Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ncar!gatech!mcnc!rti!mozart!sasebb
From: sasebb@zen.unx.sas.com (Edmund Burnette)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: What's in the '586?
Message-ID: <1991May17.225710.28481@unx.sas.com>
Date: 17 May 91 22:57:10 GMT
References: <1991May14.002130.4740@vax5.cit.cornell.edu> <42347@cup.portal.com>
Sender: news@unx.sas.com (Noter of Newsworthy Events)
Organization: SAS Institute Inc.
Lines: 21
Nntp-Posting-Host: zen.unx.sas.com


I enjoyed the responses to your post almost as much as the article itself.
Very well done.  I was willing to believe the first paragraph, so you
had me going there for a while.

Of course, you've got it all wrong.  Instead of passwords, they have
implemented a scheme that slowly reduces the clock speed.  This gives
a gradual reduction in performance as opposed to the sudden drop that
occurred with the password scheme.  After about a year of average use,
the CPU will be running at an effective 1MHz rate.  You can replace
the chip with a new one, of course, or purchase a special recharging
unit that snaps onto the chip, plugs into the wall, and increases the
speed of the CPU at approximately 5MHz/hour.  One drawback of this
method is that if you don't let the CPU run all the way down, it keeps
a "memory" of its previous level so it won't hold the speed as long.
(Utilities are available to drain the CPU faster to eliminate this
problem). :-)

--
Edmund Burnette, SAS Institute Inc.    (919)677-8000 | sasebb@unx.sas.com
SAS Campus Drive, Cary, NC 27513  (919)677-8123(fax) | ...!mcnc!sas!sasebb