Rod, at 09:10 on Jun 20 1996, you wrote to Russell Brooks...

RB> I want to buy an AMD5x86tm-P75...AMD-5-133ADZ CPU
RB> It must be 133ADZ & not marked as 133ADW

RS> Whats the story here ?

Could be a conspiracy theory in the offing, so read on carefully.  :)

The first batch of these CPUs was suffixed ADZ, and there were no problems
running them with a 40MHz bus (i.e. CPU speed of 160MHz), whilst some
reports from internet newsgroups had them running as fast as 50MHz/200MHz. 
The later models, however, were suffixed ADW, and would flatly refuse to
run at anything above their rated CPU speed of 133MHz, under any
circumstances.

Given that AMD's 5x86-P90/160 was imminent at the time, it was suggested
that AMD had intentionally put a brick wall in their 5x86, to prevent
people from buying the cheaper 133 and running it at 160 (just as we're
doing right now).  Mine was the first one purchased, back in early April,
and it ran a treat at 160MHz, but by the time Russell and Randall bought
theirs several weeks later, the deed had been done, and they would no
longer run overclocked.  Needless to say, they were both ADW suffixes, and
once we had theorised about what AMD may or may not have done to their
CPUs, it was by then a simple matter of changing them for ADZs, and now
everybody is happy again.

Although we have no specific proof that the later CPUs have been crippled
to prevent overclocking, it still sure looks that way to us.  These CPUs
are now selling for a fucking incredible $89 inc tax, BTW.

Regards, Bill
@EOT:

--- MsgedSQ/2 3.30