Our Russian friends from OverClockers.ru web-site have just done it again! If you remember, they were the first to overclock the new AMD Duron microprocessors and they were the first to transform RADEON 9500 128MB into fully-featured RADEON 9700 graphics card, now they pushed the limits further and tried to perform a nearly impossible trick: to turn the new AMD Duron CPUs into AMD Athlon XP microprocessors. I do not have to tell you that they succeeded!
There is hardly a point to transform a $45 Duron processor into a $60 Athlon XP one, but, on the other hand, such modification is very interesting from theoretical point of view. We remember that AMD Athlon XP “Thorton” processors are set to appear in the market pretty soon, given that Thorton core is an altered Barton core and has only 256KB of L2 in contrast to Barton’s 512KB of L2, we assume that there will be a way to transform Thorton into Barton winning a massive gain in performance. Hence, the Duron is only the beginning!
If you take a closer look on AMD Duron and AMD Athlon XP processors you will notice only tiny difference: an L2 bridge is not locked on the Duron processor. If you lock it again, everything should work and the processor will have an L2 cache of 256KB!
Believe it or not, but, at least, some of AMD Duron microprocessors functioned very well with re-soldered L2 and functional 256KB of L2 cache! Unfortunately, not all Duron CPUs may work absolutely correctly with 256KB of L2, and the report tells us about a Duron processor with enabled 256KB of L2 that crashed system again and again until the guys switched the L2 off in BIOS. Another Duron chip worked absolutely stable with 256KB of L2 even when overclocked, thus, there is a lottery with Duron processors with functional 256KB L2 at this point.
According to the web-site, the Duron processors 1.60GHz with 266MHz EV-6 FSB and functional 256KB L2 performs as fast as the AMD Athlon XP 1900+ (1600MHz, 266MHz FSB) chips that have 256KB of L2 by default.
To sum up, we now know for sure that the new Duron processors utilize the Thoroughbred core with 256KB of L2 and sometimes capable of working at 2.20 – 2.30GHz. We also have just learned how to switch on the L2 cache on AMD Duron processors and we are ready to meet the Thorton and enable 512KB of cache. Unfortunately, we still do not know about the correlation between L2 bridges and CPU pins and in case Thorton chips utilize the new packaging without bridges, there will be a lot of difficulties with their modifications...
Comments currently:
37
Discussion started: 09/08/03 07:46:40 AM
Latest comment: 03/09/08 05:33:45 PM
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1.
That's very interesting to here from the mighty Overclockers in the world. This I would suggest should therefore be accompanied with default cooling fan designed for a typical Athlon XP 2000+ so as to avoid the accellerated Chip going up in flames. Thanks for the reseachers who has made us believe in the endless possiblities of a budget processor like Duron Applebred from AMD. I want to know what the Athlon 64 (socket 754) will have in potential overclocking tendencies. I also want to personally know the benchmarks from the chip that would be launched on Sept, 23rd 2003. I believe that the chips with various OEMs now are not the very ones AMD will display on that launching day. AMD would not be foolish to release those one meant for the D-day 23rd Sept to the market now.
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Posted by: Adeolu Olusegun
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Date: 09/08/03 07:46:40 AM]
2.
Dual Duron has a nice ring to it? =)
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Posted by: mog
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Date: 09/08/03 10:49:16 AM]
3.
Out of all the modding and things when it comes to processors, don't you think this would've been done already. By accident or intention? I think it's been done before it's just no one has posted it.
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Posted by: PhantomOSX
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Date: 09/08/03 11:36:11 AM]
4.
Does anyone know if this works with the older Durons? I have a 1.3Ghz Duron on a gray/purplish wafer and I don't know if it'll work.
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Posted by: Jawadali
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Date: 09/08/03 12:21:43 PM]
+ expand thread (1 answer)
- collapse thread
I would also like to know if this has been successful on a 1.3Ghz Duron.
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Posted by: DeeJayCaius
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Date: 09/10/03 04:47:39 AM]
5.
sy
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Posted by: werf
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Date: 09/08/03 02:08:56 PM]
6.
I have a AMD Duron 1.2 Ghz Morgan and I don't have any L2 bridges. Any idea about how it would work on mine?
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Posted by: PhantomOSX
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Date: 09/08/03 05:37:44 PM]
7.
it'd be great to enable the L2 on Duron notebooks !
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Posted by: reader's insight
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Date: 09/08/03 06:02:16 PM]
8.
I hate to break it to you guys, but this sort of trick is very dangerous. The reason that the rest of the cache is not enabled is simply because it is defective.
That's right -- AMD was unable to sell these processors as Athlon XP's with 256KB of cache because part of it was defective. The cost effective solution? Sell it as a duron with 128kb intact and still make money on it. This is why Overclockers.ru kept experiencing crashes -- the cache was not holding the data correctly.
Use at your own risk!
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Posted by: katana20
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Date: 09/10/03 10:35:01 AM]
9.
just a quick tip to people who woants to teste the l2 cache
use memtest (www.memtest86.com)
presse c 1 2 0
thhat will enable the usage of cache in all test's
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Posted by: Sven BEnt
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Date: 09/10/03 04:47:03 PM]
10.
The reason processors with cache are so expensive, is exactly that there's a high risk of failure in the production of the cache. If the chip's cache is manufactored incorrectly, the processor has to be thrown away. Now as we look on the Duron, it might just be "throw-away" Athlons and therefore the reason they even have L2 cache or it might just be produced in the same way as the Athlon, except they haven't tested it's L2 cache for obvious reasons.
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Posted by: fgd
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Date: 09/11/03 07:24:33 AM]
+ expand thread (1 answer)
- collapse thread
you are o big fool
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Posted by: happpy
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Date: 06/23/07 09:46:31 PM]
11.
Can this be done with a pencil like the old athlons? Or only via solder?
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Posted by: timbiotic
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Date: 10/15/03 02:24:00 PM]
12.
Ok,
how about the new Duron's with the new packaging? Does anybody know how to do it?
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Posted by: tlrocha
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Date: 10/22/03 12:22:44 PM]
13.
just enabled my level 2 cache on my 1.4 duron it then came up as a 1.6 xp i then up the fsb from 133 to 145 and now it show 1 1.8 xp. I have run is like this for a couple of days with out any probs hope this helps other people try it. i used the pencil method of joining the L2 and it worked first time.
Darren morris
United Kingdom
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Posted by: dazz
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Date: 10/25/03 05:17:08 AM]
14.
can somebody told me why when i circut L2 like on picture my cpu can take from 5x to 13x but cache is not changed....my cpu is duron 1600
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Posted by: skibax
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Date: 10/27/03 03:54:10 PM]
15.
oh i forgot...evrythink will be ok but now Bios i seeing my CPu as UNKOWN and CPUID is crashing my OS (NT WORKSTATION 2003)
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Posted by: skibax
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Date: 10/27/03 03:57:14 PM]
16.
This trick works for the Duron 1.1Ghz?
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Posted by: Wicked
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Date: 11/10/03 08:13:20 PM]
17.
I would like to confirm that this actually works.
Here is a link to my journal post & photos of the chip I just did.
http://acpizza.livejournal.com/271468.html
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Posted by: ACPizza
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Date: 01/01/04 10:50:04 PM]
18.
The L2 cache is NOT defective.
AMD is selling some defective L2 cache chips, and very many NON DEFECTIVE chips as Duron 1.6 so that they have a low-cost chip. Also, this disposes of many 256K cores that might otherwise compete with the newer 512K Barton. Its all about economy of scale and the fact that 99.99% of the chip buyers will not perform that level of labor to save a few measly bucks.
I did it for the sport and sense of accomplishment alone. I would never consider this as a money-saving move, because its too much of a pain in the ass. Those are SMALL parts to reconnect - it took me two tries to get it right.
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Posted by: ACPizza
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Date: 01/01/04 10:53:24 PM]
19.
Can I do that L2 cache Mod to my Duron 1800 Applebred prosessor(will it work)?
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Posted by: M@kez
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Date: 04/26/04 06:53:39 AM]
+ expand thread (1 answer)
- collapse thread
it will only work on *APPLEBRED* durons, which are genereally 1.4ghz or higher, it will probably work on yours
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Posted by: Vladman
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Date: 08/13/04 01:48:53 AM]
20.
I wonder if any of the Durons soldered onto the PC-Chips M810 and clone K7SEM motherboards can have the L2 cache extra space re-enabled?
I just upgraded my M810L7.x with what was advertised as an Athlon XP Thoroughbred 2400+ but is really a Thorton core.. so am awaiting news on the link mods to turn it into a Barton, I wanted to put my old Duron 1.3GHz in my mothers XP K7SEM based system only to find hers is the soldered in Duron 1300+. If there are any pep up links that can provide some useful performance boost it would be very helpful! I do not fancy desoldering the fixed duron processor with a solder sucker and fitting a ZIF Socket in it to fit a better processor in it, QIL packages I can do but Socket A processors I don't fancy even attempting!
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Posted by: TK
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Date: 10/08/04 11:00:43 AM]
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