AMD Factory Testing

[Guest]

Does AMD test every fininshed CPU before it is packaged for resale? Or do they say that from their process they can acheive X amount of known good without testing?

It is probably the X factor, just think about it. What do they use to cool the CPU during their testing? They must have one or two guys that are truly experts at install HSFs if they never damage a die. And if they use pads during the testing, then it is not the same HSF that gets packaged in the retail box because they are new pads. Unless they replace the pads... Don't melted pads leave residue on the die?

First time I powered up my 'puter my wife asked "Where's that swarm of bees?"

 

[Matisaro]

No, they have machines which cool the processors lol, it would be very simple, you would not even need a clip, and you could do it in in entire rack, imagine 50 cpus lined up in 50 test sockets and a single giant cooled metal heatsink pressed down upon them to test.


Each cpu is tested to its rated speed for stability, then furthermore, smp chips are given advanced tests to recieve the smp qualification.

"The Cash Left In My Pocket,The BEST Benchmark"
No Overclock+stock hsf=GOOD!

 

[Matisaro]

In fact you cannot test a single cpu for the entire batch, because minute inperfections which vary from die to die would limit many of the chips top speeds, and if you got a good cpu and used that to set your limit, you could have a high failure rate.


Also, thinking that they actually install each cpu in a mobo with a hsf to test it is comical lol.

"The Cash Left In My Pocket,The BEST Benchmark"
No Overclock+stock hsf=GOOD!

 

[lhgpoobaa]

hey... whats the use of illegal immigrants then?

"I came, I saw, I overclocked", Julius 'Smokin CPU' Caesar

 

[texas_techie]

Matisaro is correct. In fact I have seen the very machines AMD uses to test the chips. But instead of one large one. THey have about 15 smaller ones.
You can load about 70+ CPUs into each machine (im guessing that number). There is an overhead lid that comes down. And all the chips are hooked to a single computer (from what i could tell). I have seen the print-outs from the tests. It seemed they ran somewhere in the neighborhood of 300+ tests per chip.
I once saw a stack of 500+ durons, all rejects for one reason or another. I doubt they would pull that many randomly, so im left to conclude they test every single chip.
Now thats NOT the same as a QA process. They DO pull random chips from batches and run dozens of looping benchamrks, on every motherboard available, with every component available. SO in a sense they test all chips for certain errors, and test random chips for everything.
(at least thats my impression)

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