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From: John Doe on 4 Mar 2010 07:45
Paul <nospam(a)needed.com> wrote:

....

> The four cores could be tested with Prime95 stress test, to
> determine if all the cores are good. That is not as good as the
> testing they do at the factory, but it is better than just
> blindly accepting that the cores work. Prime95 multi-threaded
> version can be downloaded from mersenne.org/freesoft .
>
> I saw some comments about unlock functions, in this article
> yesterday.
>
> http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3755&p=4
>
> The whole thing is a lottery, but it's fun to win.

The circuitry is all there, but they disable it? I know that some
circuit boards have uninstalled component locations, but all of
the stuff is there and disabled?
From: VanguardLH on 4 Mar 2010 19:48
Man-wai Chang to The Door (33600bps) wrote:

>>
>> The circuitry is all there, but they disable it? I know that some
>> circuit boards have uninstalled component locations, but all of
>> the stuff is there and disabled?
>
> AMD must have a good reason to not sell them as 4-core CPUs. Any one
> knew why? Is it a secret? :)

Economy of manufacture. Easier and cheaper to use the same equipment and
assembly process for 4 cores as or 1 or 2 cores. If their testing shows one
of the cores doesn't pass, they sell it as a lesser core product. They also
have to meet demand for the lesser core count since not everyone wants to
pay the higher price for all the cores. They need to fill ALL the markets,
not just the top end.
From: John Doe on 4 Mar 2010 22:46
Right... Even if the unlocked CPU will probably function normally,
the idea that the other cores might be defective puts doubt in the
idea of unlocking the thing. Unless it can be re-locked?
From: John Doe on 12 Mar 2010 03:25
ToolPackinMama <philnblanc(a)comcast.net> wrote:

> nobody > wrote:
>
>> After updating the BIOS from ver 1605 to 2503, the BIOS splash
>> said to "Press 4 to enable 4 cores".
>>
>> ...So I did press 4....
>>
>> BIOS now says "4 cores enabled", Task manager shows 4
>> processors, and CPU-Z says it's a 4-core Deneb Phenom II X4 B45
>> at 3ghz.

> You just got 4 cores or the price of two.

That is assuming that the other cores are good. If quad core CPUs
were as easy to make as dual core CPUs, no one would sell dual
core CPUs. You might get lucky, but I would suspect potential
problems.
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