Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Cores Duo/Solo: "My God, they're full of flaws"
They might not have been released in 2001, and the PR department might tell you they're full of stars, but take a quick look at Core Duo's and Core Solo's errata (error) sheets and you'll see that they're really full of flaws.
BLURB
January 5, 2006 was a big day for Intel; on that day the company publicly announced the Core Duo release (see our coverage), to be included 5 days later in Apple's new line of x86-based iMacs (see our coverage).
[UPDATE 1/25/2006 8:25 A.M.: Stephane Hockenhull pointed out a problem with the AE27 entry; that's been fixed now.]
Today is January 23, 2006, making it less than 20 days since the Core Duo was officially released, and T-minus ?? days until Core Solo is officially released. Yet, if we turn to Intel's Errata documentation for the Core Duo and Core Solo lines, we already find 34 known problems. That averages out to an error-and-a-half found every day since the chips were released.
The errata are shown below, with some of the more obnoxious ones highlighed (click the image for a readable version, though you may want to save it instead of allowing your browser to resize it automatically, thus making it hard to read again):
As you can see, only one errata item is even planned to be fixed. It's worth noting that leaving known errors in processors is nothing new, as many of Pentium 4's 65 known errata (download the PDF) have no plans for correction either.
Still, the Core Duo and Core Solo processors are just out of the gates, and this high number of immediate errata should leave one a little chilled, I'd say. Releasing a brand new processor with 34 known errors seems almost criminal to me, especially with some of the more obnoxious ones highlighted above.
If you're thinking about buying a Core Duo-based machine, you might want to stop by Intel's documentation department and pick up the latest errata updates, which are promised to be released on the following dates: February 15, March 15, April 19, May 17, June 14, July 19, August 16, September 13, October 18, November 15, December 13.
Visit Intel's Core Duo homepage, check out the Core Duo 65 nm specification page, and don't forget to checkout the updated errata page.
To pre-extinguish some of the flames I can smell already, I'm working on a similar list of errata for AMD64. Restraint, ChipGeeks!
[UPDATE 1/25/2006 8:25 A.M.: Stephane Hockenhull pointed out a problem with the AE27 entry; that's been fixed now.]
Today is January 23, 2006, making it less than 20 days since the Core Duo was officially released, and T-minus ?? days until Core Solo is officially released. Yet, if we turn to Intel's Errata documentation for the Core Duo and Core Solo lines, we already find 34 known problems. That averages out to an error-and-a-half found every day since the chips were released.
The errata are shown below, with some of the more obnoxious ones highlighed (click the image for a readable version, though you may want to save it instead of allowing your browser to resize it automatically, thus making it hard to read again):
As you can see, only one errata item is even planned to be fixed. It's worth noting that leaving known errors in processors is nothing new, as many of Pentium 4's 65 known errata (download the PDF) have no plans for correction either.
Still, the Core Duo and Core Solo processors are just out of the gates, and this high number of immediate errata should leave one a little chilled, I'd say. Releasing a brand new processor with 34 known errors seems almost criminal to me, especially with some of the more obnoxious ones highlighted above.
If you're thinking about buying a Core Duo-based machine, you might want to stop by Intel's documentation department and pick up the latest errata updates, which are promised to be released on the following dates: February 15, March 15, April 19, May 17, June 14, July 19, August 16, September 13, October 18, November 15, December 13.
Visit Intel's Core Duo homepage, check out the Core Duo 65 nm specification page, and don't forget to checkout the updated errata page.
To pre-extinguish some of the flames I can smell already, I'm working on a similar list of errata for AMD64. Restraint, ChipGeeks!
# posted by dark master : 1/25/2006 09:55:00 AM
