AMD to release core unlock blocking microcode - Gigabyte fights back!

[ahmad]

Sorry about the title

While meeting with Gigabyte at Computex, we were let in on a little bit of information regarding AMD's unlock-block for new Phenom II CPUs.

As many already know, it's possible to unlock the disabled cores on recent Phenom II processors, allowing you to get up to 4 cores working. Many who have tried this say that they gain some considerable speed, but there's a risk. The cores are disabled for a reason: they don't work properly. Because of this, AMD will, for example, sell a 4-core processor at 2-cores, for a much cheaper price.

AMD announced that it would release new microcode for motherboard BIOS updates that will disable the core-unlocking feature, preventing people from going to 4-cores if they purchased say a dual-core Phenom II.

The solution is not to upgrade your motherboard's BIOS if you have a board that can unlock cores.

But what if your motherboard maker releases BIOS updates that add or fix features? You would have to choose. Do you want fixes and improvements or do you want to stick with the ability to unlock CPU cores?

Gigabyte says you don't have to on its motherboards with Dual-BIOS technology.

Essentially, Gigabyte said that it will store the old microcode in the secondary BIOS chip, and allow you to do normal BIOS updates on the primary chip. Does this mean that you can't have a backup firmware of your latest BIOS should the first chip corrupt? Gigabyte told us no. The company has upgraded its BIOS chips to be able to store extra information.

The secondary BIOS chip will still backup your BIOS as usual, but have room for the old AMD microcode. When you update your BIOS, your system will boot using the new BIOS code but it will be injected with the old AMD microcode, allowing you to continue to unlock your CPU cores.

Kudos to Gigabyte for this feature.

Tomshardware

[EnJoY]

AMD is gonna be pissed.

[Serra]

Sweet.

That's a feather in Gigabyte's hat.

[Manicdan]

i think amd may be more scared about cpuz reading them as legit quadcores, and less scared about gigabyte keeping it real with the consumer. if i were gonna try and sell a pc as a legit quadcore (even though its duel), would it be worth the hassle to use gigabytes solution for that extra few bucks?

[[XC] gomeler]

Oh wow.. that is engineering awesomeness and at the same time a slap in the face to AMD.

[Glow9]

I keep telling myself my next board will be a Gigabyte, I think this just sealed the deal.

[villa1n]

Very Nice... Gigabyte it is then Especially since there isn't an or choice

[metro.cl]

AMD is gonna be pissed.

Don't think so, sales of the CPUs went up quite a bit when people heard about the posibility of unlocking the CPU, great way to gain or keep market share.

[Fairydust]

Although I only used the feature once to test, I very much appreciate having the option that Gigabyte has put in their latest BIOS versions,.

[Glow9]

Don't think so, sales of the CPUs went up quite a bit when people heard about the posibility of unlocking the CPU, great way to gain or keep market share.

It's marketing genius. At this point what do they have to lose. You want a higher OC guaranteed for 4 cores you pay for it. If not take a roll of the dice and if you get something that unlocks or not either way you got it at a good price. I think they just want to gain some more of the ground they lost more than anything.

[EnJoY]

Don't think so, sales of the CPUs went up quite a bit when people heard about the posibility of unlocking the CPU, great way to gain or keep market share.

I agree with you, but clearly, by them releasing the micro code to block it, they don't want people to be doing this for one reason or another.

[haylui]

soon, there will be a lot of company follow dual bios suite
lolz

[Vozer]

Hmm... so AMD doesn't want the cores to be unlocked?

Actually, there are a lot of people think that's their secret marketing.

[spursindonesia]

AMD shouldn't be playing hard to get, they've got an inferior product speedwise in the CPU desktop segment at the moment, should try to grab as much market share as they can, to make sure when they have better chips to fight competitor offerings, they have a solid ground to work on.

[Smartidiot89]

AMD has an amazing products....

Enthusiasts LOVES Phenom II x2/x3 due to unlocking, people are buying several of these for tweaking and unlocking. This is actually giving AMD marketshares, even if its not much.

They shouldn't do this But I can't say I don't understand AMDs point of view...

[tajoh111]

AMD has an amazing products....

Enthusiasts LOVES Phenom II x2/x3 due to unlocking, people are buying several of these for tweaking and unlocking. This is actually giving AMD marketshares, even if its not much.

They shouldn't do this But I can't say I don't understand AMDs point of view...

This isn't for the enthusiast but the person who want a quad on the cheap. Go to places like slickdeals, redflagdeals, and they all want more performance for nothing and are talking about this unlocking cores thing.

E.g a quad core system for 500 dollars is not possible without some method like this. They are the type of people willing to get a crap power supply, crap motherboards if they can get higher end main components like videocard and cpu.

People who are heavy overclockers, know that having a possible defect in a core is going to limit them way way too much. Also what the point in having a 70 dollar CPU cooler when your cpu might run into the defect and have a crap overclock or none entirely.

There are some enthusiast who of course like these chip because they are so cheap and if they ruin them during an overclock, no big deal. But anyone going for a record is going to get something with the best binning possible. Also i imagine they are going to overclock them at the none unlock settings, since they want the mhz.

i understand AMD fully on this issue. Their margins are paper thin as it is. They want as many people as possible buying the more expensive processor, not the cheaper salvaged chip that they barely make any money on.

[ziddey]

gigabyte earned some brownie points in my book. sure all the other guys will probably follow now and all will be the same. and sure i might not get a gigabyte if i were to build one of these guys (assuming the others followed suit). but bottom line is as long as core2 is king, it's what i'm stickin with.

e6400 from 3 years ago at 3.6ghz still beats out new rollouts that are merely rehashes? hell yeah

[dinos22]

AMD is gonna be pissed.

lol by the sounds of it .... I'd say it doesnt make much difference what they think lol heheh

nice feature for sure but unfortunately many people expecting fully working quads will be disappointed as there is a reason why they are locking cores guys

good luck though....there is nothing better in this world then freebies

[The0men]

lol by the sounds of it .... I'd say it doesnt make much difference what they think lol heheh

nice feature for sure but unfortunately many people expecting fully working quads will be disappointed as there is a reason why they are locking cores guys

good luck though....there is nothing better in this world then freebies

Plus it's only right to push everything you can out of your purchased hardware :P

You will probably find most of the CPU's will be unstable, otherwise why would
they bother making them into Duals.

Then again, you might find loads of them great, in which case, excellent
you just got two free cores.

Great idea by gigabyte though.

[G.Foyle]

This is old news, Gigabyte has had dual microcode selectable in BIOS for quite some time already (on MA770T-UD3P and other AM3 motherbords).

[RejZoR]

I'm not touching Giagabyte again even if they can turn dualcore into hexacore.

[W1zzard]

if amd really wanted this to stop they would (and can) force their partners to use this.

but why would they? they sell a dual core cpu at the price of a dual core, they get rid of their broken inventory, they get marketing value, their sales numbers increase
they do lose some people buying unlocked cpu instead of quad core, i doubt that's a lot of people

[kl0012]

if amd really wanted this to stop they would (and can) force their partners to use this.

but why would they? they sell a dual core cpu at the price of a dual core, they get rid of their broken inventory, they get marketing value, their sales numbers increase
they do lose some people buying unlocked cpu instead of quad core, i doubt that's a lot of people

I would say that if amd really wanted this to stop they would cut broken cores in a way that it can't be unlocked at all. (As Intel does). Especially after X3 got publicity...

[Chickenfeed]

I'm not sure how much more time and cost would be involved to laser lock the defective cores but they must have their reason for not doing so. This reminds me of the whole x800gto thing

[naokaji]

soon, there will be a lot of company follow dual bios suite
lolz

Certainly hope so, regardless of unlocking cores, dual bios is probably one of the best ideas any mainboard manufacturer ever had (that actually made it into retail products).

AMD can't say it's fine if you unlock cores for a very obvious reason, they want people to buy a more expensive chip, besides, I'm sure they are aware that the attention they get over the whole unlock drama is pretty much free advertising.