Thursday, February 26th 2009
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Phenom II X3 from Week 51 Batch Successfully Unlocks Fourth Core, AMD Steps In
The ability of AMD's Phenom II X3 processors dole out an additional core thanks to flaws in BIOS programming, has been one of the most interesting events in the computer enthusiast industry this month. A simple toggle of an option would unlock the disabled core, appreciating the value of the processor. It was earlier known that only chips belonging to 0904 (fourth week of 2009) batch of the processors would be able to respond to the mod successfully, but now, a fresh finding by German website Hartware.net suggests that even chips made in the 51st week of 2008 batch responded to the mod, and the fourth core could be enabled. Hartware.net used Biostar's TA790GX A2+ motherboard for the feat.
Meanwhile, the only entity that stands to lose due to this rather bizarre "phenomenon" has stepped in. AMD has reportedly requested motherboard manufacturers to not to release motherboards with the "buggy" BIOS, and to devise a fix for the issue immediately. Manufacturers are requested to release fixed BIOS updates. Evidently Phenom II X3 could cannibalize higher quad-core chips by the firm. The company is yet to release an DDR3-supportive quad-core chip based on the Deneb core with the entire 6 MB cache enabled.
Sources:
Hartware.net, OCWorkbench
Meanwhile, the only entity that stands to lose due to this rather bizarre "phenomenon" has stepped in. AMD has reportedly requested motherboard manufacturers to not to release motherboards with the "buggy" BIOS, and to devise a fix for the issue immediately. Manufacturers are requested to release fixed BIOS updates. Evidently Phenom II X3 could cannibalize higher quad-core chips by the firm. The company is yet to release an DDR3-supportive quad-core chip based on the Deneb core with the entire 6 MB cache enabled.
24 Comments on Phenom II X3 from Week 51 Batch Successfully Unlocks Fourth Core, AMD Steps In
It's not like people wont be able to flash to the bios that enables this to happen so why bother even trying to fix it.
Their response makes me think that this will work for newer batches as well ;)
(edit: wohoo 1,500th post!)
and if they need it ppl are going to pass it around
thats what they get for being lazy who needs a tri-core
Completely different from the Creative Labs issue, as in AMD hasnt forced lawsuits on anyone.