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Intel's Anti-Overclocking Technology Simplified
John Thorensen writes "Found a fantastic article on Intel's recent Anti-Overclocking patent at Fastsilicon.com. Worth the read, as it also explains some of the technical and ethical issues of overclocking. Good to see that some tech journalists can still write material understandable by an average person."
Beware - soon we will find people who sell overclocking devices going to jail for violating DMCA.
(yes, I forgot my password here.. again lol)
-Honestman
What ethical issues are there relating to overclocking? Overclocking a chip, and selling it at a higher speed is already called "fraud". There's nothing ethical or unethical about overclocking. Is redlining your car's engine unethical? Stupid maybe, but that's about it...
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
This technique is nothing more than embedding an oscillator on-chip, and using that to monitor the main clock.
Since most CPUs internally multiply their clock (you don't feed a 3.0 GHz P4 a 3.0 GHz clock, you feed it a much slower clock and it multiplies it up), why then don't manufacturer's just use an embedded clock and do away with all this?
Simple - it is very hard to have an accurate clock embedded in the CPU. External clocks can use a quartz crystal to vibrate and make the clock - an embedded oscillator would have to use an on-chip delay line or RC network, which will drift over time, temperature, and voltage.
So all they can do with a system like this is catch you if you are overclocking by a fairly large amount - were they to try to trap you at a 10% overclock they would have false trips due to process variation.
To extend the analogy the article used: you will get a speeding ticket if you are going 20 over the speed limit. Keep it less than 10 over and you will be fine.
NOTE: this is not advice condoning overclocking or speeding! This is just an analysis of the technology involved.
www.eFax.com are spammers
... An over-clock deterrent mechanism of a chipset which comprises an over-clock detection circuit for detecting over-clocking of a system ... and an over-clock prevention (thwarting) circuit.
Okay, to implement this, they're including a reference clock on the chip, which means that processors of different (marketed) speeds will have to be made with a different process (which has maybe been true for a long time, but I was lead to believe that, eg in the pIII days, the wafers that failed 1Ghz just got sold as 833MHz, etc).
So instead of doing all these calculations to decide if you're "speeding," and then doing even *more* calculations to penalize you, why don't they just expose this reference clock speed in a special interrupt call? And maybe even the relation to the operating speed (eg, "you are overclocked by 10%")? Then, they could release an app that would tell you how fast your computer was SUPPOSED to be, and how fast it IS.
Then, OC'ers could have their cake, and no one else could be taken advantage of by unscrupulous OEMs who overclock to bump up their margins. I concede the point that "most average people will never check anyway," but just having the information *available* should protect Intel from liability, which seems to be the essential idea. Plus, the threat of having the practice exposed at any time should stop at least some of the overclock-resellers.
Do you really believe that a product you've purchased should be under the control of the guy who sold it to you? Maybe your car should limit you to the speed limit of the state you bought it in. Maybe women's underwear should have a license forbidding men from wearing them. Maybe when you buy fresh meat it can come with a contract forbidding you from freezing it "to preserve freshness." Maybe Microsoft Press programming books can come with a license prohibiting you from using the knowledge to create competing products.
Maybe everything should be licensed and nothing sold. Maybe every "manufacturer" should tell you everything you shouldn't do with their product and then warn you in the warranty that they're claiming "no fitness for a particular use or purpose."
Maybe when your car is leased, all your consumer products are licensed, your food is consumed on the spot at restaurants and your clothes are bought on credit you will really be free. You will be living in the very model of freedom for all the world to see. God bless America.
TW