1.6v safe for e6600?

[dekruyter]

I am speaking towards the decay from the effect of electrostatic migration due to discharge, not the entire CPU life. Substrates of the silicon, not the entire CPU. The half life of such components that are subjected to the discharge and their error returns. The half-life is of a standard population of testing, not a single CPU. And no, a CPU does in point of fact, not degrade according to an mathematical formula.

If you read my words, you will note that I say that you may "consider their span as radioactive decay for purposes of determining possible length of minimal error use". Clearly my words show that this is a comparative analysis, not a discrete one. It is for purposes of understanding, not specifying discretely.

Regarding: "The half-life is of a standard population of testing", and the rest of your post.

Thanks for the info, and I think I understand what you are saying. But you seem to be couching it in terms of production quality control of thousands of units, not the life of a single CPU. And that's what we, or at least I, am discussing, or want to learn about. We are discussing the affect of voltage on our very own CPU, not a company's ability to predict the failure or error rate on "X" number of units produced, given (provided) a specified voltage specification. Further, it seems the voltage is "fine" tuned to the CPU (after production), rather than the cpu being designed/produced to the tight tolerance of a voltage spec.

So the questions continue regarding the life expectancy and affects of voltage increases beyond spec. of a single cpu; such as the affects of electromigration, as you say.

[DerekT]

So the questions continue regarding the life expectancy and affects of voltage increases beyond spec. of a single cpu; such as the affects of electromigration, as you say.

You have a valid request dekruyter. Unfortunately, the best we can do with a single CPU is hope it will respond well. There is no method to fundamentally ascertain the degree of CPU declination with regards to a singular sample. One can not apply statistical determination at that level.

One can only speculate. I was attempting to show the method that is used (by CPU design engineers) to bring about CPU degradation in a standard population of testing. Raising the voltages and setting the environment for failure beyond a point of error.

The simple request that is sought in this thread is not (in my view) possible. One can only theorize maximal voltages. You will find some who are able to run 1.6V (on air) without any mid-long-term effects (5 or more years) and others with the same fab/batch experiencing issues with lesser settings.

In the industry, the prevailing view has usually been a +.2V on .65nm products with decent core thermal extraction via air/medium water. +.4V on .65nm products with high end water and +.5 on LN/High end thermal removal with freeze attributes holding discharge in a more marginalized environment.

It's still a crap shoot though.