ASUS Unveils Exclusive Technology to Unlock Latent AMD CPU Cores

[MaxBurn]

Another reason I can not trust ASUS. They are assuming there was no good reason that particular core was turned off in the first place, how misleading for people that won't know better.

http://www.asus.com/News.aspx?N_ID=nUl4pbbLEB9nQu9m

A Simple Way to Boost Performance with Core Unlocker

Equipped with an exclusive Core Unlocker feature, the M4A89GTD PRO Series allows users to enjoy an instant performance boost by simply turning on a switch on the motherboard. Doing so activates the latent AMD CPU cores and maximizes processing to triple- or quad-core for extreme performance—especially useful for supporting multitasking or intensive processing. By increasing the processing cores, users can also achieve up to 103% better overclocking performance.

 

[Mercutio]

Perhaps the thinking is more that AMD is binning perfectly good quad core CPUs as 2x or 3x models?

 

[Bozo]

It would be cheaper to manutacture all quad cores and then shut off cores electronically.

 

[Mercutio]

How do we know that's not what they're doing?

 

[Bozo]

We don't, but maybe ASUS does.
If it works as advertised, AMD will be selling dual cores like hot cakes.

 

[LunarMist]

Is that legal?

 

[ddrueding]

I suppose they could make it void the warranty, but it is your hardware that they sold to you. Using something in a method other than directed is my favorite.

 

[Stereodude]

But how do you know the core is fully functional? Unless they give you some sort of utility that can test every aspect of the core, you might get a surprise when you start pushing the chip hard in some sort of rendering or mass computational task when it starts returning bad data.

 

[LunarMist]

I suppose they could make it void the warranty, but it is your hardware that they sold to you. Using something in a method other than directed is my favorite.

I don't know the details, but some large computer systems are only supposed to use so many cores without increased costs. There was a story in the ITG that someone was up to no good trying to overuse the CPUs/cores, but ended up screwing up the system and getting sacked. I think it may have been the alcohol abuse, however.

 

[ddrueding]

Systems that large are typically licensed, leased, or under some massive support contract. If you purchased the hardware outright, the worst they could do is pull support.

 

[Adcadet]

Could the use of disabled cores be considered "hacking" and a DMCA violation? This could be terrorism.

 

[Stereodude]

I was just thinking the same thing. :errr:

 

[Tea]

This is new? We had the exact same controversy when Intel were shipping Pentium Classics marked for 133MHz which had actually tested OK at 166MHz.

 

[time]

Given you could already do this several months ago with at least some Gigabyte motherboards, I don't understand how it's either new or exclusive.

I tried it last year and although it initially seemed okay, one of the cores wasn't sufficiently stable for long-term use. I recall CougTek having a similar experience, so I don't put much stock in the idea that most of the dual-cores can really be run as quad-cores. YMMV.

 

[CougTek]

You could unlock the unused cores with many motherboards that had the SB710 or SB750 south bridges. AMD supposedly disabled the core unlocking with their latest southbridge (the one that ships together with the 890GX northbridge). Asus only hacks the southbridge to re-create the same old fonctionnality that existed in the older southbridges.

Like Time said, there's nothing new here.