Engineering Sample Xeon (Intel Confidential)

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Rabid Badger

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I had some hardware up for sale in the F/S thread a little while ago and got an offer from a guy to trade some of my stuff for a dual-core Xeon 5060 processor.

Now I know precisely jack about Intel chips, but I look up the processor he wants to trade to me and it sells for about a hundred bucks more than what I could get for my stuff otherwise. I thought this seemed kinda fishy so I checked the guy's heat and asked him a few questions and he seemed to be legit, so I agreed to the deal.

The chip showed up in the mail and the IHS reads like this ( [x] indicates a letter in a circle):

INTEL CONFIDENTIAL
QHYYES A4
i [M] [C] '05 HH8 0555KH0884M
C533C451 [e4]

I looked all over for info on this thing and the most I can find out is that this is an engineering sample that isn't supposed to be in circulation ( I knew that "CONFIDENTIAL" made me nervous for a reason).

I had a friend of mine in the IT department at my college test the chip and it runs fine, but I'm kinda nervous about selling it, and I have no hardware I can use it with. Did I get hosed?
 
yes and no
if you sell it you might be screwed cuz intel could ask for it back and u will get nothing
and you could buy a board and use it for urself (this would be the "no" part)
 
That's a C1 stepping CPU, running @ 3.73/1066. It's a fine CPU and it's not at all shocking that you got it so "cheaply." These were replaced about a month after they launched when Woodcrest launched. Anyway... that's a qual sample part, meaning that while it is an ES chip... it's production silicon. You can try and sell it on e-bay but you may be contacted by Intel and they may tell you to send it to them since they legally still own it. They may or may not replace it for you... and they will threaten legal action if you don't comply. Also you have to understand that there is no warranty what-so-ever on that part so it really isn't worth all that much. IMHO you'd be lucky to get 2-300 bucks for it.
 
If you have it already, just build a system around it, it is a good chip. It seems silly to me that Intel would bother with the cost and headache of legal action against anyone with an engineering sample chip, if anything they would probably send a letter as a bluff hoping you would just cave in, the cost of an actual court case would far exceed what it would be worth for one chip.
 
NulloModo said:
the cost of an actual court case would far exceed what it would be worth for one chip.
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Just an FYI... selling these things is a criminal act since it's selling known stolen property so it really has little to do with Intel or their pocket book. Last time I checked it's the DA that handles that. Not saying that will happen, it's very unlikely that it would... but it is possible and the OP should know that.
 
Poncho said:
Just an FYI... selling these things is a criminal act since it's selling known stolen property so it really has little to do with Intel or their pocket book. Last time I checked it's the DA that handles that. Not saying that will happen, it's very unlikely that it would... but it is possible and the OP should know that.
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I gotcha, and I understand it is worth mentioning, but personally, I would hope the local DAs would have more important stuff to worry about than the clandestine not-so-legal of near commercial computer chips.
 
NulloModo said:
If you have it already, just build a system around it, it is a good chip. It seems silly to me that Intel would bother with the cost and headache of legal action against anyone with an engineering sample chip, if anything they would probably send a letter as a bluff hoping you would just cave in, the cost of an actual court case would far exceed what it would be worth for one chip.
Click to expand...

It's going to be quite expensive to build a system around that chip. Normally you'd want two of them and you're going to have to buy FB-Dimms, have fun...
 
NulloModo said:
I gotcha, and I understand it is worth mentioning, but personally, I would hope the local DAs would have more important stuff to worry about than the clandestine not-so-legal of near commercial computer chips.
Click to expand...
eh. you think the theft a corporate part is any less important than the theft of your property? if YOUR DA declined to prosecute a case of something valuable stolen from you, you sure as fuck wouldn't think that your stuff isn't important. before spouting off at the mouth of the DA "having more important things to do" you should think about how you would feel in their situation. On top of that its the principle of the matter. Intel isn't gonna stand for people stealing their property just as you wouldn't either.
 
NulloModo said:
If you have it already, just build a system around it, it is a good chip. It seems silly to me that Intel would bother with the cost and headache of legal action against anyone with an engineering sample chip, if anything they would probably send a letter as a bluff hoping you would just cave in, the cost of an actual court case would far exceed what it would be worth for one chip.
Click to expand...
A "Bluff" ? Oh bluffing that they will inform your local DA that you possess stolen property of theirs. As for caving in, the OP seems like a good man who got sorta ripped off by a sketchy character. And if intel did send him a letter im sure he would return the chip to them as the OP seems like a legitimately good guy. And as the past has shown, Intel has a tendency to reward people for returning their stolen property, which it has no obligation to do.
 
khuyakuya said:
eh. you think the theft a corporate part is any less important than the theft of your property? if YOUR DA declined to prosecute a case of something valuable stolen from you, you sure as fuck wouldn't think that your stuff isn't important. before spouting off at the mouth of the DA "having more important things to do" you should think about how you would feel in their situation. On top of that its the principle of the matter. Intel isn't gonna stand for people stealing their property just as you wouldn't either.
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What I meant was, I am sure that the DA's office is not actively investigating the sale of Intel sample chips, so the only way they would get on the case in the first place is if Intel made a complaint.

Now, given that the chip is a sample, that Intel could never sell, and most likely didn't even bother to keep track of other than who they originally shipped it to (if that), I doubt they would be heartbroken over the loss. Given that they have revenues in the billions of dollars range per year, the sale of 'stolen' property which they probably paid all of $10 at most to produce seems to be beneath their radar. It would be akin to having someone making $30,000 a year having a pick-pocket lift a q-tip from them. I certainly wouldn't bother to file a police report about that, or even care for that matter.
 
Build a system around that chip,
then down the line replace it with a Clovertown Xeon (its the same thing as a Kentsfield Core 2 Quad but the same socket as your current chip)
 
NulloModo said:
What I meant was, I am sure that the DA's office is not actively investigating the sale of Intel sample chips, so the only way they would get on the case in the first place is if Intel made a complaint.

Now, given that the chip is a sample, that Intel could never sell, and most likely didn't even bother to keep track of other than who they originally shipped it to (if that), I doubt they would be heartbroken over the loss. Given that they have revenues in the billions of dollars range per year, the sale of 'stolen' property which they probably paid all of $10 at most to produce seems to be beneath their radar. It would be akin to having someone making $30,000 a year having a pick-pocket lift a q-tip from them. I certainly wouldn't bother to file a police report about that, or even care for that matter.
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Indeed, but they do have to draw the line somewhere and whatnot. If people are getting their hands on their internal engineering samples then it's just not good for the company as a whole. Let's play "what if" for a moment and say... what if this was a new Intel prototype chip that they had been working on developing and it had somehow been leaked out? Trade secrets are very closely protected and companies treat them as very important sensitive data as they ARE their business. Not too long ago someone managed to get ahold of some of Coca-Cola's internal files which detailed a new product they were developing and attempted to sell them to Pepsi. In an amazing show of ethical behavior Pepsi notified the authorities and the individual was found and prosecuted (I may have the companies mixed up here).... the point is, a company WILL protect its trade secrets (their "edge" on the competition) and in some cases even their competitors will help to do so as well.

Now, I'm not saying that this is some "ultra secret top level engineer/exec eyes only prototype"... not at all. However, the same principles apply. Now, I realize that you made a trade for this chip and whatnot so what I'm about to say might sound crazy but it's honestly what I would do given the situation. Try contacting Intel and letting them know what happened. Let them know that you worked out a trade with someone and ended up with this chip as a result. Worst case scenario: they ask you to just send the chip to them since it's their company property. Better case (and, imho their best option) would be that they ask you to return the chip and offer to compensate you for its return in some way (likely, one of their products such as a new process to replace the one you traded for).

Just my 2 cents.... and they're very long-winded cents at that :p
 
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