True or Forged?

Test Your Pentium II Computer

Since 1994, c't reports about counterfeit processors beeing sold in ever changing varieties. 
The current wave mainly consists of Pentium-II-233 or Pentium-II-266, sold with forged 
casing as 300-MHz-versions. In this case, there's the unique chance to expose the 
frauds through software.

Andreas Stiller, editor at c't, developed a test program which makes you able to 
examine your computer by yourself. ctP2infw determines the internal configuration 
of the Pentium II and shows, whether error correction (ECC) exists and whether it's 
enabled. This way, overclocked and potentially forged Pentium-II-300 can be exposed.

True 300-MHz-processors always have ECC, according to the Intel specification 
(Intel Pentium II Specification Update, Intel #243337), 266's and 233's do not. There 
are (seldom) cases where 266-MHz-processors are equipped with ECC. But they are much 
too expensive und therefore are not lucrative for the forgers. When the program detects 
a Pentium II without ECC, running at 300 MHz, it displays a warning message.

If you detect a counterfeit processor, we ask you for 
information via http://www.heise.de/ct/ctp2poll/.

Pentium-II-Deschutes-processors running at 333 MHz and more always work with ECC. 
Therefore, there's no possibility to distinguish a counterfeit 350-MHz-processor from a 
cheaper 333-MHz-version.

In addition, ctP2infw for Windows95 determines the bus clock and the relation between 
the bus and  processor clock. This way, you can check whether your Pentium II system 
is jumpered  correctly. When it finds another processor than a Pentium II, the program 
aborts with  an error message.

Please direct questions and comments to: Andreas Stiller, as@ct.heise.de

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Copyright 1998 c't magazine, Helstorfer Str. 7, 30625 Hannover, Germany, 
http://www.heise.de/ct

Disclaimer: c't or Andreas Stiller are not responsible in any case for possible damages 
the software may cause. You are allowed to distribute the archive freely, as long as it 
remains intact with all original program files and with the documentation files included.