Intel Discovers Bug in 6-Series Chipset [From Anandtech]

nfsking2

In our Sandy Bridge review I pointed out that Intel was unfortunately very conservative in one area of the platform: its chipset. Although the 6-series chipset finally brought native 6Gbps SATA to Intel platforms it failed to fix issues with 23.976 fps video playback. Intel also failed to deliver a chipset that can support SNB's processor graphics as well as overclocking. Today, things just got even more disappointing.


Intel just announced that it has identified a bug in the 6-series chipset, specifically in its SATA controller. Intel states that "In some cases, the Serial-ATA (SATA) ports within the chipsets may degrade over time, potentially impacting the performance or functionality of SATA-linked devices such as hard disk drives and DVD-drives.".


The fix requires new hardware, which means you will have to exchange your motherboard for a new one. Intel hasn't posted any instructions on how the recall will be handled other than to contact Intel via its support page or contact the manufacturer of your hardware directly. In speaking with motherboard manufacturers it seems they are as surprised by this as I am.



Intel will begin shipping the fixed version of the chipset in late February.  The recall will reduce Intel's revenue by around $300 million and cost around $700 million to completely repair and replace affected systems.



It Was All Good Just a Week Ago



Here’s the timeline.



Intel has been testing its 6-series chipset for months now. The chipset passed all of its internal qualification tests as well as all of the OEM qualification tests. These are the same tests that all Intel chipsets must go through, testing things like functionality, reliability and behavior at various conditions (high temps, load temps, high voltage, low voltage, etc...). The chipset made it through all of these tests just fine.



There are two general types of problems you run into in chip manufacturing. The first is an engineering oversight: functional problems that will cause a failure during your validation tests. You get these from not giving your engineers enough sleep and they design a circuit that logically or functionally has Pro-Ablem in it. These were the type of errors that resulted in NVIDIA’s Fermi delay for example.


The second type of problem is more annoying, it’s a bug of a statistical nature. In these situations the problem doesn’t appear on every chip in every situation, but on every nth chip out of every n x somereallybignumber chips. When a bug doesn’t present itself in small quantities, it’s very difficult to track down. This is the nature of the 6-series chipset bug and it’s also why the problem didn’t appear sooner.


Intel mentioned that after it had built over 100,000 chipsets it started to get some complaints from its customers about failures. Early last week Intel duplicated and confirmed the failure in house.


Intel put together a team of engineers to discover the source of the problem. Based on the timeline it looks like it took them a couple of days to figure it out. Intel then spent a few more days trying to understand the implications of the issue. Finally, late last night, Intel decided the only course of action would be a recall and it halted production of its 6-series chipsets.


The Failure Manifested

I asked Intel how we’d know if we had a failure on our hands. The symptoms are pretty simple to check for. Intel says you’d see an increase in bit error rates on a SATA link over time. Transfers will retry if there is an error but eventually, if the error rate is high enough, you’ll see reduced performance as the controller spends more time retrying than it does sending actual data.


Ultimately you could see a full disconnect - your SATA drive(s) would not longer be visible at POST or you’d see a drive letter disappear in Windows.


It’s Limited to 3Gbps Ports Only


Interestingly enough the problem doesn’t affect ports 1 & 2 on the 6-series chipset. Remember that Intel has two 6Gbps ports and four 3Gbps ports on P67/H67, only the latter four are impacted by this problem.


If you’re a current Sandy Bridge user and want to be sure you don’t have any problems until you can get replacement hardware, stick to using the 6Gbps ports on your board (which should be the first two ports).

The Fix

The SATA bug exists in hardware and there’s no way to provide a driver or firmware update that can fix it. The fix requires a metal layer change, which will result in a new hardware stepping (resulting in the ~3 week delay before replacement hardware is ready).



What About Current Sandy Bridge Owners?



On its conference call to discuss the issue, Intel told me that it hasn’t been made aware of a single failure seen by end users. Intel expects that over 3 years of use it would see a failure rate of approximately 5 - 15% depending on usage model. Remember this problem isn’t a functional issue but rather one of those nasty statistical issues, so by nature it should take time to show up in large numbers (at the same time there should still be some very isolated incidents of failure early on).


Intel has already halted production of its 6-series chipsets and will begin shipping fixed versions of the chipset in late February. You can expect motherboard shortages through March at least. Intel hopes to be able to meet demand by April.


Currently Intel says the best course of action is to contact its support team for information on replacement, although I’m guessing once the fixed chipsets are available we’ll have replacement plans from all of the motherboard manufacturers.


No One is Happy About This


Given the timeline of discovery, Intel didn’t get around to actually letting its partners know about the problem. On the bright side that means Intel and its partners weren’t plotting against its end users to sweep this under the rug. On the down side, OEMs and motherboard manufacturers can’t be happy about this - they woke up to news of the recall at the same time you and I did.





Intel is starting to have discussions with OEMs today (yep, you read that right) on how to handle the recall and when fixed hardware will be available. This is the reason why there’s currently no official, public recall plan in place. In the coming weeks I expect this to get ironed out but for now the best advice I can give existing SNB owners is to use their 6Gbps ports and wait.


Z68 Schedule Unaffected


I asked Intel if 6-series derivative chipsets were affected by the problem, specifically the Z68 chipset. While all 6-series chipsets are exposed to the issue, the launch schedule for all future derivates remains unaffected. Z68 will continue to launch somewhere in Q2 2011. I would expect to see motherboards around April. At CES I spoke with Intel at length about the frustrating nature of the P67/H67 feature segmentation. The fact that there's no chipset that will let you use Intel's processor graphics and overclock your CPU is a major oversight. Intel's Z68 chipset will address this shortcoming, as well as add additional features (e.g. SSD caching) that are exclusive to Z68. I am disappointed that Intel wasn't better prepared on the chipset side at the SNB launch and today's announcement is icing on the cake. If you're going to have to wait to buy anyway I would recommend waiting until Z68 motherboards hit the market.

For existing owners, I would hope that Intel and the motherboard manufacturers might offer some sort of a trade-up or trade-in program to move to Z68 since you're going to have to replace your motherboard anyway.

UDDFF02

......看不懂
不过原厂板板载DEBUG 和开关..... 能超？

nfsking2

简单翻译一下：

首先，Anandtech在测试Sandy Bridge平台时得出结论：Intel在新一代芯片组上面（注意，是芯片组，非CPU）非常保守，虽然新平台带来了原生SATA 6Gbps接口，但却未能修复集成显卡在播放帧率为23.976fps视频时的问题。同时，Intel也未能为新平台的集成显卡提供诸如超频功能之类的驱动支持。

还有更坏的消息，Intel刚刚宣布，他们发现6系列芯片组存在bug，特别是SATA控制器。Intel声称，在某些情况下，6系列芯片组的SATA接口可能会随着使用时间的增加而“劣化”，这种可能性潜在地影响了SATA设备的性能和功能（比如硬盘或光驱）。

修复此bug需要通过更新硬件来完成：也就是说，已购买主板的用户需要更换新的主板。Intel并未说明如何开展此次召回工作，因此用户只能通过网站技术支持页面联系Intel或主板厂家。Intel将于2月底开始出货修正版的芯片组。预计此次召回将使Intel损失大约300M美刀的利润，同时还需要拿出大约700M美刀来摆平已出售并出现问题的设备。

简单说下Bug现象：

此bug仅限于SATA 6Gbps接口下。SATA 6Gbps接口的性能，会随着时间推移而变得越来越差，甚至完全失效（性能变差的原因是，数据传输时发生过多错误，以至于控制器将更多时间用于重试，而非处理数据。失效则直接导致BIOS Post画面以及Windows中直接不认盘）。SATA 3Gbps接口无此bug。
此bug并非每片主板都存在，而是随机出现在已出货的芯片组当中，因此召回难度很大。如果目前未遇到此bug的主板，以后出现问题的可能性也不大。

另外，Z68芯片组的发布日期不受影响，仍然为2011 Q2。


建议已购入6系列芯片组的同学，换用SATA 6Gbps进行测试，如果发现性能随时间推移而下降，或者直接失效，就需要联系厂家更换主板了。

tedsun

nfsking2 发表于 2011-2-1 02:45
简单翻译一下：

首先，Anandtech在测试Sandy Bridge平台时得出结论：Intel在新一代芯片组上面（注意，是 ...

简单说下Bug现象：

此bug仅限于SATA 6Gbps接口下。SATA 6Gbps接口的性能，会随着时间推移而变得越来越差，甚至完全失效（性能变差的原因是，数据传输时发生过多错误，以至于控制器将更多时间用于重试，而非处理数据。失效则直接导致BIOS Post画面以及Windows中直接不认盘）。SATA 3Gbps接口无此bug。

看上面的英文是说BUG只出现在3Gbps接口里

cngzhr

6G接口没问题,出问题的是3G,原文报道里很清楚啊

lhw56

已经买了的不是杯具了 ？

nom8393

lhw56 发表于 2011-2-1 08:46
已经买了的不是杯具了 ？

观望吧。

cinlo

INTEL还是够大家风范，主动公开错误！
不象NVIDIA，等别人发现问题都死活不承认！！！

jqno1

观望中的撸过

索亚

It’s Limited to 3Gbps Ports Only

SATA2会出现问题 SATA3没事

nom8393

AlcatrazX 发表于 2011-2-1 09:05
要召回的应该。。

4月份才能完成替代品的生产，也就是说大部分影响用户要等2个月。

GTX980

这下子我倒淡定了，本来想年后入SB的，现在看可以等等了

GTX980

cinlo 发表于 2011-2-1 09:02
INTEL还是够大家风范，主动公开错误！
不象NVIDIA，等别人发现问题都死活不承认！！！

这个错误要是不认，久了之后问题就更大更难处理了

amd```fans

3Gbps ports有问题而非6Gbps

PRAM

cinlo 发表于 2011-2-1 09:02
INTEL还是够大家风范，主动公开错误！
不象NVIDIA，等别人发现问题都死活不承认！！！

07以后，NV一直走下坡路

PRAM

本帖最后由 RRAM 于 2011.1.30 15:58 编辑 iSuppli analysis report[edit] Ranking for year 2010Source : iSuppli Corporation supplied rankings for 2010 (foundries excluded) Rank 2010 Rank 2009 Company Country of origin Revenue (million $ USD) 2010/2009 changes Market share 1 1 Intel Corporation USA 40 020 +24.3% 13.2% 2 2 Samsung Electronics South Korea 28 137 +60.8% 9.3% 3 3 Toshiba Semiconductors Japan 13 081 +26.8% 4.3% 4 4 Texas Instruments USA 12 966 +34.1% 4.3% 5 9 Renesas Electronics Japan 11 840 +129.8% 3.9% 6 7 Hynix South Korea 10 577 +69.3% 3.5% 7 5 STMicroelectronics FranceItaly 10 290 +20.9% 3.4% 8 13 Micron Technology USA 8 853 +106.2% 2.9% 9 6 Qualcomm USA 7 200 +12.3% 2.4% 10 15 Elpida Memory Japan 6 678 +74.2% 2.3% 11 14 Broadcom USA 6 506 +52.1% 2.1% 12 8 AMD USA 6 355 +22.0% 2.1% 13 11 Infineon Technologies Germany 5 226 +39.7% 2.0% 14 10 Sony Japan 5 336 +19.4% 1.8% 15 18 Panasonic Corporation Japan 5 128 +58.1% 1.7% 16 17 Freescale Semiconductor USA 4 329 +27.2% 1.4% 17 19 NXP Netherlands 4 021 +24.1% 1.3% 18 23 Marvell Technology Group USA 3 680 +43.1% 1.2% 19 16 MediaTek Taiwan 3 595 +1.2% 1.2% 20 20 NVIDIA USA 3 189 +12.8% 1.0% Top 20 198 207 40.1% 65.2% All Other companies 105 799 20.2% 34.8% TOTAL 304 006 32.5% 100.0% Ranking for year 2008Source : iSuppli Corporation supplied rankings for 2008 (foundries excluded) Ranking for year 2009Source : iSuppli Corporation supplied rankings for 2009 (foundries excluded) Rank 2009 Rank 2008 Company Country of origin Revenue (million $ USD) 2009/2008 changes Market share 1 1 Intel Corporation USA 32 410 -4.0% 14.1% 2 2 Samsung Electronics South Korea 17 496 +3.5% 7.6% 3 3 Toshiba Semiconductors Japan 10 319 -6.9% 4.5% 4 4 Texas Instruments USA 9 617 -12.6% 4.2% 5 5 STMicroelectronics FranceItaly 8 510 -17.6% 3.7% 6 8 Qualcomm USA 6 409 -1.1% 2.8% 7 9 Hynix South Korea 6 246 +3.7% 2.7% 8 12 AMD USA 5 207 -4.6% 2.3% 9 6 Renesas Technology Japan 5 153 -26.6% 2.2% 10 7 Sony Japan 4 468 -35.7% 1.9% 11 10 Infineon Technologies Germany 4 456 -25.2% 1.9% 12 11 NEC Semiconductors Japan 4 384 -24.8% 1.9% 13 16 Micron Technology USA 4 293 -3.2% 1.9% 14 14 Broadcom USA 4 278 -7.9% 1.9% 15 19 Elpida Memory Japan 3 948 +9.7% 1.7% 16 24 MediaTek Taiwan 3 551 +22.6% 1.5% 17 13 Freescale Semiconductor USA 3 402 -31.5% 1.5% 18 15 Panasonic Corporation Japan 3 243 -27.5% 1.4% 19 17 NXP Netherlands 3 240 -20.1% 1.4% 20 18 Sharp Electronics Japan 2 977 -17.5% 1.3% 21 20 NVIDIA USA 2 826 -12.8% 1.2% 22 25 Rohm Japan 2 586 -22.8% 1.1% 23 23 Fujitsu Microelectronics Japan 2 574 -13.6% 1.1% 24 22 Marvell Technology Group USA 2 572 -15.9% 1.1% 25 26 IBM Microelectronics USA 2 253 -8.9% 1.0% Top 25 156 472 -10.39% 68.1% All Other companies 73 445 -14.2% 31.9% TOTAL Rank 2008 Rank 2007 Company Country of origin Revenue (million $ USD) 2008/2007 changes Market share 1 1 Intel Corporation USA 33 767 -0.7% 13.1% 2 2 Samsung Electronics South Korea 16 902 -14.2% 6.5% 3 4 Toshiba Semiconductors Japan 11 081 -9.1% 4.3% 4 3 Texas Instruments USA 11 068 -9.8% 4.3% 5 5 STMicroelectronics FranceItaly 10 325 +3.3% 4.0% 6 7 Renesas Technology Japan 7 017 -12.3% 2.7% 7 8 Sony Japan 6 950 -13.7% 2.7% 8 13 Qualcomm USA 6 477 +15.3% 2.5% 9 6 Hynix South Korea 6 023 -33.4% 2.3% 10 9 Infineon Technologies Germany 5 954 -4.0% 2.3% 11 12 NEC Semiconductors Japan 5 826 +1.5% 2.3% 12 10 AMD USA 5 455 -7.8% 2.1% 13 14 Freescale Semiconductor USA 4 933 -6.3% 1.9% 14 19 Broadcom USA 4 643 +23.9% 1.8% 15 18 Panasonic Corporation Japan 4 473 +15.3% 1.7% 16 15 Micron Technology USA 4 435 -8.9% 1.7% 17 11 NXP Netherlands 4 055 -29.4% 1.6% 18 21 Sharp Electronics Japan 3 682 +8.3% 1.4% 19 17 Elpida Memory Japan 3 599 -6.2% 1.4% 20 25 Rohm Japan 3 348 +27.2% 1.3% 21 20 NVIDIA USA 3 241 -6.5% 1.3% 22 23 Marvell Technology Group USA 3 059 +10.2% 1.2% 23 28 MediaTek Taiwan 2 896 +18.1% 1.1% 24 26 Fujitsu Microelectronics Japan 2 757 +9.0% 1.1% 25 24 Analog Devices USA 2 498 -7.7% 1.0% Top 25 174 464 -5.5% 67.5% All Other companies 83 840 -5.3% 32.5% TOTAL 258 304 -5.2% 100.0% [edit] Ranking for year 2007Source : iSuppli Corporation supplied rankings for 2007 (foundries excluded) Rank 2007 Rank 2006 Company Country of origin Revenue (million $ USD) 2007/2006 changes Market share 1 1 Intel Corporation USA 33 995 +7.8% 12.6% 2 2 Samsung Electronics South Korea 19 691 -0.8% 7.3% 3 3 Texas Instruments USA 12 275 -2.6% 4.6% 4 4 Toshiba Semiconductors Japan 12 186 +20.2% 4.5% 5 5 STMicroelectronics FranceItaly 10 000 +1.5% 3.7% 6 7 Hynix South Korea 9 047 +15.0% 3.4% 7 6 Renesas Technology Japan 8 001 1.3% 3.0% 8 15 Sony Japan 7 974 +55.5% 3.0% 9 14 Infineon Technologies Germany 6 201 +21.1% 2.3% 10 8 AMD USA 5 918 -21.2% 2.2% 11 10 NXP Netherlands 5 746 +0.7% 2.1% 12 11 NEC Semiconductors Japan 5 742 +2.5% 2.1% 13 16 Qualcomm USA 5 619 +24.1% 2.1% 14 9 Freescale Semiconductors USA 5 264 -6.3% 2.0% 15 13 Micron Technology USA 4 869 -7.2% 1.8% 16 12 Qimonda Germany 4 005 -26.0% 1.5% 17 19 Elpida Memory Japan 3 838 +8.8% 1.4% 18 17 Panasonic Japan 3 800 -5.5% 1.4% 19 18 Broadcom USA 3 746 +2.1 1.4% 20 25 NVIDIA USA 3 466 +34.4% 1.3% 21 20 Sharp Electronics Japan 3 401 +1.8% 1.3% 22 21 IBM Microelectronics USA 2 977 -6.1% 1.1% 23 26 Marvell Technology Group USA 2 777 +8.9% 1.0% 24 23 Analog Devices USA 2 707 +4.0% 1.0% 25 22 Rohm Japan 2 633 -8.6% 1.0% Top 25 185 878 +4.3% 69.1% All Other companies 83 027 +0.8% 30.9% TOTAL 268 905 +3.3% 100.0%

PRAM

cinlo 发表于 2011-2-1 09:02
INTEL还是够大家风范，主动公开错误！
不象NVIDIA，等别人发现问题都死活不承认！！！

NV和SAMSUNG相比，差太多了，当年SAMSUNG的MLC很烂，全部倾销到中国