Author: Aaron Gordon
Date: 15:44:01 07/02/03
Go up one level in this thread
On July 02, 2003 at 18:25:22, Keith Evans wrote: >On July 02, 2003 at 17:58:58, Aaron Gordon wrote: > > >>Hard for me to explain, but the extra heat BurnK7 generates would push your chip >>'over the edge' if it was that unstable. Running your 'important' code for >>example would result in a cpu temperature a few degrees cooler. Read my post for >>proof how the cpu would be stable in those few degrees. Also, I don't run the >>chips on the very edge. Don't knock my pretested chips before you try them. >>I've taken a lot of time/effort to make sure they work flawlessly. > >This is only true if the code in question is exercising the critical timing >path(s). Designers typically do a static timing analysis to find the worst case >paths in our chips - I'm sure that AMD does this. What you are doing is a >dynamic timing verification with no knowledge of the worst case paths. You may >be running enough different tests that you will catch it, but unless you have >verified it then you don't really know. > >We typically use an oven to heat parts up for qualification testing. BurnK7 >seems more like something that you use to test that your system level design >(airflow,...) is OK, rather than to qualify a chip across temperature. > >AMD themselves missed the JPEG bug. I'm sure that they spent a lot of time and >effort developing their tests too. > >If I were buying your chips for a home gaming PC them I would feel comfortable. >I would not buy them for a machine which was doing something like producing IC >masks. There I would spend the extra couple of thousand for a machine which is >operating within the manufacturer's specifications. (Yes and even then I could >get burned.) > >Are the packages hermetically sealed before and after modification? (I don't >know if they are hermetically sealed before or not, and I don't know what goes >on during the modification.) For the most part, the chips are tested in a temperature controlled area with "average" cooling. That way you don't need some god-like cooler to run stable. Any old cooler rated for near what the chip is rated at will do fine. I understand your concerns about testing, however, temperature does make a massive difference. If the chips are that on edge in the first place, BurnK7 and/or Prime95 will produce errors, crash/lock/reboot the system, etc. Overclocking doesn't mean you have to run on edge. If you check out my post here: http://www.talkchess.com/forums/1/message.html?304354 you'll see I go the extra mile to ensure stability. Well below the chips actual maximum clock speed. When you consider some P4-3.06GHz chips won't run 3.2GHz stable (%4.37 difference in clock speed), thats extremely close to the edge as is. My chips usually are 15% or more below the 'edge' of stability.
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