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AMD Chip Fraud Delays Release of New Chipset
rocketman768 writes "According to internetnews.com a workshop in Taipei has been re-labeling nearly a million AMD Athlon XPs. It seems AMD is spending more time investigating this than on releasing their new Alchemy chipset which boasts direct transfer of video from digital video recorders to portable players without the need to transcode through a PC."
Because AMD makes each chip the same, and just modifies the multiplier to change the speed, the chip just detects what speed it is running at and makes the text show up as the right one.
probably not... most of the Socket A models have a 2-d barcode etched onto the top of the die itself but it would be pretty time consuming to try and decode manually.
You may be able to see traces of work being done on the top of the CPU, in the L3 and L4 bridges.
They are laser-cut at the amd factory to set the multiplier, and to be modified, the bridges which were cut would need to be filled in, and a conductive material painted on top.
This it how it's done, only in this case it is the L1 bridges that are joined, so that any multiplier can be set on the motherboard. You could do it with the L3 and L4 bridges to change to a set multiplier, which is probably what they do.
The bridges which were already joined but needed to be disconnected would be cut/drilled, I imagine that they wouldn't be using a laser like AMD do.
Never eat more than you can lift -- Miss Piggy
Actually, if AMD has a cash cow, it's their flash memory business. It's what kept the company's head above water during the lean years where the microprocessor division was doing nothing but losing money.
The article refers to xbitlabs which refers to Sin Chew Daily, which isn't even a Taiwanese newspaper. I searched Taiwanese sites and the most recent AMD related bust only found 60,000 pcs of remarked chips, not a million as reported.
"Doubtful. With the cost of fabs, it would probably be less expensive just to raid and shut down the illegal "producers" than to try and work out elaborate protection schemes."
Cost of fabs? What? The cost of a new mask maybe, but fabs have nothing to do with this.
"Remember - implementing half-assed software hacks to "protect" content on a CD is relatively cheap compared to the cost of imlpementing something similar to prevent overclocking in a complex computer chip."
Once again, what? Software hacks? What planet are you from again? That said, AMD has implemented clock locking features on the the nes 90nm parts, I think the D4 step has them, and the E0 will pretty much be assured of having it. If you want OCable chips, buy an FX.
As for workarounds, yeah, that has been SO effective with Intel's new strategy. Just get out ye olde soldering iron and bridge those nm-wide fuses they blow to kill the functionality. You go grrl.
-Charlie
They could have structured their purchases using legitimate motherboard companies as intermediaries, or they could have set up their own front company to hide the purchase. Just because you've never heard of Panashiba doesn't mean AMD's sales rep won't sell to them.
Possibly they used a Chinese or Russian firm as a cutout. Both of those countries are large enough that a million chips not hitting the market might go unnoticed. The order could also have come through a corrupt government official from a smaller country, such as Cuba, under the pretext of a military or governmental order.
They could even have hijacked a freighter or cargo containers carrying product. Computer chips long ago replaced lipstick as the highest dollar value per truck for hijacking. They have a tremendous resale value.
We may never know, but it sure would be interesting to find out.
John
Actually, it was very weird.I pulled into the parking lot, and cars where everywhere. I had been trying to tell my employers we were in for a shit storm, for a month. We (all the RMA Techs) kept tally sheets, specifically for RMA Complaints concerning those CPU's. We had taken one of them apart, to see what was going on under the hood, and they were Hotwired. Here's a quote from an Online Story, that we were involved in.
"Even armed with knowledge of the re-marking problem, Brock again went shopping online for a CPU upgrade for another system. Thinking he was protected by the "clock locking" technology in the new generation of Pentium IIs, Brock ordered a PII-400 from Micro Source. "When I first got it, the [CPU's] case didn't fit properly, and I thought it didn't look right," says Brock. His research pointed him to Intel's CPUID utility (see " ID, Please" ) and another tool from a German computer magazine, both of which indicated that his chip might be overclocked. He e-mailed Intel for confirmation, but no one there could tell him for sure. After finding evidence of tampering inside the CPU's case, Brock realized he had another re-marked CPU. Fortunately, he was able to return it and get a refund. Micro Source President Eugene Braverman says, "We did have one or two instances where consumers ended up with CPUs we were suspicious about. Now we only buy from Intel-authorized dealers." http://tinyurl.com/6uqe5/ [PCWorld.com] When the Feds' came they confiscated so much stuff, it was amazing. We had a lot of Customers Machines, that were built to order, they all were... Just Gone,we never saw them again, forged CPUs' or Not.
My cat's picked up a Hammer. HEY! Put down that Hammer. Put Down that Hamm...THUNK!
AMD has announced the Alchemy Au1200 for Personal Media Players on 3 JAN, including price and date for availability... This CPU provides a DVD-quality display that can be scaled directly to larger screens. The Au1200 processor is designed to support industry-standard media formats, including MPEG2, MPEG4, WMV9, H.263 and DivX.
DigiTimes reports that "Over a million re-marked AMD CPUs have allegedly been shipped to Germany and China, the Chinese-language Liberty Times reported Saturday, ..."
DigiTimes ~ Taiwan police seize 60,000 suspect AMD CPUs
http://slashdot.org/~2TecTom/journal/94553
Words to men, as air to birds.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
This article brings to mind an incident I had with an Athlon I'd bought last year for my computer... I bought a 2200+ from a shop in Sydney, Australia, but when I started up the computer the BIOS recognised it as a 1800+, although it displayed it as a 2200+ when I took the computer back to the shop and the shop guy did 'Load Optimised Defaults' in the BIOS. Has anyone else here had similar experiences? ~Aly~
Are these utilities of any use?a lResou rces/0,,30_182_871_2364,00.html
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/Technic
I guess a serial number you could actually call and check with AMD about would cause the privacy worriers to shit themselves, but it would be useful in this case.
Now before I get modded down, I be to remind whoever might read this that what I am saying is FACT. - bogaboga