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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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To: Kevin K. Spurway who wrote (72011)9/16/1999 12:44:00 PM
From: Elmer  Read Replies (3) of 1572642
 
An interesting article on THE REGISTER that describes the problems with overclocking. Those who want to run a supercooled Athlon take heed.

"Electromigration
This is the most likely reason an overclocker will kill a processor. When the DC current in a line is too high, the metal grains that make up the wire are physically pushed aside by the electron wind. The longer you run the chip at higher than design voltages, the more the metal is distorted. Eventually it gives up the ghost and the circuit fails permanently.

Hot Electrons
Again caused by overvoltage, when there is a high voltage between the source and the drain of a device, a high electric field is created and electrons accelerate, damaging the oxide and interface near the drain, changing the transistor threshold and mobility. In an N-transistor, the gate is always positive and the shift is always in the same direction. Eventually the threshold moves to a point where the transistor no longer switches and is effectively dead.

This problem is exacerbated by the move to smaller technologies as, although device voltages are reducing as sizes come down, they aren't reducing in proportion to the the device shrinkage, leading to higher field strengths compared with older 0.35 and up devices.

Wire self heat
Known to its friends as signal line electromigration, this is caused by frequently varying thermal conditions. The wire heats above the oxide temperature as pulses go through it, due to the power dissipated by the wire itself. This causes mechanical stress and eventually, the wire fails. "

EP
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