Lasercutting

It’s well known that when you buy a cpu, it’s speed is “locked” to a certain frequency, when recognized by a motherboards bios(unless, of course, you buy a cpu that is NOT LOCKED, such as Intel’s Extreme Edition, and AMD’s Black Edition). It’s known that the bios must read specific values, programmed into the cpu, to know what speed is set…but how does the manufacturer set those values, and not have them changed?

In the past, all cpus from AMD came “unlocked”. In turn, there was a ton of counterfitting because of this, and AMD then decided to lock it’s cpu’s multiplier, to prevent such from happening. Right about that time, I was trying to figure out how AMD did this, with a “Thoroughbred B” AMD cpu, which had laser cuts easily accessible on the top of the cpu. People told me I was wasting my time.

Many years have passed, and now every cpu has a metal cover, for better heat distribution…and there are no visible electrical bridges underneath…so how do they set a cpu’s speed?

While there may be no visible bridges, one common thing under both Intel’s and AMD’s metal cpu tops, is a thin black strip…

Ever wonder what’s under that strip?

I know I don’t…