Pentium-D 820 not compatible with 3rd party chipsets

[YKhan]

Strangely, it's only the low-speed 2.8Ghz model 820 that's incompatible
in dual-core mode. Ironically, higher speed Pentium-D's are compatible.
Hard to say what could be so different between the low-speed and
high-speed P-D's.

X-bit labs - Hardware news - Intel Pentium D 820 Incompatible with
Third Party Chipsets.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20050524054105.html

Yousuf Khan

 

[Tony Hill]

Strangely, it's only the low-speed 2.8Ghz model 820 that's incompatible
in dual-core mode. Ironically, higher speed Pentium-D's are compatible.
Hard to say what could be so different between the low-speed and
high-speed P-D's.

X-bit labs - Hardware news - Intel Pentium D 820 Incompatible with
Third Party Chipsets.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20050524054105.html

Uhh.. this story is just... weird... I don't get it. I can't imagine
that there would be any hardware difference with JUST the Pentium-D
820 chips vs. the 830s or 840s. I could maybe see a difference
between the standard Pentium-D and the Extremely Expensive Edition
chips, but not just between different speed bins.

I would tend to take this report with a rather large grain of salt at
this stage in the game, especially with no explanation as to WHY they
are "incompatible".

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Uhh.. this story is just... weird... I don't get it. I can't imagine
that there would be any hardware difference with JUST the Pentium-D
820 chips vs. the 830s or 840s. I could maybe see a difference
between the standard Pentium-D and the Extremely Expensive Edition
chips, but not just between different speed bins.

I would tend to take this report with a rather large grain of salt at
this stage in the game, especially with no explanation as to WHY they
are "incompatible".

In another forum, one poster suggests that maybe Nvidia and Intel have
an agreement to not allow this version of the chip to work, because it
might be the basis of some gadgets that Intel has in the pipeline, like
media-centre PCs. So the incompatibility might be by agreement.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Tony Hill]

In another forum, one poster suggests that maybe Nvidia and Intel have
an agreement to not allow this version of the chip to work, because it
might be the basis of some gadgets that Intel has in the pipeline, like
media-centre PCs. So the incompatibility might be by agreement.

That makes more sense than any sort of technical reason for
incompatibility (though the story you quoted made it sound like it was
a technical issue). I wonder if this is JUST an Intel/nVidia thing of
if Intel will try to enforce this with the likes of VIA and SiS as
well. If so it would seem ripe for anti-competitive allegations.

 

[YKhan]

That makes more sense than any sort of technical reason for
incompatibility (though the story you quoted made it sound like it was
a technical issue). I wonder if this is JUST an Intel/nVidia thing of
if Intel will try to enforce this with the likes of VIA and SiS as
well. If so it would seem ripe for anti-competitive allegations.

Yes, the original story certainly makes it sound technical in nature,
and that's probably how the parties want it to look. But the
speculation is that it's not technical in nature, and it is just a
business move.

Yousuf Khan

 

[nobody]

Yes, the original story certainly makes it sound technical in nature,
and that's probably how the parties want it to look. But the
speculation is that it's not technical in nature, and it is just a
business move.

Yousuf Khan

Of course it's a technical issue! A fuse blown here, a line of code
in BIOS there - isn't it purely technical? The marketing and business
folks don't have even a slightest idea about the implementation of the
incompatibility, so it just couldn't be a business move!
;-)

 

[Tony Hill]

Of course it's a technical issue! A fuse blown here, a line of code
in BIOS there - isn't it purely technical? The marketing and business
folks don't have even a slightest idea about the implementation of the
incompatibility, so it just couldn't be a business move!
;-)

Hehe, I think that's pretty much it, but it looks like Intel is going
one step further here. It seems that they've decided the Pentium D
820 was just TOO good of a bargain and they're really going to have to
work to make it less functional than it's bigger brethren. I just
noticed this little bit on Intel's website under the "Feature/Benefit"
section for the Pentium D:

"Enhanced Intel® SpeedStep® Technology:
Enables cooler and quieter PC designs—depending on system
implementation and usage. (Not available on 820.)"

http://www.intel.com/products/processor/pentium_D/index.htm


Damn.. The one thing that's really turning me off the Pentium D
processor to begin with is it's high power consumption (and, more to
the point, the noisy fans that would be required to cool the thing)
and now it looks like this will be an even bigger problem for the 820
model! On the upside, the 820 model is listed with a TDP of "only"
95W vs. the TDP of 130W for the 830 and 840 models.

Side note here: it looks like Intel has adopted a more AMD
Athlon64/Opteron-style approach to reporting their TDP with their
newest chips (to be fair, Intel actually did this before AMD with
their Itanium line). I can't imagine that the above mentioned
"technical differences" would account for a 35W increase in power
consumption.

 

[David Ball]

Hehe, I think that's pretty much it, but it looks like Intel is going
one step further here. It seems that they've decided the Pentium D
820 was just TOO good of a bargain and they're really going to have to
work to make it less functional than it's bigger brethren. I just
noticed this little bit on Intel's website under the "Feature/Benefit"
section for the Pentium D:

"Enhanced Intel® SpeedStep® Technology:
Enables cooler and quieter PC designs—depending on system
implementation and usage. (Not available on 820.)"

Have a look at

http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q2/pentiumd-820/index.x?pg=1


Here's a small quote:

"In fact, its clock speed is sufficiently slow that Intel apparently
saw no need for the 820 to have power management features like
Enhanced Speedstep, the C1E halt state, or TM2 thermal throttling.
Other recent Pentium desktop processors run at 2.8GHz when throttled
back, and the Pentium D 820 is already there."

-- David Ball

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Of course it's a technical issue! A fuse blown here, a line of code
in BIOS there - isn't it purely technical? The marketing and business
folks don't have even a slightest idea about the implementation of the
incompatibility, so it just couldn't be a business move!
;-)

Oh yes, how can one ignore the technology of market positioning.

Yousuf Khan