【文章标题】：The End of an Athlon 【文章标题】：一颗 Athlon 的终结
【文章正文】： When I was researching the mess related to strange and poorly documented CPUID bits in the Athlon MP and XP processors, I had to swap a lot of CPUs. This was uneventful in most cases… but only most. 当我研究与 Athlon MP 和 XP 处理器中奇怪且文档记录很差的 CPUID 位相关的混乱情况时，我不得不更换大量 CPU。大多数情况下都平安无事……但也只是大多数。
When I removed the heatsink from one unlucky Athlon XP, the processor looked like this: 当我从一个不幸的 Athlon XP 上拆下散热器时，处理器看起来是这样的：
And this is what the heatsink looked like, with a piece of the CPU glued to it: 而散热器看起来是这样的，上面粘着一块 CPU：
There are two interesting things about this. One is that the CPU worked just fine until a good chunk of it came off. The other is that removing the heatsink did not need any particularly excessive force, although some heatsinks do have a tendency to get stuck on. 关于这件事有两个有趣的地方。一是这块 CPU 在一大块硅片脱落之前一直工作正常。二是拆下散热器并不需要特别过大的力，尽管有些散热器确实容易卡住。
Based on the shape of the “extracted” piece of silicon, I suspect there was a relatively long and straight micro-crack in the silicon which did not noticeably impact the operation. But when force was applied, the micro-crack gave way, and then a whole big chunk of silicon came off. 根据“被扯下来”的硅片形状，我怀疑硅片内部存在一条相对较长且笔直的微裂纹，这条裂纹并未对运行产生明显影响。但当施加外力时，微裂纹发生扩展，随后一整大块硅片就脱落了。
Notice how the right-hand side of the gouge in the CPU is very straight, whereas the left-hand side shows typical fracture marks. 请注意 CPU 上缺口右侧非常笔直，而左侧则显示出典型的断裂痕迹。
It is notable that around 2000, both Intel and AMD used flip-chip PGA packaging in an effort to provide better cooling (something both companies struggled with as the TDP of the processors quickly shot past 50W and approached 70-80W). 值得注意的是，大约在 2000 年，英特尔和 AMD 都采用了倒装芯片 PGA 封装，以提供更好的散热效果（随着处理器 TDP 迅速超过 50W 并接近 70-80W，两家公司都在为此苦苦挣扎）。
Both companies, especially Intel, gave up on this type of packaging relatively quickly. Intel only used it for some PIII models and switched to lidded CPUs for the P4 line, as well as the PIII-S processors. AMD used flip-chip packaging for PGA Athlons but not for Opterons. 两家公司，尤其是英特尔，都相对较快地放弃了这种封装方式。英特尔仅在一些 PIII 型号上使用过它，随后在 P4 系列以及 PIII-S 处理器上改用带顶盖的 CPU。AMD 在 PGA Athlon 上使用了倒装芯片封装，但没有在 Opteron 上使用。
The exposed silicon was a little bit too fragile and required assemblers to install heatsinks very very carefully—if installing a heatsink applied pressure that was too uneven, the silicon would crack. Many vintage flip-chip CPUs have chipped corners, although that usually does not affect operation. 裸露的硅片有点过于脆弱，要求组装人员在安装散热器时非常非常小心——如果安装散热器时施加的压力过于不均匀，硅片就会开裂。许多老式倒装芯片 CPU 的边角都有缺口，尽管这通常不会影响运行。
Processors with lidded packaging still provided very good cooling, but compared to CPUs with exposed silicon they proved much sturdier and far less susceptible to mechanical damage. Especially Intel’s pin-less LGA processors are quite sturdy and not at all prone to mechanical damage, although the weak spot simply moved to the motherboard socket instead. 采用带顶盖封装的处理器仍然能提供非常好的散热效果，但与裸露硅片的 CPU 相比，它们被证明更加坚固，并且远不容易受到机械损伤。尤其是英特尔的无针脚 LGA 处理器相当坚固，一点也不容易受到机械损伤，尽管薄弱环节只是转移到了主板插槽上。