How do you interpret the steppings on AMD 64?

[Sgt_Strider]

I'm not sure if information like this was posted, but how do you interpret the code to determine the date of manufacturer for the processor? Is the stepping listed on the box or I'll need to open up the box to find out? Thanks.

[choseone214]

Look on the chip here. You see the 0438?
Thats year 2004 week 38 so 38th week of 2004 so about 2nd week in october.
http://img24.exs.cx/img24/719/ccc4ra.jpg

[flexy]

I'm not sure if information like this was posted, but how do you interpret the code to determine the date of manufacturer for the processor? Is the stepping listed on the box or I'll need to open up the box to find out? Thanks.

the stepping is printed on the heatspreader....eg. usually something like
0437VPAW or 0441TPBW

whereas the "04" == year (2004) and the "37" or "41" is the week.
0437VPAW would be manufactured week 37 in 2004 :)

The four other characters i am not sure...i think it decodes the weekday of manufacture or so...maybe someone else knows more there

[Flib]

here you can let you say what the 1st line means, that are only details about the cpu
http://www.ocinside.de/go_d.html?/html/workshop/amd_a64_product_id_d.html

2nd line:
as said before the 4 numbers are the date and the 4 letters are the stepping

3rd line:
hmm...think it's a kind of serial number, each cpu should have a different one

[Sgt_Strider]

Thanks for the response guys. So basically, I won't be able to find out the steppings until I open up the box right? Or there is a see through in the box to find out on the stepping?

[choseone214]

the new boxes you can see the chip and the info through the box. :)

[STEvil]

"ADAFX55" is the CPU's designated rating (line 1)
"DE15" is...? (line 1)
"AS" is core revision (line 1)
"CAA2C" is stepping (line 2)
"0438" is prodcution date (line 2)
"TPWM" is voltage, temperature limit, etc. (line 2)
Line 3 is the core(?) or production(most likely) serial.. some say the last 3 numbers indicate how close to the center of the wafer the core was but its yet to be proven for sure.