Great read on S.N.D.S (Sudden Northwood Death Syndrome)

[Technonut]

There is a very good thread going Here regarding S.N.D.S..... Enjoy!

I'm not sure why SNDS happens mostly on Intel CPUs, but I believe they also happen with TBred. From what I understand, AMDs fabs are completely automated. No humans are allowed in the fab and they work with microenviornmental chambers where inside the chamber where the chips are worked on can be a Class 1 enviornment while the cleanroom itself can be Class 10 or even Class 100. I believe that Intel still has factory workers working in the fab, and believe it or not, the biggest source of particles that cause critical defects are humans. Not only do we constantly shed a lot of skin, our bodies also carry ions that can get into the wafer and have a detrimental affect on such things as the capacitive abilities of the gate structure aka MOS Capacitor or can affect carrier mobility in the silicon itself.

 

[Wingznut]

First off, SNDS (as well as SADS) are not "syndromes" whatsoever. I'm not sure who doesn't understand that cpu's can fail when overvolted. This isn't anything surprising to anyone. And by using the mentioned acronym, and suggesting it's a cleanroom issue, only suggests that it's a problem with the cpu itself. When in actuality, it's caused by running the cpu significantly out of spec.

As for the quote above, it's only partially true. In 200mm fabs, Intel technicians and engineers are in the same airspace as the wafers, which happens to be a Class 1 cleanroom, which is defined as less than one particle (smaller than .5µ) per cubic foot of air. But in the 300mm fabs, the people are not in the same airspace, which is a Class 10 cleanroom.

I believe that workers at AMD's Fab30 in Dresden are also in the same airspace as the wafers.

Yes, people are very dirty... Which is why we wear bunny suits.

But even still.... Particles will cause die to not yield, and have nothing to do with a cpu becoming inoperative after a lenghty time running at a voltage way over spec.

What is a cleanroom?
Working in a cleanroom.

 

[Technonut]

But even still.... Particles will cause die to not yield, and have nothing to do with a cpu becoming inoperative after a lenghty time running at a voltage way over spec.

I know that.... I just thought it was an interesting part of the thread to quote.... Thanks for clearing up the cleanroom part and the links. I am also familar with electromigration. The S.N.D.S. acronym is loosely used by OC'ers to describe the process of overvolting their P4s to death...

I just thought other OC'ers would find the thread well written and interesting......

 

[Bartman39]

Hehehe... I sneezed on my Tbred....? What will that do...?



Interesting reading non the less...