Intel Reaction on Unauthorised PAT Activation

by Anton Shilov
06/15/2003 | 03:38 PM

Now that ABIT, ASUS, Albatron, Chaintech, EPoX, ECS, Soltek and some other mainboard makers have released new BIOSes for their i865PE-based mainboards to enable Performance Acceleration Technology presumably supported only by higher-end i875P core-logic (see this news-story), Intel spread an official statement in regards PAT activation on mainstream chipsets.

There is nothing new in Intel’s statements published by The Inquirer over here, such reaction could definitely be foreseen by all of us and, in fact, it was foreseen by mainboard makers, who do not call their performance boosting technologies as PAT, but use their own brand-names.

• Intel warns users from buying i865PE mainboards with activated PAT.
• Intel considers PAT activation on i865PE as overclocking.
• Intel does not condone overclocking; users and/or system manufacturers that employ overclocking may void their Intel chipset warrantees and subsequently, any failures associated to an overclocked Intel chipset may be the sole responsibility of the user or system manufacturer.
• Intel claims that with the i875P chipset, the internal signals, including PAT capabilities, are being run as designed, tested and validated by Intel, and this results in a very robust platform across silicon & board skew and all specified temperature ranges. This test and validation criteria is not conducted by Intel for the 865PE chipset and the platform quality and reliability concerning these PAT implementations should be called into question.
• In the cases of PAT activation on i865PE chipsets that Intel has observed, certain internal data paths and signals are being run at up to 50% above their specified operating range, which can lead to external interface marginality - this is commonly referred to as over-clocking.

All in all, Intel does not recommend you to get i865PE mainboards that offer certain performance advantages due to PAT or similar techniques. It also warns mainboard makers from implementing such performance boosters further.

To tell you the truth, Intel may be right in telling us that the i865PE may not work stably with PAT activated. On the other hand, Intel needs to sell the i875P somehow for considerably higher price compared to the 865PE; in case there is no difference between i865PE and i875P core-logic for most of end-users, no one will get i875P. It means that Intel needs to persuade all of us that i875P and its PAT are very extraordinary even if they are not.

PS. Read our Review of ASUS P4P800 Mainboard on i865PE Chipset if you really want to know what Intel PAT is.