Need in depth techical infomation on J1900 errata VLPI1

[ulfhei]

I need to get some technical details and recommendation regarding hardware workarounds for a CPU update, the J1900 VLPI1 Errata from Specification Update 335864-002.

[Alberto_Sykes]

ulfhei, Thank you for posting in the Intel® Communities Support.

In reference to your question, in order for us to be able to provide the most accurate information, we just wanted to confirm a few details about this matter:

Is there any particular reason why you need that information?

Are you a Developer?

Are you working on a project?

If it is possible, could you please explain what is that project about?

Any questions, please let me know.

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

[ulfhei]

I am a hardware developer, working at trying to sort out an alarming amount of very similar failures on a motherboard.

What I need is the kind of information that was given to Synology, Cisco et al regarding the extremely similar Rangeley C2000 AVR54 hardware bug (the description of the errata is worded the exact same way), so they could modify their boards by using a ~110 ohm pullup on one of the LPC_CLK signals.

We need to know what happens after one of the transistors that pull either of the ILB_LPC_CLK[0:1] signals up or down breaks/burns out, if that means that the other surviving transistor will also burn out soon after the first, this so that we can understand how long such a pullup/pulldown workaround could potentially prolong the life of the unit.

Also, we need to know what kind of defect caused the problem in the first place, so we can understand the problem on a more fundamental level. I have no problem accessing this information under the strictest of extra NDAs if that is what is needed to acquire it.

To add detailed information and background information, we have measured that the LPC CLK signal is clearly degraded, and most often that the negative cycle transistor is broken, meaning that the clock signal is swinging between 1.6 and 3.3V, not 0V and 3.3V. We have tried to put a 120 ohm resistor between the degraded clock signal and 0V, and that seems to solve the problem, the computer boots again. But we need enough detailed information about the cause of the VLPI1 errata so that we can assess if this is a longtime solution that will last, or just fail in a few more months.

The motherboard in this case is an ASRock SBC-210.  ASRock have so far just not been very helpful, we have been trying to get information from them for many months without any real success, they claim to be working on it, but I have no idea what is taking so long.

[Alberto_Sykes]

ulfhei, Thank you very much for providing that information and sharing all those details.

For this specific scenario, in order to gather the information that you are looking for, please visit, sign-in and submit your inquiry in our Intel® Resource and Design Center so they can further assist you with this topic:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/design/resource-design-center.html

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

[ulfhei]

I am signed in to the "Resource and Design Center", I then clicked Processor and chipsets, and then Clicked "Get Support". There they told me "Please note that your request is related to a Resource and Design query, which is generally handled on a different platform."

They also told me "If you happen to not have an Field Application Engineer, please access our Resource and Design Center or embedded community."

Now you tell me the same, so how am I supposed to get support on this, everyone I contact just claims there is some other, unknown way to get the information I need, and no one will tell me how?!

Several years ago we had some similar troubles, and signed a CNDA, but I have tried to contact the FAE's I was in contact then, but they were of course not available anymore, and have probably moved on in the organization.

[Alberto_Sykes]

ulfhei, Thank you very much for sharing those updates.

Let me apologize for any inconvenience, I will double-check on this topic and as soon as I get any updates I will post all the details on this thread.

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel 

[Alberto_Sykes]

ulfhei, I just received an update on this matter.

Just to let you know, you are contacting the Intel® Processor Technical Support and currently, we don't handle this type of inquiries since the processor comes embedded in the motherboard, that is why we refer you to our Intel® Developer Zone site.

In the link below you will be able to post the question so they can further assist you:

https://community.intel.com/t5/Software-Products/ct-p/software-products 

Additionally, if you don't have an (FAE) Field Application Engineer assigned, then you can always get in contact directly with the Intel® Authorized Distributors and submit your request to them:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/partner/where-to-buy/overview.html

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

[ulfhei]

Thank you for trying to provide more information, but I have serious doubts that the forum you are referring to is the correct one, it says "Software products" and this problem is most definitely a very low level hard hardware issue, and it is also a neighbouring forum to THIS one, that is called "Hardware Products / Processors".

Also, when I even try to begin posting the same question in that forum, a suggestion and and a pointer to this question immediately pops up.... 

I fail to see how this attempt at a redirect could be relevant to my question, whis is already posted it the most relevant forum, which is, as far as I can see, already on the "Intel® Developer Zone site"....?

[Alberto_Sykes]

ulfhei, You are very welcome, thank you very much for your response.

Yes, the links provided above are correct, you can also use the following link, you just need to fill the information in there and they will further assist you with this topic:

https://community.intel.com/t5/forums/postpage/category-id/software-products/choose-node/true

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel