EDIT

"Motherboards that support 90nm, single-core AMD Opteron processors can be upgraded to support Dual-Core AMD Opteron processors with a BIOS update. No hardware changes are required."

Is Tyan listening?? /smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' />

Hi VelSatis,

The answer is that AMD is not giving exact information.
I contacted Tyan's tech service many times.
Seems that dual-core stress the board more than single-core.

Also keep in mind that boards are designed months or a year in advace.
Probably AMD didn't talk about dual-core at that point.

Tyan is concerned about that aspect and Only certify what is safe to use and doesn't represent a cause of failures (within months or years).

As I wrote before, It's an electrical/consumption matter.
Probably you can put the processors on the board, but they could stress it too much and the board could have failures within days/months/years.

I understand your point of view, was mine too.
That's why I asked Tyan and that is what they told me.

Pablov AMD says they informed all the mobo manufaturers about the dual cores long ago infact just after the release of opteron. which takes us some years back.

I guess the manufacturers took things lightly(they wudnt have expected them so soon)....
or may be they got the sample processors too late tht they were suprised that it wasnt running on all mobos smoothly as they expected. theoratically it shud run with a bios update but practically???

Hope some miracle happens and it works with all 2885....


-------------------------
Dual opteron 246
Tyan Thunder K8WE SCSI
Corsair, Seagate, Antec, Samsung, Sparkle.

QUOTE(VelSatis @ Jun 23 2005, 02:43 PM)I still don't get what would be different motherboard-wise to prevent us use dual-cores?!


How about the fact that the TDP is higher for the dual-cores? Dual-cores may require a better power regulation (higher quality parts for the power regulation) which may be on the boards from a special revision and/or not on all boards.
So even if the CPUs are completely pin compatible I could think that this would be a logical reason that not all boards are able to handle the dual-core CPUs.

-------------------------
Regards,
  Ghostrider

·CPUs - 2*Opteron 246
·Mainboard - Tyan Thunder K8W S2885ANRF
·RAM - 4*Corsair TwinX1024RE-3200LL (4GB, 8*512MB, DDR400, 2-3-2)
·Graphics - HIS IceQ-II X800Pro
·HDD - Western Digital Raptor WD740GD, 74GB, 10k
·RAID - 3Ware 7850, 64bit PCI, 8chn hardware RAID
·RAID-HDDs - 5*WD800JB
·Optical - 1*SlimSize CD-ROM; 1*NEC7441 DVD-RW
·Sound - Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro

arcangel,

I bet the S2885 does work with dual-core, but there is a chance for stability/reliability issues if is not labeled as "Dual Core Ready" by Tyan.

As I can see, Tyan only certifies what they are really sure that won't have any issue. I can also see that there's an electrical matter. The Bios for S2885 is ready for dual core, but not all the board versions are really safe for them.

After many e-mails to tech support I understand that Tyan doesn't support something if there is a chance for reliability/stability issues.

Something similar happens with S2875 for instance. It can run with Opteron 252, but because of the high consumption/stressing power of them, the motherboard is only certified to run up to Opteron 250.
Tyan can't assure that the board will run with Opterons 252 without any problem in a period of time of weeks/months/years.

The main point is electrical.....
I wish the motherboards had a stronger VRM so they could accept these even more powerful CPUs, dual-core, etc...

If I am right then ... it would be really GREAT that AMD releases more CPUs that requieres lees electrical power (HE and EE models), That would solve this problems (and also my monthly electrical bill !! /smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /> )

I hope in near furuter AMD launches a low-power-consumption CPU for 252 model, like it actually is for model 248.
That would be really, really great.

Regards,

Pablov

can no-one get a dualcore opteron and test it? /laugh.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='laugh.gif' />

QUOTE(1001 @ Jul 1 2005, 09:08 AM)can no-one get a dualcore opteron and test it?  /laugh.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='laugh.gif' />

sure, you buy it, have it shipped to me, n' i'll test it. /biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' />

-------------------------
SYSTEM-1: 2x Viewsonic VX900-2 19"| Tyan S2885ANRF (Rev.A, bios v2.07) | 1x ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256MB | 2x AMD Opteron 248-HE Single-Core CPU | 8x 512mb PC3200 Corsair XMS Series ECC Reg. (CMX512RE-3200LL) | 2x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 10,000rpm RAID0 (ST336607LW) | 1x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 1

I have another Idea: I have the Board and all the other stuff EXCEPT the CPUs. You buy just the dual cores and send them to me.
I'll test them... /wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' />

-------------------------
Regards,
  Ghostrider

·CPUs - 2*Opteron 246
·Mainboard - Tyan Thunder K8W S2885ANRF
·RAM - 4*Corsair TwinX1024RE-3200LL (4GB, 8*512MB, DDR400, 2-3-2)
·Graphics - HIS IceQ-II X800Pro
·HDD - Western Digital Raptor WD740GD, 74GB, 10k
·RAID - 3Ware 7850, 64bit PCI, 8chn hardware RAID
·RAID-HDDs - 5*WD800JB
·Optical - 1*SlimSize CD-ROM; 1*NEC7441 DVD-RW
·Sound - Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro

QUOTE(derGhostrider @ Jul 2 2005, 06:45 AM)I have another Idea: I have the Board and all the other stuff EXCEPT the CPUs. You buy just the dual cores and send them to me.
I'll test them... /wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' />hey, thats my idea buddy o' pal of mine... /wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' />


also, my replacement board came today... same 03MOA but rev C

-------------------------
SYSTEM-1: 2x Viewsonic VX900-2 19"| Tyan S2885ANRF (Rev.A, bios v2.07) | 1x ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256MB | 2x AMD Opteron 248-HE Single-Core CPU | 8x 512mb PC3200 Corsair XMS Series ECC Reg. (CMX512RE-3200LL) | 2x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 10,000rpm RAID0 (ST336607LW) | 1x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 1

0001001,

I'll also volunteer to test them. That makes 3 of us willing to give you our time and experience. All you need supply is $$$$!
Just let us know a timetable!

Flint

-------------------------
2 X 250 "E" Opterons, S2895 A2NRF (K8WE) beta bios 1.01T
4 X(2x 512MB Matched) Corsair 3200 Reg ECC(TWINX1024RE-3200LLPT)
nVidia 6800GT, LSI 320-2X U320 Raid (512MB ram Onboard!!)
7 X 15,000 RPM U320 Drives, XP Pro SP2
PC Power & Cooling 850 SSI
IT WORKS!!! AND IT'S TYAN'S TECH SUPPORT THAT DID IT!!!!

We are all soooooooo kindhearted. That's so heart-warming...
*polishing my nimbus*

-------------------------
Regards,
  Ghostrider

·CPUs - 2*Opteron 246
·Mainboard - Tyan Thunder K8W S2885ANRF
·RAM - 4*Corsair TwinX1024RE-3200LL (4GB, 8*512MB, DDR400, 2-3-2)
·Graphics - HIS IceQ-II X800Pro
·HDD - Western Digital Raptor WD740GD, 74GB, 10k
·RAID - 3Ware 7850, 64bit PCI, 8chn hardware RAID
·RAID-HDDs - 5*WD800JB
·Optical - 1*SlimSize CD-ROM; 1*NEC7441 DVD-RW
·Sound - Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro

guess I'll have to ask my dad for some money /blush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='blush.gif' />

QUOTE(1001 @ Jul 5 2005, 06:21 AM)guess I'll have to ask my dad for some money  /blush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='blush.gif' />feel free to ask him for some for me too... /wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' />


-------------------------
SYSTEM-1: 2x Viewsonic VX900-2 19"| Tyan S2885ANRF (Rev.A, bios v2.07) | 1x ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256MB | 2x AMD Opteron 248-HE Single-Core CPU | 8x 512mb PC3200 Corsair XMS Series ECC Reg. (CMX512RE-3200LL) | 2x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 10,000rpm RAID0 (ST336607LW) | 1x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 1

QUOTE(redclawkefar @ Jul 5 2005, 04:53 PM)feel free to ask him for some for me too... /wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' />
[right][snapback]452746[/snapback][/right]

And IF he still has some money left after he gave it you:

here I am...

-------------------------
Regards,
  Ghostrider

·CPUs - 2*Opteron 246
·Mainboard - Tyan Thunder K8W S2885ANRF
·RAM - 4*Corsair TwinX1024RE-3200LL (4GB, 8*512MB, DDR400, 2-3-2)
·Graphics - HIS IceQ-II X800Pro
·HDD - Western Digital Raptor WD740GD, 74GB, 10k
·RAID - 3Ware 7850, 64bit PCI, 8chn hardware RAID
·RAID-HDDs - 5*WD800JB
·Optical - 1*SlimSize CD-ROM; 1*NEC7441 DVD-RW
·Sound - Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro

I can confirm that Dual Core 275s work with the Tyan S2885, with the current bios

I have just built a Dual Dual-Core 275 Opteron box for my employer, using a Tyan S2885 motherboard (of the appropriate hardware rev noted above: 04MOAb). It was necessary to flash it with the current V205 BIOS for the processors to be recognized. With V204 and earlier the processors appear to GNU/Linux and Windows as two "AMD unknown processors", however, after the new BIOS was flashed, GNU/Linux sees them as four (!! Dual Core AMD Opteron™ Processor 275.

Testing is being done with Gentoo GNU/Linux 2005.0. It boots and builds with the stock 2.6.11-gentoo-r3 kernel on the Live CD, but you'll want to use at least 2.6.12 (preferably 2.6.12-gentoo-r4 or later) to get full use of the dual cores. Gentoo is nice because, as a source-based distribution, everything is compiled and optimized from source, which makes this an excellent platform for burning in the system, testing it, and putting the processors/memory through its paces. It is very, very fast; very, very nice, and yes, I want one for home. :-)

Thanks for the information but the board revision 04MOAb is already mentioned by AMD to be dual-core ready. :-( We are not one step further. I'd like to know if 275s would work on our boards with different revisions.

-------------------------
Regards,
  Ghostrider

·CPUs - 2*Opteron 246
·Mainboard - Tyan Thunder K8W S2885ANRF
·RAM - 4*Corsair TwinX1024RE-3200LL (4GB, 8*512MB, DDR400, 2-3-2)
·Graphics - HIS IceQ-II X800Pro
·HDD - Western Digital Raptor WD740GD, 74GB, 10k
·RAID - 3Ware 7850, 64bit PCI, 8chn hardware RAID
·RAID-HDDs - 5*WD800JB
·Optical - 1*SlimSize CD-ROM; 1*NEC7441 DVD-RW
·Sound - Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro

Actually, it doesn't say that the older revisions don't support dual core, does it?

The only footnote for using the dual core processers with the S2885 is: "CPU support for E Stepping CPU requires PCB Revision 04MOAb. See more information here." Where the "here" links to the photo of the board to find the revision number: http://www.tyan.com/support/as...images/s2885_revID.jpg' ">http://www.tyan.com/support/as...images/s2885_revID.jpg

The whole page is available at: http://www.tyan.com/support/ht...thlo...on_opteron.html' ">http://www.tyan.com/support/ht...lon_duron_opteron.html

Am I missing something? Is E stepping needed for dual core use?

Thanks,
Colin

The dual cores Opterons are all E6 stepping. The new single core 90nm are E4 stepping. I have a pair of 265s on a Tyan Thunder K8W. You want to install BIOS 2.05 to get Ex support before installing them.

-------------------------
Tyan Thunder K8WE
Dual AMD 280 Opterons
8GB NUMA enabled DDR333 2.5-3-3-7 RAM
PCI-X SCSI RAID
http://69.14.190.80

It's due to that problem with what revision of the board is required for dual-core that I'm now selling my dual Opteron system. However, I haven't left AMD-I'm getting a Notebook with an Athlon 64 4000+ in it. The money I would have spent for the dual-core procs are more than what I paying for the notebook. I have no need for the dual Opteron since it's 100% useless without revision E procs for people that use VMWare.

-------------------------
Diagram of Hardware Profile' ">http://members.dsl-only.net/~pointreyes/ga/hsystem.jpg

BSD Daemon Copyright 1988 by Marshall Kirk McKusick. All Rights Reserved.

QUOTE(mckennma @ Oct 27 2005, 10:56 PM)The dual cores Opterons are all E6 stepping.  The new single core 90nm are E4 stepping.    I have a pair of 265s on a Tyan Thunder K8W.  You want to install BIOS 2.05 to get Ex support before installing them.
[right][snapback]532879[/snapback][/right]


I just want to be sure I'm clear on this - is it impossible to install dual core Opterons in an earlier revision motherboard? Or are there just certain limits imposed by not running the system with E6 stepping? My motherboard appears to be the first run K8W/S2885 (just MOA, no number).

There is nothing on TYAN's site that says the K8W will not work with dual core processors (just the note that Rev 04MOA or higher is required for E6 stepping) and nothing I can find on AMD's site that says the dual core Opteron's require E6 stepping. This would suggest to me that we can run dual core Opterons on any K8W S2885 boaord, just that earlier revisions will have to go without E6 stepping.

What does E6 stepping do anyway?

Thanks,
Colin