verify how high it can go. This avoids confrontations between AMD and those companies am I right? The reason AMD didn't like those companies, is that they sold them already overclocked (you had to, becuase of the goldfinger etc)

 

[KB]

There is an easy way to prevent remarking. Don't buy from them! Either build your own PC or buy from Dell, Gateway, Alienware, IBM, Compaq and another well known company. They are unlikely to remark because they stand to lose both reputation and money if they get caught.

 

[arthurb1]

Yes, but due to large overhead costs all of their prices are hihg...and the problem with remarking is just chips, shady dealers remark the chips only and sell them not only as systems, but as individual chips, to the people who build their own systems, thereby gaining a higher profit margin. On another point Alienware is so high priced that you would have to be insane...look around the web for part prices and you can either half the cost or build twice the machine...

 

[Venomous]

Overclocking the Athlon is what made is popular to begin with. So, taking that into consideration, it would be AMD's best interest to feed the need to the people who bragged about their product all along. Unable to overclock the Athlons would hurt AMD in the long run. FSB overclocking is just not possible with the AMD as it is with the Intels. That EV6 bus cant go that far out of spec like the Intels can. So, allowing Multipler unlock is a smart move if they want to continue the domination.

BTW. The Athlons dont have a whole lot of OEM's making their computers like Intel does. Its all Hobbyist, thats why OCing is so important if AMD wants to compete with Intel. If the Athy couldnt be OC'd, then AMD wouldnt have as much market share as they have today. We all know a majority who own Athlons, including myself, built it themselves and Overclock it.

 

[DBavaria]

youll see intel will just copy them and do the same thing, but they wont really tell everyone, it will jus be there