60,000 AMD chips recovered in police heistStory Change Defective load have shipped into channelBy Wil Harris: Monday 03 January 2005, 13:01* WE HAVE called AMD in Sunnyvale to find out what effect this may have had on the European channel. So far, AMD has not responded. Story change 20:41 UT.KEEP AN eye on your tasty chips - there are Taiwanese thiefs that would like nothing more than to grab them off you and sell them on to someone else.Whilst the thought of second-hand salt and vinegar may offend some, it seems that Taiwan has been the centre of a fast-growing trade in discarded AMD processors. Over 60,000 were nabbed, according to Digitimes.The chips, it is thought, were taken from one of AMD's packaging and testing plants in Asia and were all defective - and due to be destroyed. Someone made a quick switch, and the chips were off for resale in Germany and China.It is thought that as many as a million of these gammy processors may have found their way into the market. AMD said it would release an official statement tomorrow. We assume since most of its top bods are enjoying a well-deserved new year holiday.No-one has said what the defective chips actually were. We wonder if someone was tipped off that there was a stash-load of pr0n at AMD China - material which, of course, is contraband in the net-censoring state. Maybe an unfortunate communications blunder meant they ended up with Sempr0ns instead.
AMD: some of our chips are missingNever mind AMD World...By Mike Magee: Tuesday 04 January 2005, 09:58Tyan Tomcat i7221 Server boardTHE INQ got a call from AMD's HQ in Sunnyvale at midnight last night, but it wasn't about defective chips swilling around in the channel, or for all we know, sitting in peoples' machines.No. The ALA wanted to know just how we got wind of AMD World, so we told him the truth: Senior exec Henri Richard had leaked it by mistake.We kept trying to ask him about what in our view is a far more interesting story - exactly how someone got their mitts on 60,000 \"defective\" AMD chips. For all we know, and AMD is being singularly defensive on this one, people who bought chips through the grey market have sold machines containing them in Europe.For those who don't know, the \"grey\" market is an important channel not just for microprocessor firms, but for hard drive vendors, memory traders and the rest.The really really important thing that AMD needs to tell us, and quick, is how many dud chips have been sold already. And how can you tell if your chip is dud? Say you buy a built machine from a shop, and you're not interested in taking the thing apart, prising off the heat sink and the like, just how do you tell?AMD's official answer as of right now is that it recommends people to buy only from authorised distributors, which is all fine and dandy if you're a dealer.Oh, and the AMD geezer in Sunnyvale had a comment to make after we'd proved to him that the Henri Richard email wasn't a dud.He said: \"I can confirm that we are planning to host a developer event in the 1st half of 2005. As I mentioned over the phone, though, we have no specific details as to dates/location to share yet. Stay tuned…\"Well thanks. We will stay tuned. We already knew that courtesy of Henri. But what about the sodding defective chips?
I hope it is a batch of semprons and not A64s!
sounded like a joke, that last bit, so I did not put much stock in it.
Stolen AMD CPUs spotted in Croatia?About $20 cheaper \"B grade\" brandedBy Fuad Abazovic: Wednesday 19 January 2005, 07:40OUR CROATIAN journalistic colleague Theo Valich claims that you can buy stolen AMD CPUs in his home land of Croatia. We followed his lead and found out that you can buy AMD Athlon XP CPUs branded as \"B grade\" for about $20 less than you would have to pay for \"normal\" Athlon XPs.You can buy Athlon XP 2600+, 2800+, 3000+ and 3200+ B grade CPUs all based on the Barton core. They are all about %15 to $20 cheaper than you would have to pay for non \"B grade\" CPUs. We checked with one of the listed shops and discovered that shop is offering a one year warranty for these.At least one of the companies has close to 50 pieces of each model which means that there are quite a few of these inexplicably cheaper \"B grade\" CPUs around.We have asked AMD for an official comment. When we get that, we will report on it.
