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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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To: Petz who wrote (81783)12/2/1999 3:24:00 PM
From: Petz  Read Replies (2) of 1571928
 
A much more serious Coppermine bug than "boot hang."

From Pentium© III Processor Specification Update
Release Date: November 1999
Order Number: 244453-009

E46. Snoop Request May Cause DBSY# Hang

Problem: A small window of time exists in which a snoop
request originating from a bus agent to a processor with one
or more outstanding memory transactions may cause the
processor to assert DBSY# without issuing a corresponding
bus transaction, causing the processor to hang
(livelock). The exact circumstances are complex, and
include the relative timing of internal processor functions
with the snoop request from a bus agent.

Implication: This erratum may occur on a system with any
number of processors. However, the probability
of occurrence increases with the number of processors. If
this erratum does occur, the system will hang with
DBSY# asserted. At this point, the system requires a hard
reset.

Workaround: It is possible for BIOS code to contain a
workaround for this erratum. [note that Intel does not
say whether this has been done or how to do it!]

Status: For the steppings affected see the Summary of
Changes at the beginning of this section.

end quote

This table says this hanging system bug
applies to ALL PENTIUM III processors ever made and that
Intel has no intention of fixing it in any future
steppings!!!

You can also be assured that this bug is much more likely
to occur with RAMBUS memory and COPPERMINE PIII's
because these are capable of many more outstanding memory
transactions.

This errata first appeared in the October, 1999
specification.

Petz
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