June 23, 2004 3:04 PM PDT
AMD offers fix for processor glitch
Advanced Micro Devices has issued a fix for a glitch that could cause computers containing its Opteron and Athlon 64 processors to freeze. The glitch, dubbed "erratum 109," results from incorrect assembly instructions issued inside the processors, but is considered to be rare. It has only been seen inside AMD's validation laboratory, which uses specially-designed diagnostic software to test AMD processors, a company representative said.
AMD notified its partners of the erratum in April and recently issued a software fix for it to makers of BIOS system software, which helps run PCs and servers. Resultant BIOS software updates are likely to become available soon. Errata are fairly common in the complex business of manufacturing processors and are often dealt with through new versions of BIOS software. Those updates are typically distributed by computer manufacturers.
See more CNET content tagged:
AMD,
BIOS,
glitch,
AMD Athlon 64
- AMD offers fix for processor glitch
- I may be the first case of the BIOS error outside of the lab. I recently returned my PC equipped with the AMD-64 bit 3200 processor to the manufacturer due to it freezing up on the first line of the bootup. It locked up tight saying it was downloading the BIOS image from the Harddrive.
- Reply to this comment
