Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 12:34:48 -0800 (PST) From: Matthew Dillon <dillon@apollo.backplane.com> To: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> Cc: Doug White <dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu>, Jordan Hubbard <jkh@winston.freebsd.org>, Michael Smith <msmith@FreeBSD.ORG>, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Interesting sysctl variables in Mac OS X with hw info Message-ID: <200203152034.g2FKYma77667@apollo.backplane.com> References: <20020315120943.T71602-100000@resnet.uoregon.edu> <3C9257F2.5C0EE18F@mindspring.com>
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:Doug White wrote:
:> I've been asked several times about how to get CPU speed information for
:> inventory purposes.
:>
:> People would really like the speed number printed on the chip, not what
:> it's currently running at, if that's retrievable :)
:
:Can't mask the speed number.
:
:Chips with a lower printed number are just chips that failed
:testing at higher clock rates. Sometimes, they don't even
:fail, if they have a big demand swing. 8-).
:
:I guess they could laser it out...
:
:If Intel really didn't want overclocking to happen, they would
:put the clock on board the CPU, and make it an output, not an
:input... 8-) 8-).
:
:-- Terry
Actually, Intel did just that on their Celerons a little while after
they were first introduced. People realized that Intel was stamping
chips that tested at higher clock rates with lower clock labels
in order to keep their lower-rated distribution pipelines full. That
created a major overclocking craze on the Celeron line as well as no
small amount of grey-market relabeling of chips. This also led to a
certain percentage of grey-market relabeled chips failing since not
all the lower-rated chips passed the higher rated tests. Enough did,
however, and Intel actually began losing market share in their
higher-rated chips to their lower-rated chips. Oops!
To combat this Intel actually started either lasering or fuse-blowing
the PLLs on the chips to make them match their labels and prevent
them from being too seriously overclocked. I don't know if they bother
to do it anymore, though, as the chip speed testing gap is now back
to normal... packaging and heat dissipation has become important again.
-Matt
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