Core Unlocking??

[tony draper]

Pottering about with this new machine's bios, and it has a option to unlock cores, what exactly is a core unlocker and if the CPU has four cores why are any of them locked? and If I unlock it will it make the machine run faster??
The CPU is a AMD Phenom 11x4 965 3.4 ghz the Mother Board ASUS M4N68T with core unlocker.well it says so on the box lid.

[Parapunter]

Let me google that for you

[tony draper]

Already did that Mr P didn't understand what they were rabbiting on about,or indeed nowt why would want to lock or unlock cores one likes to hear things explained in simple terms.

Many years ago one built a dual cpu Pentium 2/3?machine with the idea it would be swift ,sadly there weren't any progs then that would run than multi threaded ie used both cores. cost a bloody fortune as well.

Ere disregard the above Gents, according to task manager I already have four cores working on my behalf.

[Bushfiva]

The AMD Phenom II and Athlon II can have between 2 and 4 cores (avoiding going into detail). A core is basically a CPU. Each version is sold at a different pricing point. Recent Athlon II are Phenoms with 2 cores locked out.

2- and 3-core chips have 4 physical cores on them. If everything tests OK, it's a 4-core CPU. If one or two cores fails either totally or performance-wise, it's locked out and the CPU is sold as a 2- or 3-core CPU.

HOWEVER, it's possible that market demand for 2- and 3-core CPUs can't be met from failed 4-core units, so in that case AMD may be locking perfectly usable cores on 4-core CPUs to create additional 2- and 3-core CPUs.

Therefore, if you buy a 3-core CPU, its 4th core may be locked because it's defective, because it misses a performance target somehow, or because it's functional but disabled to meet market demand for a 3-core CPU.

So some motherboards can unlock the "defective" core on a CPU, on the off-chance that you have what would otherwise be a fully-functional 4-core unit.

People report generally good results unlocking Phenom X3s. AMD may or may not be turning a blind eye to this, as it gives AMD a price- and performance-competitive CPU against the Intel i3 series. As a user, you end up with a machine which works somewhere between won't boot and perfectly.

You have a 4-core unit with all cores enabled (Phenom II X4: the "X4" tells you).

Incidentally, the same testing system works for speed, too: in general a CPU at a certain speed may have been manufactured for that speed, or it might be a higher-speed unit that failed testing at its design speed and was re-tested at the lower speed, or it might be a higher-speed unit marked down to fill a market demand.

[tony draper]

Intel did something similar with the 486 I think it was,all the versions were rumored to be the same but one type had the maths co processor disabled and sold as a cheaper version.
Dammed scoundrels
Thanks for the help peeps.

[zarniwoop]

There were indeed two versions of the 486, they had the -DX and -SX suffix,, the -DX was the fully fledged unit, the -SX had the maths co-prfocessor disabled, much the same reason as Bushfivas comment, it's all about maximising use of different price points that people will pay.

[srobarts]

Unless things have changed since I left the industry, because of the dropout rate in manufacture they manufature to the full spec, test, sort according to the test - for example in the days of floppy disks most manufaturers manufactured as quad density, and according to the testing were marketed as quad, double or single density. I would expect that the same principles pertain to chip manufacture. It makes sense and ensures that as much product as possible reaches the market place - the more that goes in the bin raises the price of the product to the customer. Early colour laptop screens had a manufacture drop-out rate as high as 98% in the early days hence the very high price!

[Mr Optimistic]

core unlocker

I did this with a phenom II black edition dual core cpu. Got three cores working ok but not sure about 4th (psu maybe not up to it). If its a BE chip maybe better just to overclock.