Consumer Watch: Faked CPUs on the market
JAKARTA (JP): A friend of mine, the owner of a computer store in Orion Plaza, Glodok, Jakarta, once showed me an Intel 486 CPU chip that he said was "second grade." Unfortunately, I forgot to note what the CPU speed was. However, as far as I know, there's no such a thing as a "second grade" CPU, particularly from Intel. So I did not take his statement very seriously.
Then I got to use a 486 PC that had a CPU from AMD -- AM80486DX2 50 MHz -- in it. I had a problem with this machine when I was running PageMaker 5.0. The program constantly crashed, giving me the message "Floating Point Overflow." When I discussed this with my friend who had supplied all the hardware, he said the problem was caused by the CPU. So we replaced the AMD chip with an Intel Overdrive 33 MHz. The problem stopped.
It was then that I asked the man, who was a dealer of more than a dozen of brand name hardware components, what he knew about "second grade" CPU chips. He told me that, in the market where unscrupulous sellers meet with uninformed and often careless buyers, the very AMD chip that we had used would be repainted and an Intel logo would be sprayed on to make it look like a true Intel chip with a higher clock speed!
Unfortunately, as I have already said, Intel has released too many types of 80486 CPU to keep track of. In a market full of counterfeited products, the only safeguarding step that you can take is to buy your system from highly reliable sources. If you're in doubt, buy your CPU directly from the handful authorized Intel dealers in town. You'll probably have to pay more, but you'll get true Intel CPUs with their one-year warranty.
I'm not saying that AMD's chips are not as good as Intel's. Although I had the problem with one AM80486DX2 50 MHz, June's Windows Magazine says that they have found AMD's 80486DX2-66 chips to be 100 percent compatible with Intel's. They did find one faulty AMD 80486DX2-66 chip, though; I have no idea whether their faulty chip and the one I had were just a coincidence or not. At any rate, my experience showed that the AMD chip ran virtually as fast as the Intel Overdrive 33 MHz (which is actually a clock-doubling chip that has an internal speed of 66 MHz). The point is, let's call a spade a spade. Let's call an AMD chip an AMD chip. And let computer buyers know exactly what they're getting under the hood.
In the meantime, if you still insist on acquiring a new PC, or even just a CPU, from other than an authorized dealer, you can use your fingernails to lightly scratch the face of the CPU chip. If the paint peels, then you'll be able to determine its real brand.
-- Zatni Arbi