AMD to sue overclocking retailers? .
Posted Thursday, January 20, 2000, 12:34 GMT by Juggernaut
HardOCP hardocp.com are reporting that AMD are set to take legal action against retailers selling pre-overclocked Athlon CPUs.
As HardOCP say themselves:
We just got word from an EXTREMELY RELIABLE SOURCE that Advanced Micro Devices legal counsel contacted undisclosed retailers that have been altering AMD Athlon K7 CPUs that then allow Overclocking. AMD has demanded that these undisclosed retailers immediately stop sale of the altered units. They are stating that the retailers reworking the Athlon CPUs is violating either Copyrights or Patents held by AMD.
Here are the digs on the lawfirm that has been hired by AMD:
Pattishall, McAuliffe, Newbury, Hilliard & Geraldson
Offices:
Chicago, IL
Washington, D.C.
This could directly affect companies such as Overclockers, our favourite retailer at the moment.
My take on this is that retailers could still sell goldfinger overclocking cards, as then it's the user that modifies the chip, not the retailer, so you could still overclock. However you can increase a chip's overclocking potential by reducing the cache speed, and although H-Oda is working on a software method to change this, similar to his SoftFSB program, the only method of changing cache speed thus far is soldering. Most end users would not want to this.
I wonder if the retailers would be able to offer an after-market chip-modding service? Then they would not be selling pre-modified chips. Is there anyone out there with a law qualification who could comment on this?
3dnow.freeserve.co.uk
Interesting to me, but I can understand why AMD might do this.
Milo |
