Vector
01-26-01, 02:41 PM
It seems like everyone's freaking out right now because AMD is beginning to ship many of their faster processors (1.2GHz) with the L1 bridges still connected...
Well guys, don't know what to say except this isn't all that strange...actually it makes a hell of a lot of sense--not from a cost-effective standpoint (because there's really no overhead when cutting a jumper with a laser) but more of a marketing ploy.
There is no physical difference between the "old" 100MHz fsb (ok, 200ddr) thunderbird and the "new" Athlon-C cores that are just appearing on the market now--except, of course for the lower frequency multiplier for the C core. The original athlon processor was designed to run at 133MHz fsb, but there was no chipset around to support it. Now, since the laser cutting of the L1's is at the very end of the process and AMD is now obviously able to produce huge yields of cores rated above 1GHz, why not leave the processor unlocked and let the computer manufacturer or the user choose what fsb speed he wants to run--this makes a hell of a lot of sense for AMD until they can get rid of the "old" cores and make new ones with a nice C printed on the front and changed multipliers.
My guess is that AMD will soon make a press announcement stating the 100MHz thunderbirds will run at 133MHz, but to manipulate them at your own risc.
Well guys, don't know what to say except this isn't all that strange...actually it makes a hell of a lot of sense--not from a cost-effective standpoint (because there's really no overhead when cutting a jumper with a laser) but more of a marketing ploy.
There is no physical difference between the "old" 100MHz fsb (ok, 200ddr) thunderbird and the "new" Athlon-C cores that are just appearing on the market now--except, of course for the lower frequency multiplier for the C core. The original athlon processor was designed to run at 133MHz fsb, but there was no chipset around to support it. Now, since the laser cutting of the L1's is at the very end of the process and AMD is now obviously able to produce huge yields of cores rated above 1GHz, why not leave the processor unlocked and let the computer manufacturer or the user choose what fsb speed he wants to run--this makes a hell of a lot of sense for AMD until they can get rid of the "old" cores and make new ones with a nice C printed on the front and changed multipliers.
My guess is that AMD will soon make a press announcement stating the 100MHz thunderbirds will run at 133MHz, but to manipulate them at your own risc.