Intel contro l'overclock delle cpu

Che il produttore americano non sia a favore dell'overclock delle proprie cpu è informazione ben nota a tutti gli appassionati. Da ieri però ci sono novità: Intel, infatti, ha visto registrato un brevetto per un dispositivo che permette di individuare segnali overcloccati di un personal computer.

Questo brevetto non deve sorprendere: una battaglia che sia Intel che AMD combattono quotidianamente è quella contro quei rivenditori e distributori che rimarchiano i processori, commercializzandoli per versioni dal clock più elevato. E' alla luce di questo fenomeno che Intel, ad esempio, ha bloccato da alcuni anni il moltiplicatore di frequenza delle proprie cpu.

Qualsiasi tentativo atto a elimitare la rimarchiatura dei processori è, a mio avviso, ben accetto. Ovviamente quetso non ha implicazioni dirette con l'overclocking del processore che qualsiasi appassionato, consapevolmente, può attuare sul proprio sistema.

Di seguito è riportato un estratto dal brevetto:

What is claimed is:

1. A mechanism for detecting and deterring over-clocking of a clock signal for use in a processor, comprising:

a detection circuit adapted to detect over-clocking of a clock signal for use in the processor based on a reference signal; and a prevention circuit adapted to prevent over-clocking of said clock signal by limiting or reducing performance of the processor in response to detection of said over-clocking of said clock signal.

2. The mechanism as claimed in claim 1, wherein said detection circuit comprises:

a quart crystal to generate said reference signal exhibiting a fixed clock frequency; a counter to count cycles of said clock signal relative to the clock of said reference signal and to produce a counter value; a comparator to determine whether said clock signal has an over-clocking condition based on the counter value with a predetermined ratio; and latches to latch comparator outputs indicating at least whether said over-clocking condition has been detected.

3. The mechanism as claimed in claim 2, wherein said counter is clocked by said clock signal, and is set or reset to zero (0) by a rising edge of the clock of said reference signal.

4. The mechanism as claimed in claim 2, wherein said comparator determines said over-clocking condition when the counter value reaches a maximum allowed ratio, and an under-clocking condition when the counter value is below a minimum allowed ratio.

5. The mechanism as claimed in claim 1, wherein said detection circuit comprises:

a ring oscillator to generate said reference signal exhibiting a fixed clock frequency; a counter to count cycles of said clock signal relative to the clock of said reference signal and to produce a counter value; a comparator to determine whether said clock signal has an over-clocking condition based on the counter value with a predetermined ratio; and latches to latch comparator outputs indicating at least whether said over-clocking condition has been detected.

6. The mechanism as claimed in claim 1, wherein said prevention circuit is also adapted to prevent over-clocking of said clock signal by disabling operations of the processor as an alternative to limiting or reducing the performance of the processor, said prevention circuit comprising a power supply control logic device adapted to deactivate a power supply from attending to the processor and disables operations of the processor, in response to detection of said over-clocking of said clock signal.

7. The mechanism as claimed in claim 1, wherein said prevention circuit comprises a thermal control logic device adapted to assert a stop clock signal to the processor to halt the processor temporarily from operations, in response to detection of said over-clocking of said clock signal.
v 8. The mechanism as claimed in claim 1, wherein said prevention circuit comprises a frequency select device adapted to assert a frequency select signal to the processor to reduce an operation frequency of the processor, in response to detection of said over-clocking of said clock signal.

A questo indirizzo è disponibile l'intero brevetto depositato da Intel.