AMD ATHLON K User Manual

Preliminary Information

AMD Athlon™ Processor Model 4

Revision Guide

Publication # 23614 Rev: K Issue Date: October 2003

Preliminary Information

The contents of this document are provided in connection with Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (“AMD”) products. AMD makes no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this publication and reserves the right to make changes to specifications and product descriptions at any time without notice. No license, whether express, implied, arising by estoppel or otherwise, to any intellectual property rights is granted by this publication. Except as set forth in AMD’s Standard Terms and Conditions of Sale, AMD assumes no liability whatsoever, and disclaims any express or implied warranty, relating to its products including, but not limited to, the implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or infringement of any intellectual property right.

The AMD products described herein may contain design defects or errors (“Product Errata”) that cause AMD products to deviate from published specifications. Currently characterized Product Errata may be available upon request.

AMD’s products are not designed, intended, authorized or warranted for use as components in systems intended for surgical implant into the body, or in other applications intended to support or sustain life, or in any other application in which the failure of AMD’s product could create a situation where personal injury, death, or severe property or environmental damage may occur. AMD reserves the right to discontinue or make changes to its products at any time without notice.

Trademarks

AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, AMD Athlon, AMD Duron, and combinations thereof, AMD-751, and AMD-756 are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

Other product names used in this publication are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies.

Preliminary Information

23614K—October 2003 AMD Athlon™ Processor Model 4 Revision Guide

Revision History

Date Rev Description

October 2003 K Revised erratum #24.

June 2003 J Added erratum #24.

December 2002 I Added errata #21–23.

July 2002 H Added erratum #20.

March 2002 G Added erratum #17.

April 2001 F

Removed OPN information. Added errata items 13, 14, 15, 16. Added information on silicon revision A9.

Preliminary Information

AMD Athlon™ Processor Model 4 Revision Guide 23614K— October 2003

AMD Athlon™ Processor Model 4

Revision Guide

The purpose of the AMD Athlon™ Processor Model 4 Revision Guide is to communicate updated product information on the AMD Athlon™ processor model 4 to designers of computer systems and software developers. This guide consists of three sections:

■ Product Errata: This section, which starts on page 5, provides a detailed description of product

errata, including potential effects on system operation and suggested workarounds. An erratum is defined as a deviation from the product’s specification. A product errata may cause the behavior of the AMD Athlon™ Processor Model 4 to deviate from published specifications.

■ Revision Determination: This section, which starts on page 20, shows the AMD Athlon processor

model 4 identification numbers returned by the CPUID instruction for each revision of the processor.

■ Technical and Documentation Support: This section, which starts on page 21, provides a listing of

available technical support resources. It also lists corrections, modifications, and clarifications to listed documents. Please refer to the data sheets listed in this section for product marking information.

Revision Guide Policy

Occasionally AMD identifies deviations from or changes to the specification of the AMD Athlon processor model 4. These changes are documented in the AMD Athlon™ Processor Model 4 Revision Guide as errata. Descriptions are written to assist system and software designers in using the AMD Athlon processor model 4 and corrections to AMD’s documentation on the AMD Athlon processor model 4 are included. This release documents currently characterized product errata, but is not intended to identify all errata in the processor.

Preliminary Information

23614K—October 2003 AMD Athlon™ Processor Model 4 Revision Guide

1 Product Errata

This section documents AMD Athlon processor model 4 product errata. The errata are divided into categories to assist referencing particular errata. A unique tracking number for each erratum has been assigned within this document for user convenience in tracking the errata within specific revision levels. Table 1 cross-references the revisions of the processor to each erratum. An “X” indicates that the erratum applies to the stepping. The absence of an “X” indicates that the erratum does not apply to the stepping. Shading within the table indicates an addition or modification from the previous release of this document.

Note: There can be missing errata numbers. Errata that have been resolved from early revisions of the

processor have been deleted, and errata that have been reconsidered may have been deleted or renumbered.

Table 1. Cross-Reference of Product Revision to Errata

Revision Numbers

Errata Numbers and Description

A4 A5 A6 A7 A9

5 MCA Bus Unit Control Register MSR 408H Returns Incorrect Information XXXXX

10 Resistance Value of the ZN and ZP Pins X X

11 PLL Overshoot on Wake-Up from Disconnect Causes Auto-Compensation Circuit to Fail

13 Instruction Execution Deadlock XXXX

14 Processors with Half-Frequency Multipliers May Hang Upon Wake-up from Disconnect

15 Processor Does Not Support Reliable Microcode Patch Mechanism X

16 INVLPG Instruction Does Not Flush Entire Four-Megabyte Page Properly with Certain Linear Addresses

17 Code Modifications that Coincide with Level 2 Instruction TLB Translations May Escape Detection Resulting in Stale Code Execution

20 A Speculative SMC Store Followed by an Actual SMC Store May Cause OneTime Stale Execution

21 Real Mode RDPMC with Illegal ECX May Cause Unpredictable Operation XXXXX

22 Using Task Gates With Breakpoints Enabled May Cause Unexpected Faults XXXXX

23 Single Step Across I/O SMI Skips One Debug Trap XXXXX

24 Software Prefetches May Report A Page Fault XXXXX

XXXXX

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AMD Athlon™ Processor Model 4 Revision Guide 23614K—October 2003

5 MCA Bus Unit Control Register MSR 408H Returns Incorrect Information

Products Affected. A4, A5, A6, A7, A9

Normal Specified Operation. System reads to MSR 408h, MCA Bus Unit Control Register MC2_CTL, should

return correct information—the lower 32 bits in EAX and all zeros for the upper 32 bits in EDX.

Non-conformance. A read to the Machine Check Architecture (MCA) Bus Unit Control MSR 408h (MC2_CTL) returns incorrect information in EDX. It returns the information stored in the upper 32 bits of the BU Status MSR 409h (MC2_STATUS) instead.

Potential Effect on System. If the system reads this MCA control register, the upper 32 bits, which are reported in EDX, can contain unexpected data.

Suggested Workaround. This register is only implemented as a 32-bit register. Ignore the upper 32 bits which are reported in EDX.

Resolution Status. No fix planned.

Preliminary Information

23614K—October 2003 AMD Athlon™ Processor Model 4 Revision Guide

10 Resistance Value of the ZN and ZP Pins

Products Affected. A4, A5

Normal Specified Operation. The ZN and ZP pins are specified such that the AMD system bus output

drivers autocompensate to whatever resistance value is applied between ZN and VDD and ZP and VSS.

Non-conformance. The AMD system bus driver impedance is approximately 20 ohms higher than the applied resistor value.

Potential Effect on System. The AMD Athlon system bus signal quality for signals driven to the Northbridge may be adversely affected.

Suggested Workaround. All motherboards should have ZN/ZP resistors set to approximately 20 ohms less than the characteristic board impedance.

Resolution Status. Fix planned for a future revision.

Note: When future revisions of the processor are used with motherboards implementing the workaround,

the expected output impedance of the driver will continue to yield good signal quality. (For example, with a motherboard setting of 40 ohms for ZN and ZP, an old part that drives with a 60-ohm driver works properly. A revised part with a true 40-ohm driver also works properly.)

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