Duron Codes

So far, there’s been two reviews of the Duron 900; one by CPU Review, the other by AMDZone. Each has a useful tidbit that put together reveals something interesting.

The CPUReview shows a picture of a Duron 900 where the code is visible. The important sequence at the beginning
of the second line of code says “ANCA” and this one was a week 51, year 2000 chip.

The Durons have also had different codes during their existence, and they have also moved up the letter scale over time, though not as quickly as the TBirds. Most of the Durons out there have the code AKBA. More recently, we’ve been seeing
AKCAs, and there’s even a AMCA out there in our CPU Database. The MHz scores also seem to be creeping upwards as of late with the newer revisions.

So ANCA is a new code.

What can it do? Well, the CPU Review isn’t much help (looks like the reviewer only tried FSB overclocking on a KT133 board, but the AMDZone review is. From the review:

“I was able to get 1100MHz with ease. 1200 was bit more interesting and I raised the voltage to 1.70V. I did not mess with testing with bus speeds, but 9X133MHz should be attainable. The Durons are good overclockers so long as you have a good cooling solution.”

1100Mhz is a pretty good easy result from a Duron with high-end air at what looks to be default voltage. 1200Mhz would be extraordinarily good. Looks like something’s going on with these chips, too. Maybe not as dramatic as with the TBirds, but
none the less something to look for.

Different flavors of Durons, too

The AKCAs were being made into at least early February 2001, at least at the lower Duron levels. It looks likely we’re going to have multiple flavors of Durons just as we have multiple flavors of TBirds.

If I were you, and you happen to be the market for a Duron; I’d certainly be on the lookout for these ANCAs and see if they
might be around in the lower speed bins.

A word of warning, though, popping one of these into a KT133A motherboard that tries to boot at default multiplier X FSB may lead you right into the same problem people have had with high-end TBirds, and there is no official 133Mhz Duron to sidestep
the problem. In this particular case, I think you’d need to go with a mobo like the Asus A7V133 or Abit KT7A (despite our reservations about those boards) with such a processor.

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