BIOS Corections / Athlon variations

[Kodiak]

Howdy

Sometimes I feel the more I learn, the more horrified I become. I am amazed that a function of BIOS is to correct built in processor errors. Let me make sure that I understand correctly: Processors sometimes come with built-in hardware, physical errors, which are then corrected on every boot by loading corrective software from BIOS? How common is this??? Does this mean that other chips, like Athlon etc, also have errors that are hidden by BIOS corrections? Doesn't this slow down the processing?
Shouldn't problems like this be corrected as soon as discovered? i.e., the P4s that are currently manufactured shouldn't have the same issues as the ones manufactured a month ago? I realize that designing the processor is quite an undertaking, but I was under the impression it takes them that long becuase they make sure the darn thing is working and free of errors (remember the 585.999 processor?

Also, can somebody summarize what the difference is between regular athlon, thunderbird, and the upcoming mustang etc?
Thanx

 

[Guest]

Correcting the faults in the CPU is not the only function of the bios but it is one of them...... I am not sure on the difference with the mustang but the difference between the Classic Athlon and the T-Bird is that the t-Bird has 256k of on-die L2 cache(running at full cpu speed) and the classic has 512k(running at 1/2 or 1/3 of cpu clock) on board(oh and it is a slot type CPU instead of a socket)


M

one of the first UK T-Bird users....

 

[Guest]

Little tidbit, if ya haven't heard already, the Mustang program was put on hold. AMD has determined that the next gen of the T-bird (Palamino) will suffice both high and lower end systems. Unfortunate for us, we have to wait a little longer for the new core

There was also a rumor that the Mustang may be ressurected to fill a hole if needed...

-Raising the awareness of dumbasses everywhere...

 

[Kodiak]

ok, thanx -- in that case, what is the difference between T-bird, palomino & Mustang?

Yeah, I know of other BIOS functions, I was just quite surprised to learn that processors in the production are, in a way, *defective* -- and that by design...🙁

 

[igottaknife]

Rogue where do you get this info? I'd like to be on top of things as well. Raise this dumb ass'es awareness.

This new forum sucks

 

[Guest]

I'm not an expert, but the T-bird is just a new core up from the Athlon classic (which I have, very nice) and that the cache is different: athlon 512k running at 1/2 or 2/3 speed (not sure why this is), T-bird 256k full speed.

Palomino will have a new core, I think that this will be able to reach the 266Mhz bus speed for using DDR RAM (not sure if there is any caching differences here, somebody, fill in the blanks...)

Mustang was going to be directed more at the server market, ala Pentium Xeon competitor with different cache sizes (256k, 512k, 1MEG and I think 2MEG).

-Raising awareness of dumbasses everywhere...

 

[Guest]

I read a bunch o' sites everyday, here's some to bookmarks:

Tomshardware.com (of course!!!)
Aceshardware.com
anandtech.com
hardocp.com (good for rumors and cool attitude)
bluesnews.com (gaming and hardware)
sharkyextreme.com
slashdot.org
shugashack.com (good gaming and hardware)
pcscoop.com

I agree on the forum, the old format was way easier to navigate.

-Raising awareness of dumbasses everywhere...

 

[Mordy]

You got it right. It is easier to write BIOS patch for little bugs than rebuild all the factory plant. It does slow down the processing . If it is a big problem that could not be fixed by code it "fixed" by anouncement to the press that "1+1=7.987636 is good enough for non-technical calculations". That problems (usualy) corrected in next series.