CPU Printed Dates

[Psyonus]

Hey fellas,

 

So here is one that has me scratching my little head I saw a q6600 for a ridiculous price and I looked at the pic of the chip and it had printed on it '05 (I uploaded the pic to show I am not completely insane).

Now as far as the gods of google tell me the processor was released in July 2006......I also noticed in other processors they had dates printed on them before the release date..

Is this simply cos it was made in '05 before the release date and others I have seen were simply made in '06?

Perhaps I have just forgotten what numbers mean but if someone out there knows anything on this modern day mystery I would appreciate the help

 

[dantayy]

The year it was made won't really affect anything

[Psyonus]

Well that is good to know.. I am building a cheap rig inspired by the junkyard wars against a mate except I am going linus all the way and cheating my a$%# off

 

q6600 overclock vs q9650 overclocked..

 

67% price difference

 

recommendation?

[Mark77]

The 'copyright' date is basically when Intel "taped" the CPU out ("taped out" is a engineering term which basically refers to a process in which the final design was stored to magnetic data tape for implementation at the fab!).   CPU's undergo a period of availability as "engineering samples" where customers have access, under NDA, to CPU's to aid in their design, implementation, and verification efforts.  Once Intel is satisfied that their integration customers are making sufficient progress towards the release date, they will set a release date and communicate it accordingly to their customers, their marketing group, and the computer press. 

 

So no, you may very well have a later-build/higher stepping Q6600, but still have that (c) 2005 date on it.   The chip typically will have a stepping code on it.

 

For the Q6600, there were 2 steppings available for general release:

 

SLACR

SL9UM

 

And 4 ES steppings available to Intel partners:

 

QMAQ

QQGV

QUPT

QXVD