[gentoo-user] Re: Microcode update AMD

[nunojsilva@ist.utl.pt (Nuno J. Silva)]

Jason Weisberger <jbdubbs@gmail.com> writes:

> On Jan 17, 2011 4:15 PM, "Volker Armin Hemmann" <volkerarmin@googlemail.com> wrote:
>> On Monday 17 January 2011 15:13:54 Jason Weisberger wrote:
>>> 
>>> The update killed your free core :)
>>
>> a 'free core' that is probably broken in mysterious and hard to find but
>> nonetheless very dangerous ways. Thanks.
>
> The word "probably" implies that you have no idea what the statistics were
> on getting a perfectly good core were or why they disabled entire batches of
> cores based on an error from one.

I think you should worry more about the fact AMD disables known-good
cores due to excessive demand for lower-core versions. 

If you can somehow manage to find out if the disabled core is good or
not (keeping in mind that "testing may convincingly demonstrate the
presence of bugs, but can never demonstrate their absence." (EWD1036) -
it's more or less like when you use memtest), then you have a good
heuristic on whether or not to enable that core. Now I doubt I'd do it
blindly - YMMV, of course.


Also,
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

-- 
Nuno J. Silva
gopher://sdf-eu.org/1/users/njsg