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Pastimes : Dream Machine ( Build your own PC ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: HairBall who wrote (7683)	5/30/1999 11:56:00 AM
From: Zeuspaul	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14778

When the PIII first came out there was press about a built in ID. Does anyone know if this privacy issue has been resolved. I am vaguely familiar with the issue. The CPU has a built in serial number. Intel, if my memory serves me correctly, enabled a software fix. I believe they enabled the bios to toggle the visibility of the serial number on and off...and I think they set the default to off. I have not noticed significant performance increases with the new CPUs. You would think my dual XEON 450s would blow the socks off my slower PIIs..it does not..at least for run of the mill stuff. I notice a difference when multitasking. For example you can format a harddrive and keep on truck'n with other apps. Even the $2000 video card does nothing to speed up standard 2D graphics (95 percent of my needs). Zeuspaul

To: HairBall who wrote (7683)	5/30/1999 3:48:00 PM
From: Spots	Respond to of 14778

>> PIII privacy issue Intel was originally going to ship the PIII witht the ID enabled. Their first reaction to the public uproar was, roughly, go away, we know best. Finally they relented (when AMD started capitalizing on it, I think), and are now shipping the PIII with it turned off. BTW, all NICs have an ID built in that is visible on the network right now. This was a bad idea (Intel's), but worth nothing like the controversy. One court case trying to collect a bill from somebody's PIII cpu SHOULD resolve it (is a cpu a person?), but perhaps, given our current kangaroo kourts the concern was valid.