Opteron errata-not-bugs are storm in teacup

I READ THE white papers and it appears that none of the errata are a big deal and all have an easily implemented work around. Obviously AMD was well aware of these issues before the launch and they are refining the instruction set and BIOS configuration to address the rather unusual circumstances that must be present to even allow any of these errata to occur. People need to bear in mind that this is a very unique CPU being able to natively run 32 and 64-bit applications so I expect that there will be teething issues for 6-12 months as this is a completely new ballgame for the entire PC industry. At least AMD is honest and forthright on the matter publishing the errata on the same day as they intro'ed the Opteron. The same can NOT be said of companies like Intel and Microsoft who are very reluctant to admit anomalies ever exist even if "only" 10,000 of them will cause system crashes and loss of data.

As in the past C't Magazine likes to make a mountain out of a mole hill... They went "Postal" when the original VIA Athlon chipset wouldn't run CPU's above 700 MHz and they seem to be clueless on the Opteron errata also. (For the record VIA never claimed the original chipset would run Athlons above 700 MHz). Anything to gain website hits seems to fly as technical expertise these days. Sinsationalism is alive and well in the digital age that's for sure.

Randy Hubbard

The vast majority of these appear to affect only the OS code, and/or be related to power management. As long as the OS is aware of their existence and implements the appropriate workarounds, applications should not be affected at all.

Mike

I just read your article with title "Abit and Asus fluffing the Nforce 2 ball" and I am 100% with you as I am directly affected by these problems being an Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard.

I am sending you this email to ask you personally and The inquirer in general to keep up with this story as it would be a great favor for all the people having these problems with ABIT and ASUS. We all know that large firms like these only show interest to such problems only when these problems acquire great publicity. Please keep mentioning this story!

Regards,
Panagiotis Spiliopoulos

This is really just more of the same bullshit from the RIAA and everyone else in the music/media industry. DMCA is the biggest infringment of comsumer rights and use in a very long time.

These guys are nothing but greedy pigs who manipulate their markets, flat out lie and will one day get their due.

IMO they are bullshit artists. Being such fine artists they should next attach themselves for robbing the musicians and other media folks of their fair due.

Dennis Veatch

In the end the one piece of good news is that laws like this probably won't be long for the world. Imagine the reaction of a company badly struck by Nimda or Code Red being told they must dismantle their corporate firewall, their VPN, and cease using a NAT all in the name of fulfilling the requirements of a badly written law. While the high degree of influence big businesses have on governmental affairs is generally not regarded as a good thing, in certain cases it can prove useful. The larger and more far-flung the company the more likely that they are using at least some of the above technology, and the more likely they'll be in a position to raise holy hell in Congress. While it's hard to imagine this law being used seriously or attaining DMCA-like stature in the long-run, it's a truly ominous sign of just how badly the average legislator is out of touch with modern technology. These are not stupid people - but they are people who are only hearing one side of a debate, from a group of people who have a vested interest in seeing these laws passed. Having listened to these people (and their protestations of neutrality) in good faith, legislators have passed S-DMCA laws (or are considering them in other states). The legal battle to untangle them could stretch on for years, cost millions of dollars, and ultimately reach the United States' Supreme Court.

Why should it take years? All it takes is for a group of activists to launch a "take down" attack at the people with INFLUENCE - namely the political parties, the legislature, and/or the judiciary, and that's it. All you need is a couple of successful strikes in a local court, get a couple of "honest" (if there is such a thing) lawyers to say there's no point in appealing, and the legislators will be repealing the law as fast as they can get their bums on the seats in the chamber.

Cheers,
Wol

I wonder what Jack Russell would think about file sharing if the editors of The Inquirer were able to download Mr. Russel's work right from his computer. Yes, download Mr. Russell's writings, without asking Mr. Russell's permission, without paying Mr. Russell. After all, why should Mr. Russell be allowed to make a profit from his work? He doesn't seem to think that those who create music should profit from their work.

Lanny Zieirng

The DMCA shifts the burden from a presumption of innocence to a presumption of guilt. It strips the consumers right to make non commercial copies of copyrighted material that they have purchased because the technology allows those that would abuse it to do so.

And what I fail to see here is how this is any different from video cassette tapes which have existed for a decade at least and have turned into a lucrative revenue source for Hollywood through rentals and purchases. In fact DVD's are replacing video cassette tapes in that role. Hollywood made the same arguments then and predicted the demise of the industry because consumers had the abiltity to make copies. That obviously hasn't happened.

Pat Mitchell

Arron replies

The problem is that digital copies are perfect. No Macrovision to worry about, no loss over the cables. The copy is just as good as the original.

As for the presumption of guilt, that's a different story. Maybe there's a difference in attitude between the US and the UK attitude but a line has to be drawn somewhere in the law. Buying DVD copying software is like buying a lock pick, crowbar, gun, striped jumper, balaclava, gloves, a bag with 'swag' written on it and a book called "Beginner's Guide to Burglary" all in one neat little package. It doesn't guarantee that you're intending to be a thief but there aren't many other reasons for buying it.

Sure, a professional burglar knows where to get all of those things but that's not the same as the package going on sale in your local supermarket. It's all very well saying that some people might use the kit in some perfectly legal way, the simple fact is that most people won't. Banning the kit isn't presumption of guilt, it's removing the temptation to steal. It's stopping otherwise law-abiding citizens from being led astray.

Arron

"the embargo on magazines reporting about the new game will end on 28 April"

This really annoys me. They like call themselves journalists but freely say aren't allowed to write about things because the company have forbid them. If Valve don't want magazines printing about Half Life 2 until 28th April, they shouldn't hand out their marketing until then. If they find out before, by whatever means, mags should do what they want with it.

Games magazines are little more than in-depth marketing where all information is controlled by the owners of what they're meant to be reporting about. OK fair enough and to be expected from "The Official Console Magazine" or something, but not from those claiming to be independent and free to do whatever they like (which half the time the Official Blah Mag does aswell). I don't exactly consider objectivity and ethics of a games rag to be something worth dying for, but it doesnt half take the piss when they announce they're now allowed to say what they've known about for ages, and then you turn over to that page in every issue which goes on and on about how independent and objective they are.

Dave

Well I never thought I'd see such a number of, pardon the expression, crap in one place from one person (or a firm if you prefer). But people are capable of many things, are they not?

Higher-value service? That basically means that you know what you're doing and that you're the top in your business, no? I know plenty of those firms and none of them are very good at managing and selecting hardware, they just sell them good 'cause if they are so great they wouldn't be small at all and people would be killing to get to them.

The man says they always try the products their distributor suggests, and as a good reseller they didn't try out those products in most combinations as you would expect from the higher-value firm. You know, the fact that you have a PC hardware reselling firm doesn't make you a genius with it. Most of those small firms have only a few people that know the job in detail (and they often do something else than assembly and testing), while others are just quickly teached to do it and when a big detailed problem occurs they just give you a new peace of the same product.

The point is that the 761 chipset is the best solution for the old Athlons, and Abit KG7 is the most stable mainboard of that time suggested for small servers and alike. I have been using it from it's launch, now with a new XP 2100+ (Palomino) and it shows no problems at all, never did. I also never heard of a "real" problem with it, and I've tested and seen many systems. The problems with some memory chips are resolved by BIOS flash of by selecting the chips that work from the beginning. Of course you have to know how to handle your system, especially if you're in that business you should know a lot more than an average user. For God's sake, its YOUR job to know which parts work best when paired together, not just buying and assembling whatever comes your way.

He points out that they used the "high quality" Kingmax DDR which at that time was DDR266 and was everithing but high quality. It had known problems with many boards (and KG7 of course), and most of the time was unable to work on CL2 as it was advertised. The funny thing is that, at that time, the medium quality Samsung DDR266 memory worked fine with KG7 and on CL2 setting without a glitch (and still does on my system). Still have a need for Corsair? =) The other thing that threw me of the chair is that they didn't take the time to see what's wrong in "years" (talk about higher-value), but just e-mailed the hell out of mbo makers. With all the info on those (old) problems on the net I'm not surprised they didn't reply to all their e-mails.

The other two board I won't comment but this... it's like saying that the Intel BX chipset is crap... and when a reseller tells you that you have to wonder.

Best regards,
Mihael Horvatek

Subject: You are all stupid assholes. Nobody will read your shitty newspaper anymore.

Busigin is lame stupid idiot like I saw nowhere so far. And the "Apologies" are not funny at all to anyone above 10 years old. I'm Opera user and this is great browser. You accuse it of something it isn't and don't even fill bad when it turns out to be untrue? No shame to say "We're really sorry for any trouble caused"? Fuck you then! Nobody will read such shit like The Inquirer from now on as... what for, if you lie and I don't know whether what I read is true at all... Your information should be check, certain. But even if it wasn't, you should say "We're sorry" and ask Opera Software for forgivenes. But you seem to be too primitive dumb-asses for that. But I don't care. Keep on going this way. I wish you all the worst stupid motha-fuckers.

Wojciech E.

µ