Black plastic glue like material in CPU die.

[ironk]

I bought a used Athlon II (AM3), and I noticed that there is a bead of hard black plastic glue like substance that goes between/around the die and the green portion. I noticed that some of this black material is not uniform so its thicker and is sticking out more in one of the areas of the cpu. Is this normal or should it be uniform all around? The CPU does work, but I don't know if this "black glue" will cause problems later on or if it will melt.

/edit: I also noticed that the area where the glue is thicker, there is a small gap where there is no visible glue. After the gap, the glue has a little bump then its uniform all the way around.

Added example picture:

http://i.imgur.com/hFV0Lan.jpg

 

[VirtualLarry]

Are you sure that you are not talking about an Athlon XP-era CPU? AM3 CPUs do not have exposed dies. They have a heatspreader.

 

[Yuriman]

This is what a die looks like:

 

[VirtualLarry]

This is what a die looks like:

I've never seen an Athlon II without the heatspreader. Is that a laptop chip?

 

[DrMrLordX]

Indeed it is.

 

[ironk]

sorry about the wrong wording, I mixed up die and heatspreader..

I meant the desktop version:

http://i.imgur.com/hFV0Lan.jpg (example, not my cpu)


Notice how there is a black substance between the green area and the top? You can barely see it, but that's what I was referring to. I put a red arrow in the area.

 

[Yuriman]

The glue will not melt with any temperature you could get the heatspreader to without an oven. If you did somehow manage to melt it, my bet would be that it isn't conductive or capacitive.

 

[2is]

I believe that's just some sort of sealant to prevent moisture and thus corrosion from seeping between the die and pcb

The other pic is simply the epoxy used to adhere the heat spreader to the PCB.

Nothing to see here folks

 

[ironk]

so I guess I should be alright then? thank you all. 🙂

 

[sm625]

I ran an athlon II at 3.4 GHz for 2 years and the thing never once went over 55C. I dont think you have anything to worry about. Regor cores run very cool just like wolfdale.