- Aug 25, 2001
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My understanding is that every processor produced by Intel, since roughly PII-era, has a "PI-ROM" - Processor Information Read-Only Memory.
According to specifications from Intel that I found at the time, they described the layout of some of the PI-ROM fields, including the "PSN" - Processor Serial Number.
Now, during the Pentium-III era, Intel implemented an opcode, for software running on the processor, to read out the PSN.
This was met by a certain amount of outrage from privacy advocates, and thus a BIOS setting was added to disable it.
My personal belief, which I cannot at this time prove, is that ALL Intel CPUs produced since that time has a PI-ROM, and thus, a PSN. The question then becomes, how can you read it out? My understanding, from the specs that I read, is that this info could be read out over the SMBUS - System Management Bus on Xeon CPUs.
According to specifications from Intel that I found at the time, they described the layout of some of the PI-ROM fields, including the "PSN" - Processor Serial Number.
Now, during the Pentium-III era, Intel implemented an opcode, for software running on the processor, to read out the PSN.
This was met by a certain amount of outrage from privacy advocates, and thus a BIOS setting was added to disable it.
My personal belief, which I cannot at this time prove, is that ALL Intel CPUs produced since that time has a PI-ROM, and thus, a PSN. The question then becomes, how can you read it out? My understanding, from the specs that I read, is that this info could be read out over the SMBUS - System Management Bus on Xeon CPUs.
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