AMD's New Threadripper Chips Have a Hidden Fuse That Blows When Overclocking Is Enabled (www.extremetech.com)
from boem@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world on 14 Dec 2023 09:42
https://lemmy.world/post/9553348

#technology

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ABCDE@lemmy.world on 14 Dec 2023 09:50 next collapse

That’s fair, just like Apple devices (phones and iPods) have/had a detector in the headphone port for water damage.

lowleveldata@programming.dev on 14 Dec 2023 10:15 next collapse

It’s only fair

Gargleblaster@kbin.social on 14 Dec 2023 11:40 next collapse

So the purpose is to protect them if someone overclocks and fries it, meaning they know if you take it in under warranty and say you want this faulty part replaced?

BloodSlut@lemmy.world on 14 Dec 2023 18:18 collapse

pretty much, also stops any techs or engineers looking into possible problems of the product from spending hours wondering what went wrong before the user says (if at all) “oh yeah, i overclocked it btw”.

nicetriangle@kbin.social on 14 Dec 2023 12:13 next collapse

Lotta manufacturers have done that. I had an Android phone back in the day that was notorious for false positives on the moisture detectors. The phone was a piece of shit and a lot of people wrongly got denied on warranty claims because of supposed moisture.

[deleted] on 14 Dec 2023 17:29 collapse

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Evilcoleslaw@lemmy.world on 14 Dec 2023 09:57 next collapse

This was also present in Threadripper 5000, per the article.

takeda@lemmy.world on 14 Dec 2023 10:19 next collapse

“fuse” implies that the CPU will stop working when it is overclocked, this seems to be more of a mechanism for AMD to let them know that the reason the CPU is not working anymore is because it was overclocked and fried.

TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world on 14 Dec 2023 10:29 next collapse

Somewhat.

All this fuse does is tell AMD that the chip has had custom clocks or voltage applied to it (this appears to also apply to underclocking and undervolting as far as I can gather)

It does not prove that if the chip is faulty that it must be the OC/undervolt/whatever that caused it.

Think of those water detection strips in other products. They can tell the manufacturer if something has been in a humid environment, but just because it has been doesn’t guarantee that that is what caused the fault to come about.

Capricorn_Geriatric@lemm.ee on 14 Dec 2023 11:00 collapse

Yet Apple throws those phones out of warranty regardless of what caused the fault

Vilian@lemmy.ca on 14 Dec 2023 11:26 next collapse

Apple is the bad exemple

RealFknNito@lemmy.world on 14 Dec 2023 16:35 next collapse

Apple is the bad

[deleted] on 16 Dec 2023 01:38 collapse

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carl_dungeon@lemmy.world on 14 Dec 2023 11:43 collapse

That was years ago, the phones have been waterproof for a long time- I would certainly file a warranty complaint with Apple if my waterproof iPhone was damaged from humid air, rain, falling in the tub as it’s rated to survive all those things. In fact, 5+ years ago people were doing tests dropping phones down 30 feet under water and bringing them up just fine.

Laptops on the other hand are not rated for water, and you’re right, a laptop full of purple spill sensors gets denied unless you bitch hard enough.

Brokkr@lemmy.world on 14 Dec 2023 12:30 collapse

support.apple.com/en-us/HT204104

Apple will not cover water damage, even though the phone has protection.

Synthead@lemmy.world on 14 Dec 2023 10:42 next collapse

“fuse” implies that the CPU will stop working

It’s just an electronic component, like resistors and transistors. Samsung has something similar in their phones called Knox.

atrielienz@lemmy.world on 15 Dec 2023 14:04 collapse

But in the world of electronics fuses and circuit breakers exist to trip when too much voltage is applied to protect the circuit. That’s their generally agreed upon definition.

Synthead@lemmy.world on 15 Dec 2023 18:24 collapse

A fuse is just an electronic component. It can be used for circuit protection, but it doesn’t have to be. For example, a transistor doesn’t have to be an amplifier, a resistor doesn’t have to be for dimming bulbs, etc.

anlumo@lemmy.world on 14 Dec 2023 11:00 next collapse

No, this means something else in chip design. For example, an AVR microcontroller can be configured by blowing some fuses. Here is an introduction: www.ladyada.net/learn/avr/fuses.html

xep@kbin.social on 14 Dec 2023 11:03 collapse

Understandable but this is not a fuse in common usage of the word, which is used to break a circuit to protect against over-current. Rather it's an part that changes state irreversibly (much like a fuse would) when something happens. There is no implication that it would cut off the power to the CPU in this sense.

TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world on 14 Dec 2023 10:30 next collapse

Not a new thing, some motherboards even do this.

merthyr1831@lemmy.world on 15 Dec 2023 22:49 collapse

The Nintendo switch and probably other consoles also use fuses to stop you from downgrading major firmware versions. There’s just a massive bank of fuses on the mainboard that blow when you upgrade

[deleted] on 14 Dec 2023 10:31 next collapse

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Deceptichum@kbin.social on 14 Dec 2023 10:46 collapse

You’ve said that twice on two separate posts now.

Either way, there is nothing fear mongering about this title, the article even confirms the title directly from AMD themselves.

friend_of_satan@lemmy.world on 14 Dec 2023 11:58 next collapse

Fuses in this sense are write-once data. Once the fuse is burnt, only physical repair could revert the change. These are used as one-way-doors (like the Nintendo Switch firmware upgrade fuses switchbrew.org/wiki/Fuses#Anti-downgrade) or tripwires (like Samsung Knox en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Knox#e-Fuse)

picnic@lemmy.world on 14 Dec 2023 20:15 collapse

How come I bought first gen threadripper cpu for around $400 and mobo $400, but now their prices are like $2000 for cpu and $1000 for the mobo?

I’d like to get more pcie lanes than on 7950x.

grayman@lemmy.world on 15 Dec 2023 03:41 next collapse

Lack of competition, manufacturing consolidation, and inflation.

olympicyes@lemmy.world on 15 Dec 2023 23:20 collapse

When the Threadripper Pro came out, you could get a machine from Lenovo with 12-16 cores for around $1800 including some ram, ssd, and a gpu. I just checked and now they start at $2800 for a zen 3 TR Pro with 32/1TB/A2000. It doesn’t seem like there is a practical way to build one yourself affordably for Zen 4 or Intel for that matter. A Xeon 3435X and mobo is also around $2500 for 112 lanes.